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Washington, D.C.—The head of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today called on the government to provide to federal employees the same improvement in Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) it made available earlier this week to private sector employers and, through them, to their employees.

Earlier this week, Treasury Secretary John Snow announced that employers could modify their FSA plans to extend the deadline for use of the program to pay health and dependent care expenses by 2 ½ months after the end of the plan year. Without such extension, employee funds set aside to pay such expenses must be used by the end of the plan year or be forfeited.

In a letter to Daniel Blair, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley said she “could not agree with Secretary Snow more” about this “modest and common sense rule change” that will give workers a few more weeks to get their medical and dependent care expenses reimbursed by their FSA.

NTEU led the push for establishment of FSAs in the federal sector.

In making the announcement, Secretary Snow said the new rule would not only give workers with FSAs more time to pay for medical and dependent care expenses, but that it would “ease the year-end spending rush prompted by the prior rule” as well.

“Given the secretary’s and the administration’s support for this new rule,” President Kelley wrote, “NTEU would respectfully request that the federal government immediately and fully apply this to its own employees.”