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Washington D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today called for far greater attention to the positive role improved workplace benefits can play in the ability of federal agencies to recruit and retain the top talent it needs to deliver services to the public.

Improving benefits is increasingly important because “every day, federal employees are asked to do more with less, and face an often-hostile administration that does not seem to value the work that federal employees do,” President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) told a House subcommittee today.

The NTEU leader offered her assessment of the role of benefits in the federal sector to a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia. In her testimony, President Kelley highlighted two issues: increasing coverage for dependents in the Federal Employee Health Benefits Program (FEHBP) to age 25, and providing paid parental leave.

“Young adults are the fastest-growing age group among the uninsured,” Kelley said, noting that many 22-year olds are seldom in a position to obtain health insurance themselves and that adding this generally healthier pool of people to the FEHBP may even lower the average costs for group insurance.

Although non-paid parental leave is available to federal employees under the NTEU-supported Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993, “it has become clear,” Kelley said, “that many who would take advantage of time off to care for a baby have not because they were unable to forgo their income.”

“A benefit you cannot take advantage of is not much of a benefit,” she concluded.

President Kelley recommended a number of other of improvements, including:

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An increase in the government’s share of employees’ FEHBP premiums from the current average of 72 percent to the average 80 percent payment that is common in the private sector;

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Legislation that would direct the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to apply for the drug subsidy to which it is entitled—but which it did not seek in 2006—under the Medicare prescription drug program;

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Negotiations by OPM over drug prices for prescriptions obtained through FEHBP plans. Currently, OPM negotiates only overall health care packages with insurance carriers. The companies themselves negotiate with drug suppliers;

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An expansion of the vision and dental care benefit recently made available to federal employees to include a government contribution to the cost;

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Approval of legislation that would allow federal and military retirees to use pre-tax dollars to pay for their health insurance premiums—a benefit active federal workers have enjoyed, thanks largely to NTEU’s efforts, for some years;

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Passage of legislation that would make much-needed changes in the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision. These are laws that unfairly penalize federal retirees and spouses by reducing their Social Security benefits.

At the same time, President Kelley reminded the subcommittee of the many options that agencies have to help in their recruitment and retention efforts—including student loan repayment programs, telework opportunities, bonuses and more—and she called on Congress to “help us find a way to persuade agencies to use the tools we already have to keep our workforce at a sufficient level to carry on our nation’s work.”

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