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Washington, D.C.—Treasury Secretary-designate John W. Snow should oppose at his Senate confirmation hearing tomorrow an unwise and unnecessary plan that would effectively gut the long-time popular and effective savings bond marketing program, the leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today.

NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley noted that Secretary-designate Snow “is quite familiar with the benefits of this longstanding program, since he served in 1995 on its national volunteer committee” while he was chief executive officer of CSX Corp.

“I’m hopeful that his positive experiences with the savings bond marketing program will convince him that the proposal by the Treasury Department will hurt millions of ordinary American savers,” she said.

Treasury’s Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) is planning to eliminate the field component of its Savings Bond Marketing Office (SBMO) and force all customers to use the Internet to purchase savings bonds. Under that plan, the number of bargaining unit employees would be reduced to about 40—and the number of staffed offices would be reduced to only four nationwide.

NTEU is the collective bargaining agent for both BPD and SBMO, representing some 1,250 employees there.

Savings bonds are held by more than 55 million Americans. They are marketed by SBMO employees in small one- and two-person offices around the country, working with schools and community-based organizations. SBMO employees act as liaisons with corporations—such as the giant transportation company CSX, run by Snow prior to his nomination to be Treasury Secretary—and other employers in setting up and operating payroll savings bond programs.

President Kelley repeated her assertion that ending SBMO’s participation in various community partnership and cooperative programs would significantly hurt efforts to improve the financial knowledge and exposure to savings of young people, and particularly those who are disadvantaged.

“For sixty years, the savings bond program has been the first step in savings for a great many Americans,” the NTEU leader said, “and has been their introduction and gateway to other forms of savings and investments. I urge the Secretary-designate to take steps to retain the program in its present form.”

Moving to a largely electronic system, she added, would have adverse consequences on parents and grandparents who frequently have chosen bonds, in their traditional paper form, as a way to introduce young people to the important habit of savings.

“We have an excellent community- and school-based program that has worked very well for a long time, staffed by dedicated, experienced people,” she said. “It is beyond me why we would want to move away from that,” Kelley added, particularly since Treasury’s own figures show that for every $1 billion borrowed through Series EE and Series I savings bonds, $17 million is saved in comparison to costs associated with marketable securities.

“There are a great many issues NTEU hopes to work with the new Treasury Secretary on, including adequate resources for the Internal Revenue Service, but supporting the continuation of this important program would be a great first step by the Secretary-designate,” Kelley said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing more than 150,000 employees in 28 agencies and departments.