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Washington, D.C.—President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today said she is greatly disappointed with the administration’s proposed budget for fiscal 2004. She criticized the administration in particular for failing to recognize the importance of civilian-military pay parity, for proposing to make it easier to contract out federal jobs and for short-changing the resource needs of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

“These are critical matters that affect every American,” President Kelley said, “and in each instance, the president’s proposed budget fails to live up to government’s responsibility to best serve the people.”

The union leader was sharply critical of the proposal for a two percent pay raise for federal civilian workers, an amount she called “inadequate on its face, but particularly so when contrasted with the proposed pay raise for members of the military.” That raise would average 4.1 percent, depending on rank and length of service, according to the budget proposal.

“NTEU certainly supports higher pay for members of the military,” President Kelley said, “but this administration, by its actions, continues to ignore the reality that federal civilian employees are on the front lines of the fight against terrorism and are playing key roles in improving national security.”

Kelley also took serious issue with the proposed budget’s recommendation that federal agencies be required to assume that every federal activity is commercial in nature unless and until an agency can justify in writing that it is inherently governmental. “That is a foolish and wrong approach,” she said. “There is woefully inadequate oversight of and accountability by government contractors now, and this approach will only take valuable time and effort away from the work of federal agencies on behalf of the American people.”

President Kelley was especially critical of a budget proposal that the Internal Revenue Service use private collection agencies to pursue outstanding tax liabilities. “The way to collect these debts is to provide the IRS with sufficient resources to enable it to hire the people it needs to get the job done,” she said, “not to turn personal and confidential tax information over to private contractors who will work on commission.”

On the matter of funding for the DHS, Kelley noted that the proposed budget of $5.6 billion for its Customs and Border Protection Bureau “fails to recognize the need for significantly higher resource levels for Customs Service employees and their border security counterparts.”

The new bureau within DHS will consist of the inspection functions of Customs, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Agriculture Department’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and the Border Patrol.

“In light of all the additional responsibilities which have been placed on these personnel transferring to DHS on March 1,” she said, “I had hoped to see much higher funding levels for these functions.”

NTEU represents some 12,000 Customs employees who will become part of the new department.

President Kelley said NTEU continues to review the proposed budget to assess the impact on all NTEU-represented employees. As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents more than 150,000 employees in 28 agencies and departments.