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Washington, D.C.—House Budget Committee action to call for military-civilian pay parity in 2004 is a significant step forward, but it is completely overshadowed by the “misguided and wrong step” of seeking to pay for massive tax cuts by slashing $40 billion in federal employee and retiree programs, the head of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) assailed the House Budget Resolution which assigns the cuts to the Government Reform Committee over 10 years –including $1.1 billion in 2004.

“It’s bad enough that federal agencies don’t have adequate funding to meet their needs now,” President Kelley said, “these cuts would decimate the federal service.” And, she said, “seeking to pay for a huge tax cut by taking money from federal employee and retiree programs is simply wrong.”

If the Government Reform Committee is required to come up with this level of savings, it may have to consider proposals to alter cost of living adjustments for retirees, the union leader said, as well as such other drastic steps as requiring greater retirement contributions from federal employees or slashing government contributions toward the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).

“All of these cuts are unacceptable,” President Kelley said, “and we hope they will be strongly opposed by the committee.”

The $40 billion in savings from federal employee and retiree pocketbooks is being proposed in the budget to make room for the president’s $1.6 trillion tax cut that is designed largely to benefit the wealthy.

“This action clearly runs counter to ongoing efforts by some members of Congress and others, including NTEU, to not only put in place but to beef up programs designed to help federal agencies recruit and retain the quality employees they need to serve the public,” she said.

“Make no mistake about this: the government’s human capital crisis is real, and it’s only going to get much worse with actions like this.”

At the same time, President Kelley applauded the Resolution position on civilian-military pay parity. The administration has proposed a two percent pay raise next year for civilian employees while advocating an average 4.1 percent raise for members of the military.

NTEU is the leader in the fight not just for civilian-military pay parity, but for higher federal pay as well. Few steps would be more important in addressing the recruitment and retention problems of the agencies, Kelley said.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 federal employees in 29 agencies and departments.