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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees today called on members of the Senate to defeat an amendment to S. 1813, the pending transportation bill, that would extend the federal pay freeze for another year to pay for completely unrelated tax breaks.

In a letter to all senators, President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) slammed a proposal by Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) that would extend the freeze to offset the costs of such tax breaks as those impacting rum imported from Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as well as for owners of motor sports entertainment complexes.

Writing of the potential impact on federal workers, President Kelley said “it is outrageous to continue to single them out for more cuts, especially for the kinds of tax breaks included in this amendment.”

She emphasized the proposed savings from the Roberts amendment would not even be used for deficit reduction, and reminded senators that federal employees already are contributing $60 billion to that effort through the present two-year pay freeze, scheduled to expire at the end of 2012.

Moreover, she said, recently-enacted payroll tax holiday extension legislation will take another $15 billion from federal employees in the form of increased pension contributions.

“While some in Congress continue to make it a priority to protect the wealthiest Americans from contributing anything to deficit reduction, this amendment would cut another $26 billion from this one group of middle class workers by extending the pay freeze through 2013,” Kelley wrote. “Federal employees have given enough!’

The Roberts amendment, SA 1826, adds to the more than two dozen pending bills in the House and Senate attacking federal employee pay, benefits and rights. Kelley has vowed that NTEU will continue to stand in the forefront of the ongoing fight to protect federal employees, as well as the ability of their agencies to accomplish their missions.

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