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Washington D.C. — The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved legislation that takes an important step forward for federal employees by expanding their appeal rights in public-private competitions for federal work, providing them with the same rights currently enjoyed by private contractors to appeal agency decisions that privatize the work of federal agencies. The bill, approved last Thursday, was made publicly available yesterday.

“This positive step would bring a much-needed degree of fairness to the federal contracting process,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

Under present contracting rules, federal employees can appeal only to their agency, which made the decision to contract out in the first place; contractors, on the other hand, can appeal the decision to the Government Accountability Office.

The committee’s action also would prevent private companies from reducing employee health benefits—or offering inferior retirement benefits—as a means of lowering their costs on their final contract bid. And it would mandate that the Office of Management and Budget cannot require or direct agencies to undertake public-private job competitions.

The bill also includes a well-deserved 3.5 percent pay raise for federal employees for 2008. This amount is one half percent higher than the administration recommended, and is equal to the amount passed by the House of Representatives.

In addition, the Committee limited funding for the IRS’s ill-conceived private tax collection program at $1 million and included language to provide training and reassignment to IRS employees whose positions are being eliminated.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing almost 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.