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Washington, D.C.— A letter from key members of Congress to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) calling for a halt to further pay-for-performance systems in the federal government while a governmentwide review is conducted echoes earlier calls made by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

“This is welcome recognition by leaders in the House of Representatives that attempts by the previous administration to institute pay for performance across the federal government were nothing more than a brazen attempt to dismantle employees’ civil service rights and are doing little to actually improve the performance of government agencies or advance their goals,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley.

In congressional testimony delivered last summer President Kelley called for a moratorium on new implementation of alternative pay systems and a review of existing programs to see if they are effective. NTEU made the same recommendation to the Obama administration in a transition document delivered to the incoming president’s team in November.

“It has been the experience of NTEU that alternative pay systems in many federal agencies are nothing more than a litany of failed experiments,” said Kelley. The NTEU leader pointed to the Performance Accountability and Standards System (PASS) at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) as a prime example.

“PASS is an unfair and subjective system in which employees face constantly-changing expectations,” Kelley said. “The wide discretion given to managers and the lack of credible standards are key reasons for low employee morale at TSA and sky-high attrition rates.” NTEU strongly supports legislation introduced last week in Congress that would end PASS and move TSA employees onto the General Schedule as well as provide them with the full collective bargaining rights they lack.

The letter sent Friday to OMB Director Peter Orszag noted that the General Schedule system that covers most federal workers contains a number of personnel flexibilities that can be used while “retaining the fairness and transparency of the merit-based civil service system.”

“I commend these legislators for their leadership on this issue and their deep understanding that federal agencies will be most successful when they have a workforce in which goals are clearly outlined and decisions are transparent and credible,” President Kelley said.

The letter to OMB was signed by four House Committee Chairs and four House Subcommittee Chairs. The signers are: Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Edolphus Towns; Federal Workforce Subcommittee Chairman Stephen Lynch; Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton; Readiness Subcommittee Chairman Solomon Ortiz; Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson; Management, Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee Chair Christopher Carney; Intelligence Chairman Silvestre Reyes; and Intelligence Community Management Subcommittee Chair Anna Eshoo.

The lawmakers, in the letter to Director Orszag, referenced the failed attempt by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to put in place a performance system called MaxHR. NTEU successfully fought parts of that system in federal court and worked with Congress to restrict funding for any efforts at implementation. Last year, DHS officially ended its efforts to move forward with MaxHR.

“There is overwhelming evidence that alternative pay and personnel systems are failing and I am confident that a review of these systems by the administration will clearly demonstrate that,” President Kelley said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.