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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers today expressed her disappointment at the decision by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to set the 2006 mileage reimbursement rate allowed as a business expense tax deduction at 44.5 cents a mile.

While that is up from the 40.5 cents per mile rate for much of 2005, it is a drop of four cents from the 48.5 cents per mile allowed for the balance of this year in the face of soaring gas prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina three months ago.

“Fuel prices remain high and the energy markets remain volatile,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU). “This decrease in the mileage reimbursement rate will harm federal employees, thousands of whom use their private cars in the course of their federal duties.”

Under federal law, the General Services Administration (GSA) establishes the mileage reimbursement rate for the federal workforce but GSA is prohibited from setting a rate higher than that set by the IRS for the private sector. GSA has not yet announced its 2006 mileage reimbursement rate.

“Federal workers, under this rate, will continue to spend more out of pocket than they are being reimbursed” by the government, Kelley said.

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which sent fuel prices soaring past $3 per gallon, NTEU immediately called on the IRS to raise the mileage reimbursement rate so that GSA could follow suit. IRS responded with its temporary measure which President Kelley noted at the time was simply not enough.

President Kelley said NTEU will continue to work with members of Congress in an effort to set an appropriate rate that reflects the actual costs incurred by federal workers using their own vehicles in the service of the public.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.