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Washington, D.C.—As the government lurches toward a possible shutdown at midnight tonight, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees slammed those in Congress obstructing efforts to fund federal agencies and keep the government open.

“It is simply unconscionable to use federal employees as pawns in an ideological fight, with its resulting harm to the public,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union.

“This is a workforce which has endured three years of a pay freeze; there has been virtually no hiring, so workloads are increasing dramatically; many already have faced unpaid days because of sequestration; and now they face more unpaid furloughs because of a shutdown that does not need to happen,” Kelley said.

She added: “This brinksmanship has got to stop, both for our country and for the dedicated workers who serve the public as federal employees.”

The message NTEU has been delivering to members of Congress has been consistent and firm: keep the government open, end the damaging policy of sequestration, provide adequate resources to federal agencies, and allow federal employees to continue providing vital services to the American people.

While it isn’t clear exactly what will happen today—the Senate will be taking up a House-approved continuing resolution, adopted over the weekend with controversial amendments—there appears to be fading confidence that a shutdown will be averted.

As just one example of the impact on the public, the NTEU leader pointed to the fact that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), where NTEU is the exclusive representative of the bargaining unit, will—in the event of a shutdown tonight—furlough more than 90 percent of its workforce. That would be more than 85,000 employees, who have already served three unpaid furlough days since May.

The result, Kelley said, is that taxpayers would not be able to get any assistance from the IRS, since all toll-free telephone hotlines will be closed, as will all of the nearly 400 Taxpayer Assistance Centers across the country.

A shutdown would effectively stop collection activities and curtail audits, as well as adversely impact efforts to combat fraud, including identity theft, in pursuit of fraudulent refunds and the hiding of taxable funds in offshore accounts.

Other NTEU-represented agencies would be similarly affected, she said. “It would not take long for the public to begin feeling the negative effects of a shutdown, and that will emphasize to a growing number of people the direct connection between the work of federal employees and the quality of their lives.”

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