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Washington, D.C. —The Obama administration’s fiscal 2012 budget blueprint takes a common-sense and critically-important longer-term approach to the country’s needs and is, in very large measure, the right budget at the right time, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.

“The federal government has a large role to play in securing our country, providing vital taxpayer services, leading our economic recovery and bringing in necessary revenue,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “The administration’s budget recognizes that this country cannot simply institute widespread cuts and expect to prosper.”

President Kelley noted the administration’s proposal to increase fiscal 2012 funding for the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) by $1.1 billion over the fiscal 2010 level. “This commitment by the White House reflects an understanding of the reality that every dollar invested in the IRS results in additional revenue to the treasury—an absolutely critical element in attacking the federal deficit and the $345 billion gap between taxes owed and those paid,” she said. In fiscal 2010, the IRS collected $2.3 trillion, making up 93 percent of government receipts.

The administration’s 2012 funding level for the IRS would permit the agency to improve services through increasing response rates to inquiries, deploying enforcement resources to what the White House called high-return integrity activities and by modernizing information technology systems. Its projected $13.2 billion in funding would include an increase of $462 million for enforcement, $66 million for taxpayer services and $536 million for operational support.

The administration also indicated it is proposing more than $240 million for a targeted set of new revenue-generating tax enforcement initiatives aimed at closing the tax gap; when fully in place in 2014, these new efforts are expected to yield about $1.3 billion a year in additional tax revenue, it said.

The NTEU leader said the administration’s fiscal 2012 blueprint contrasts sharply in both the outlook and understanding of the needs of America displayed by the significant cutbacks proposed for federal spending over the remaining seven months of the current fiscal year by the Republican-controlled House Appropriations Committee.

Apart from the IRS, Kelley welcomed the fiscal 2012 proposals for additional resources for a variety of other agencies, as measured against spending in fiscal 2010. These includes $300 million for the Food and Drug Administration; a like amount for the Securities and Exchange Commission; and an increase of $730 million above the fiscal 2010 enacted level for U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The blueprint also continues a moratorium on new public-private competitions for federal jobs; proposes to retain military and veterans mental health and other programs provided by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, which would be cut under the Appropriations Committee proposal; seeks to permit the Patent and Trademark Office to retain all its user fees for operating expenses; and limits a proposed reduction in Environmental Protection Agency funding to $1 billion.

The proposal also seeks to streamline the pharmacy benefit contracting program under the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP)—an issue strongly advocated by NTEU—which would save $69 million for the program in 2012 and more than $1.76 billion over 10 years.

On the matter of federal pay, the administration blueprint assumes, for a second year, the two-year freeze on federal pay enacted late last year.

At the same time, the NTEU leader expressed her approval that the budget blueprint did not accept the recommendations of the National Commission on Deficit Reduction that would have greatly reduced federal annuities.

NTEU was highly-critical of the commission's recommendations impacting federal employees; President Kelley said NTEU “is committed to fighting for fair and balanced treatment of the federal workforce.”

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