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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) urged congressional budget negotiators today to avoid further cuts to federal pay and benefits.

In a letter to House and Senate conferees, who are meeting to resolve differences between each chamber’s budget frameworks, NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley stressed that federal employees have already contributed $159 billion to deficit reduction since 2010.

A total of $137 billion was in lost pay as the federal workforce went without raises in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and withstood diminished pay raises in 2014 and 2015, $21 billion was through increased retirement contributions for recent and new hires and $1 billion came from lost salaries due to sequestration-related furloughs.

“I am asking you to look elsewhere for additional savings. Enough is enough. This country has the greatest civil service in the world, but that will not continue to be the case if Congress continues to use their pay and benefits as a piggy bank to fund other things,” President Kelley wrote.

Continuing to target federal pay and benefits will only dampen employee morale, which is already low as a recent House hearing revealed, Kelley wrote.

“It is becoming difficult to recruit new employees and to retain our good employees,” the NTEU leader warned.

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