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Washington, D.C. —A key House committee today approved two bills with potential negative impacts on federal employees and containing what the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers described as “solutions in search of problems.”

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) called the votes by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee to move the bills to the full House “nothing more than a continuation of the unfortunate and unfair attacks on federal employees that have become a staple of our recent political life.”

Despite a modest improvement in its language, NTEU continues to oppose H.R. 1470, which would extend the one-year probationary period for most federal employees to a minimum of two years for all new hires. An earlier version of the bill would have extended the probationary period to federal employees every time they receive a transfer, are reassigned, promoted or demoted.

President Kelley emphasized there is no evidence that a one-year probationary period is insufficient to gauge the ability of an employee to perform a particular job, a position drawing support from committee Democrats.

“A one-year probationary period is plenty,” said Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) “There is nothing to evaluate in two years than you cannot evaluate in one.” Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), the committee’s ranking member, said: “Current (Office of Personnel Management) and agency regulations regarding employee probationary periods are working just fine; no changes are needed.”

Another committee member, Rep. Gerald Connolly (D-Va.), offered an amendment that would have substituted legislation addressing the need for additional supervisor training in the implementation of performance management systems. “The problem is not the employees and their probationary period,” he said. “The problem is management’s lack of training in proper evaluation protocols. There needs to be additional supervisory training requirements.” His amendment, which NTEU supported, was ruled out of order.

Bipartisan legislation recently was introduced by Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) that would address shortcomings in supervisor and management training in federal agencies.

The other piece of legislation approved by the committee, H.R. 828, also was criticized by President Kelley as onerous and unnecessary. That bill would require the firing of any federal employee with a serious tax delinquency, no matter the reason.

Prior to the vote, Kelley wrote to committee members noting that use of a lien filed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a trigger for termination is inappropriate, since a lien is not a final determination of a tax debt.

The committee did include in the measure language sought by NTEU in working with committee members that would provide some due process rights for affected employees and the possibility of hardship exemptions on a case-by-case basis, but overall, President Kelley said, the legislation still fails to recognize the likelihood of a variety of extenuating circumstances in instances where tax debts exist. These include divorce and its aftermath, serious illness, loss of a job and significant financial difficulties.

Moreover, she said, it completely overlooks the existence of tools the IRS already has available to it to collect tax debts from members of the federal workforce. “There are processes in place to recover these debts,” she said. Finally, she noted, that members of Congress are exempt from this legislation.

“It is distressing to me and to federal employees across this country that some members of Congress seem determined to continue with their quest of attacking federal employees and instituting solutions that are in need of problems,” President Kelley said. “I believe it would be far better to recognize that federal employees are talented, skilled, dedicated and committed to this country and could serve this country even better with the support of our elected lawmakers.”

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