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Washington, D.C.-The head of the nation's largest independent union of federal employees today called on Congress to promptly complete work on the remaining fiscal 2000 budget issues, thus heading off "even the threat of disruptions" that come from a potential shutdown of the government.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) made the comments in a press conference after taking part in a White House ceremony at which President Clinton signed the fiscal 2000 Treasury Appropriations Bill.

Kelley said NTEU has worked hard and successfully not just to ensure full funding for Treasury agencies, but the highest pay raise for federal employees in nearly two decades---4.8 percent-as well as authority for agencies to use appropriated funds to partially subsidize child day care for lower-paid federal workers.

"We are pleased with this legislation," Kelley said. "It allows federal workers to share in the prosperity they have been so instrumental in helping create, and it addresses a pressing need for better, more conveniently-located and affordable day care for the children of federal workers.

Government employees aren't the only ones to benefit by this legislation; the public is a major beneficiary as well."

The NTEU leader warned that the uncertainty that goes along with unfinished appropriations measures at the start of a new fiscal year "is bad for the nation, any way you look at it" and she urged immediate attention to complete work on bills to fund government agencies. "Employees and taxpayers alike have the right to expect no less," she said.

At the same time that Kelley praised the pay raise, she repeated her assertion that NTEU "will not stop fighting" until the public-private sector pay gap is eliminated and federal employees are paid at levels called for in the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act (FEPCA).

"We now have the best opportunity in a decade to address the question of compensation for federal employees," Kelley said. "We all need to work together to ensure that we can attract the best among our people to public service, and to retain them in that service."

At the same time, she called the child care provision of the legislation "a step in the right direction," and urged continued attention to the need for family-friendly policies in the public sector. "We should not ask people to make unreasonable sacrifices in their personal lives," Kelley said, "particularly when we have the means to address problems that have the potential to get in the way of their best efforts in the work place."

NTEU represents some 155,000 federal employees in 24 agencies and departments.