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Washington, D.C.??The nation's largest independent federal union today said projected large surpluses in the federal budget "make it appropriate, now more than ever," to reward the continuing contributions of federal employees by giving them a substantial pay increase.

President Robert M. Tobias of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said no group over the past 10 years contributed as much to a balanced federal budget as did the men and women of the federal workforce and that they deserve to share in the strong economy they helped create. NTEU represents more than 155,000 federal employees in 20 agencies and departments.

Tobias was commenting on President Clinton's proposed $1.77 trillion fiscal 2000 budget, and he took note of the president's proposal??in keeping with a Clinton statement last fall??for a 4.4 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees and members of the military.

Last week, members of the Senate Armed Services Committee called for a military pay increase next year of 4.8 percent, citing the need to attract and retain skilled, experienced men and women in the military. The committee recommended continued parity between military and civilian pay raises??a move urged by Tobias, who has been a leader in the fight to improve federal compensation and bring pay levels more in line with those of the private sector.

Federal military?civilian pay parity "has long been the norm, and principles of basic fairness dictate that it should continue," Tobias said, "particularly in light not just of the ongoing contributions of the men and women of the federal workforce, but their contributions??in the form of denied and delayed pay and benefit increases totaling more than $220 billion?? in helping achieve a balanced budget in the first place."

Last fall, President Clinton boosted the amount of a proposed 1999 pay raise for federal employees to 3.6 percent from his initial 3.1 percent proposal, after steps in Congress to approve a military pay increase at the higher amount.

While Tobias welcomed both the Clinton 4.4 percent proposal and the Armed Services Committee call for pay parity, he urged again that both the administration and Congress move toward implementation of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).

That 1990 bipartisan law called for closing, in stages over 10 years, the significant gap between private and public sector pay. No federal pay raise since FEPCA's passage, however, has matched that called for under its formula.

NTEU and other federal unions are continuing discussions with both Congress and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on improvements to the federal pay system.

"Just as higher pay is necessary to attract and retain the best people in the military," Tobias said, "the same is true when it comes to the men and women who perform the civilian tasks of the American people."