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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today called on the General Services Administration (GSA) to increase to 48.5 cents per mile the mileage reimbursement rate for federal workers who use their personal vehicles on government business.

The increase, from the current rate of 44.5 cents per mile, would match that authorized by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), beginning on Jan. 1, 2007, for taxpayers who deduct mileage when using their vehicles for business. GSA sets the rate for federal employees, but its figure cannot exceed the maximum allowed by the IRS.

In a letter to GSA Administrator Lurita A. Doan, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said that, at 44.5 cents per mile, the current reimbursement rate for federal workers is “often insufficient to cover the costs of driving a car on government business.” A great many federal employees regularly use their personal vehicle in the performance of their duties.

Kelley called on GSA to act promptly, especially in view of “rapidly fluctuating gas prices,” so that federal employees “will see this increase implemented by the first of the year, at the same time their colleagues in the private sector will benefit from it.”

NTEU has in the past pressed the IRS for a higher mileage deduction, particularly in recent years which have experienced volatile gasoline prices. Last year, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and its accompanying damage to Gulf Coast oil-producing facilities, a letter President Kelley sent to IRS Commissioner Mark Everson, along with letters from members of Congress, helped encourage the agency to raise the mileage deduction for taxpayers to 48.5 cents, retroactive to Sept. 1 through the balance of 2005.

While GSA took the same action on behalf of federal employees a short time later, the deduction for taxpayers—and therefore, the reimbursement rate for federal workers—was reduced to 44.5 cents per mile at the start of 2006.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.