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Washington, D.C.—In approving a 3.5 percent 2005 pay raise for federal civilian employees, along with language aimed at slowing down runaway contracting out of federal jobs, the House Appropriations Committee “has signaled very clearly” that it understands the important roles these matters play in federal agency recruitment and retention efforts, the head of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today.

On the pay issue, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) applauded the action of the Appropriations Committee in approving an amendment on a bipartisan 42-16 vote that “rejects the continuing demand by the administration that federal civilian employees receive an inadequate raise of 1.5 percent next year.”

The higher raise would match that proposed by the administration for members of the military next year, and continue the long-standing tradition of parity in pay raises for the two groups of federal workers. NTEU has supported the higher raise for both federal civilian employees and members of the military.

At the same time, Kelley expressed NTEU’s strong support for the committee’s bipartisan approval of language that would prevent contracting out any federal activity or function by more than

10 federal employees without holding a public-private competition for the work.

The language also provides that contractors would have to show a minimum cost savings of $10 million or at least 10 percent of in-house personnel costs before being awarded the work—a requirement that would help offset the agency’s costs of conducting a job competition and turning the work over to the private sector.

“It’s a strong statement that federal employees deserve a level playing field in the competition for their work,” Kelley said.

Both matters were approved by the committee during its markup today of the Transportation-Treasury Appropriations bill.

Committee action on pay comes after support for the higher raise was expressed earlier this year by the full House of Representatives, when that body, in a rare stand-alone vote on pay, adopted by a large bipartisan majority a resolution calling for civilian-military pay parity.

Likewise, there is support on the issue in the Senate, which included pay parity language in its fiscal 2005 budget resolution.

In urging approval by Congress of the 3.5 percent raise for civilian federal workers, President Kelley said that “it would help federal employees’ paychecks keep pace their counterparts in the private sector.”

That, she said, would provide government agencies with another important tool in their efforts to attract and retain the high-quality workers they need, particularly in the face of the increasingly-complex tasks federal employees are being asked to perform on behalf of the public.

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