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Washington, D.C.-Although occurring well after the October 1 start of the new fiscal year, Congressional approval of the Treasury Appropriations Bill is a welcome development bringing important benefits to federal employees, the leader of the nation's largest independent union of federal workers said today.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said passage allows both federal employees and the public alike to move beyond "the unnecessary anxiety" generated by political delays in the budget process dealing with this and other bills among the 13 mandatory funding measures, not all of which have yet been approved.

Besides providing funding for a variety of key agencies for this fiscal year, the Treasury Appropriations Bill, which awaits President Clinton's signature, repeals, effective December 31, a 0.5 percent increase in the retirement contributions of federal employees.

That tax was imposed on them, without any increase in retirement benefits, by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 as a deficit-reduction tool. NTEU had been the leader in calling for repeal of the unfair tax, especially in light of present and projected budget surpluses.

The bill also extends for another year a program under which agencies can use, for the first time, appropriated funds to subsidize child care tuition costs for their employees.

"Both of these are very important steps if the federal government is going to remain competitive with the private sector in attracting and retaining the kind of quality employees so important to providing top-flight service to the American people," Kelley said.

Passage of the bill makes it virtually certain that the pay raise for 2001 will be 3.7 percent. As a member of the Federal Salary Council, Kelley joined other Council members in recommending that one percentage point of the money go to locality pay in a continuing effort to compensate for regional cost differentials and as part of the effort to lessen the pay gap between the public and private sectors.

The NTEU leader added that the federal government has been addressing its recruitment and retention needs somewhat better more recently.

Steps taken this year include approval of a program allowing employees to purchase long-term care insurance at group rates; legislation correcting the misplacement of some employees in the wrong retirement system; extension government wide of the use of pre-tax income to pay health insurance premiums; and expanding the rights of present and prospective federal workers to take part in the retirement Thrift Savings Plan (TSP). NTEU fought for all of these steps.

"Along with an appropriate and competitive pay level," Kelley said, "this is the kind of action the government needs to be doing more of, particularly in a period of high demand for workers from virtually all segments of our economy."

NTEU represents more than 155,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.