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Washington, D.C: -- The president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) today urged a House?Senate conference committee to "move promptly" to resolve their differences on legislation designed to make the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) "a more effective instrument of service" for American taxpayers.

Robert M. Tobias said he was gratified that both the House bill, passed last fall, and the Senate measure, approved yesterday, have "as their central focus the critical notion that enhanced customer service will lead to improved voluntary compliance with the tax laws."

NTEU represents more than 97,000 IRS employees. Both House and Senate bills call for establishment of an IRS oversight board, including members from the private sector as well as a representative of IRS employees.

Tobias said he is "pleased" that the Senate included a provision for employee representation on the board, despite efforts to delete it from the bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee. "We have said from the beginning of IRS reform efforts," he said, "that it is crucial to have the voices of the employees heard at the highest levels of the agency. The full Senate acted fairly and in the best interests of the nation."

Tobias served on the 17?member bipartisan National Commission On Restructuring the IRS, which spent more than a year studying the agency and whose recommendations formed the basis for House?passed IRS legislation. Many of its recommendations also are contained in the Senate version.

The union president said NTEU supports both legislative restructuring efforts and IRS management reforms underway by new commissioner Charles O. Rossotti.

"I believe we are moving quickly to a position where we can make substantive and meaningful changes in IRS processes and procedures, including providing its employees with the training and equipment they need to do their jobs even better," Tobias said

He added that "so long as the conference committee keeps these goals in mind and acts promptly as a way to keep up the momentum for reform, I am confident that together, managers and employees, can take the IRS to new levels of dedicated service to the American people."