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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today applauded approval by a House-Senate conference committee of a 2004 appropriations measure containing a 4.1 percent federal civilian pay raise and expanding employee rights in efforts to keep their jobs from being sent to the private sector.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) took particular note of “the positive and effective work” of a number of members of Congress, including Sen. Barbara Mikulski and Rep. Steny Hoyer, both of Maryland, and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, chairman of the Governmental Affairs Committee. “Their efforts on the 2004 Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill serve both the nation and federal employees well,” she said.

With the 4.1 percent raise, the legislation continues the longstanding practice of military-civilian pay parity, an action that President Kelley described as “an important step forward in the government’s efforts to be competitive with the private sector

as the employer of choice.”

The NTEU leader praised the conference committee for “doing the right thing” on the contracting out issue, identifying a number of important gains for federal workers in the bill. The legislation provides that when more than 10 federal jobs are proposed to be contracted to the private sector, federal employees will have the right to develop what is known in federal contracting rules as a “most efficient organization,” or MEO, which is a means of providing a fairer job competition.

The bill’s provision effectively eliminates the so-called “streamlined competition,” provided for in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) rewrite earlier this year of federal contracting rules. Under the “streamlined” segment of OMB’s rules, employees were at a serious disadvantage in seeking to compete for their jobs.

The appropriations bill also provides for significant reporting requirement for federal agencies about their contracting decisions; grants employees the right to appeal contracting decisions to the General Accounting Office (GAO); mandates that agencies will not have to recompete jobs every five years as provided for in the revised OMB rules; and requires that before any work can be contracted to the private sector, agencies much show savings of at least 10 percent or $10 million.

President Kelley called these provisions “a much-needed start in leveling the playing field” in the public-private competition for federal work—and “a step in the right direction in slowing down the administration’s headlong push to move federal jobs to the private sector.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 29 agencies and departments.