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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today warned that the country’s civil service which today protects borders, travel, food, veterans, investments, the safety net and much more will not be able to provide these critical services if the multi-billion-dollar cuts in federal personnel and benefits contained in a House budget resolution become law.

In a letter to members of the House Budget Committee, which meets today to approve a fiscal 2013 budget with draconian cuts aimed at federal workers, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) called “unconscionable” proposals that seek $368 billion in cuts to federal personnel and benefits.

Today’s civil service is the “best in the world,” said Kelley, one which the public can depend on to protect them in so many vital ways. “If Congress continues to cut employees’ pay and benefits and demonize them in the press, this country will be unable to attract or retain talented people in the federal government,” Kelley wrote.

The object of her anger and concern is the proposal advanced by Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) calling for an extension of the current two-year pay freeze through 2015, along with a 10 percent reduction in the federal workforce over three years and $79 billion in cuts to federal retirement programs.

“To add insult to injury,” she wrote, Rep. Ryan “writes that federal employees ‘are immune from the effects of the recession.’”

Under a two-year pay freeze, with pay that lags behind the private sector by 26 percent on average in comparable jobs, with the constant threat of government shutdowns and with increased contributions for retirement, “How are federal employees immune?” Kelley asked committee members.

She said the budget resolution expected to be approved today by the committee is based in large part on at least three major fallacies concerning the nation’s federal employees advanced by the proponents of the resolution. They are:

• The idea that the federal workforce is too large and must be reduced;

• The notion that extending the present two-year pay freeze for another three years is, under any definition, shared sacrifice; and

• The claim that the federal retirement system needs to be restructured in any way.

“The House’s version of a fiscal 2013 budget would be a disaster for the country,” President Kelley said. “It would drive talented and experienced federal employees from government service.”

“The fact is that there is a direct and strong connection between the federal workforce and the quality of the lives Americans lead,” President Kelley said. “The existence, importance and value of that connection should not even be at issue.”

Moreover, she noted, there are fewer federal workers today serving a much larger U.S. population. In 1953, she said, there was one federal employee for every 78 U.S. residents; by 2009, that had declined to one federal worker for every 147 residents.

The NTEU leader noted that no group has been asked to sacrifice more than middle class federal workers.

They already are contributing $60 billion to deficit reduction over 10 years as a result of the current pay freeze, as well as another $15 billion from higher pension contributions to be paid by new federal hires. Extending the freeze at all—much less for another three years—would be a disservice to the continuing contributions of federal workers to the nation, she said. In her letter to Budget Committee members, Kelley said: “Enough is enough!”

As to the federal pension program, President Kelley pointed to the fact that the Federal Employees Retirement System (FERS) often is described by pension experts as a model for the private sector.

For one thing, she said, it is fully funded, with no unfunded liability. For another, the small FERS defined benefit portion of a retiree’s annuity averages around $1,000 per month. That benefit is part of a three-legged effort to provide an adequate income in retirement for those covered under it. The other portions of the FERS pension are Social Security—to which FERS-covered federal workers contribute in the identical manner as do workers in the private sector—and an employee’s partially-matched contributions to the federal Thrift Savings Plan.

“There is absolutely nothing to indicate that the federal retirement system needs to be restructured, except the desire of some politicians to cut the compensation of the men and women whose work lives have been dedicated to the service of their nation,” Kelley said. “Those who follow that road hold an indefensible position.”

As the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.