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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today applauded a bipartisan letter to President Bush from key senators on civil service matters calling for both an equitable pay raise for federal employees in 2005 and a continuation of the principle of military-civilian pay parity.

The letter was signed by Republican Senators Susan Collins of Maine, and John Warner and George Allen, both of Virginia, along with Democratic Senators Barbara Mikulski and Paul Sarbanes, both of Maryland, and Daniel Akaka of Hawaii. Sen. Collins is chair of the Governmental Affairs Committee, and will address NTEU’s annual Legislative Conference on key federal employee issues, including pay, in early March.

“As they said in their letter, these senators understand well that both a fair federal pay raise and military-civilian pay parity are not partisan issues,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

She added: “I applaud their recognition of the critical impact that adequate and fair pay continues to have on the federal government’s ability to attract and retain the high-quality employees the government needs.”

Kelley on Senate Support for Pay Parity—Add One

The NTEU leader noted that the 4.1 percent raise for federal civilian employees in 2004 contained in the recently-approved Omnibus Appropriations Bill “reflects the clear understanding in both the House and Senate” of the importance of pay parity. That pay raise more that doubled the 2.0 percent raise authorized by the president.

The bipartisan letter from the six senators echoed the sentiments of a similar letter of support from a group of House members of both parties that was sent to the president last week.

In their letter, the senators pointed to a 2002 survey commissioned by the Partnership for Public Service showing that only one in four college-educated workers expressed any significant interest in working for the federal government.

“Providing inequitable pay for civilian employees as compared to those in the military,” they wrote to the president, “would only serve to perpetuate this lack of interest.”

They added: “Just as military employees are fighting to maintain our freedoms and security, civilian employees do their jobs every day with a similar dedication to serving the nation.”

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

For more information, visit the NTEU web site at www.nteu.org