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Washington, D.C.—The use of continuing resolutions, sequestration, debt ceiling showdowns and other delays in necessary legislative action until the last possible moment “lead to waste in a system that cannot afford even the smallest amount of waste,” the leader of the largest independent union of federal employees told a key Senate committee today.

“Between reduced and delayed appropriations, government services will be increasingly degraded,” President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on ‘The Costs and Impacts of Crisis Budgeting.’

Cuts to Customs and Border Protection will increase already long wait times at airports and land border crossings—reaching as much as five hours and costing the economy jobs, output, wages and tax revenue, Kelley said. Taxpayers will experience difficulties in getting the help they need from the Internal Revenue Service to meet their obligations; and, the Environmental Protection Agency will conduct an estimated 1,000 fewer inspections this year to enforce environmental laws, she testified.

The NTEU leader also pointed to lowered scores in the 2012 Office of Personnel Management Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey noting that a variety of factors likely are impacting the results, including the constant threat of government shutdowns, the possibility of unpaid furloughs and the continuing pay freeze.

The uncertainty of agency budgets in the last several years has reached crisis levels and could accelerate the sharply rising number of federal retirements to the nation’s serious detriment.

Kelley noted the large increase in the number of federal retirements in February—20,374, more than three times the number retiring in February 2012. So far this year, she told the committee the 43,561 federal retirees represent about 40 percent of the entire 2012 total.

“A large increase in retirements is especially alarming,” Kelley said, “since approximately 53 percent of the federal workforce will be eligible to retire by next year, and a significant loss of these experienced employees could leave agencies, already stretched thin, in dire circumstances.”

“Surely,” she added, “the stress of continual budgeting crises are contributing to employees’ lack of confidence in their workplaces.”

Their concerns clearly are evident in an NTEU survey of more than 2,200 of its members, Kelley told the committee. The electronic survey, taken last month, revealed the financial challenges facing employees even before they serve unpaid furlough days.

Nearly three quarters of respondents said they have had to cut back on necessities; two-thirds said they are having difficulty making ends meet; 60 percent are getting further into debt; 29 percent have had to seek assistance or loans, 15 percent have taken on a second job or have a spouse who has done so—and 43 percent said they are delaying medical treatment.

Moreover, the survey showed the devastating impacts of one week to one month of unpaid furloughs, including difficulty paying rent, mortgage, utilities and food expenses; the need to take money from savings or retirement to pay current expenses; the likelihood of having to take on new debt to make ends meet; and trouble paying for child care, school tuition and other educational expenses.

“Clearly, these results show that employees will face serious personal hardship under the sequester,” Kelley said, and that “many of the most talented and experienced will likely head for the exits.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.