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Washington, D.C. —The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today called on the General Services Administration to follow the lead of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) with a mid-year increase in the mileage reimbursement rate for federal employees who use their private vehicles in the performance of their duties.

In April, NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley urged IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman to use his authority to make an unusual mid-year adjustment in the tax deduction; normally, the IRS makes a decision on the appropriate mileage deduction for the following year toward the end of the current year.

Commissioner Shulman last week said the IRS will permit an increase of 4.5 cents a mile, to 55 cents a mile, effective July 1 through Dec. 31. While the IRS sets the maximum mileage tax deduction for both public and private sector employees, only action by GSA can extend an increase to federal workers, up to the IRS limit.

In a letter to GSA Administrator Martha Johnson, President Kelley took note of gas prices approaching and in some instances exceeding $4 per gallon, and said that while she believes the new IRS-adjusted rate “is still insufficient to cover costs,” she asked the agency head to "immediately announce that GSA will extend the revised IRS rate for the second half of the year to federal employees.”

Many federal workers, including those in such NTEU-represented agencies as the IRS, financial regulatory agencies and others, use their private vehicles in the performance of their daily duties—and for a great many, it is the only way their can accomplish their work.

“Considering that for much of the year, federal employees have been reimbursed at rates that do not cover the increased costs of gasoline,” President Kelley wrote, “I believe any delay is unfair to these workers travelling on government business.”

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