Home Media Center News Releases

Washington, D.C.—The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is urging members of the House of Representatives to vote ‘no’ on H.R. 807, which is scheduled to come to the floor for a vote on Thursday. The legislation would require the Treasury Department to pay bondholders of American debt first, before any other obligation after the debt ceiling has been reached.

The mandate contained in the bill cannot be carried out by the Treasury Department because its computer system cannot prioritize payments, said NTEU National President Colleen M. Kelley in a letter to all representatives earlier this week. “Second, this bill would still result in a government shutdown,” she warned.

The bill “only provides payment for those holding public debt bonds and allows interest payments on the Social Security Fund,” Kelley said in her letter, adding, “There is no allowance for paying federal workers or the military or Medicare providers.”

The debt ceiling limit will be reached sometime between the middle of May and October. While supporters of the bill claim that the measure will allow the country to avoid defaulting on its debt, NTEU believes the bill will leave our country in an even worse situation than when sequestration began.

“H.R. 807 is simply a cynical political statement that will damage our fragile recovery,” President Kelley wrote, adding that “it will force federal employees to endure yet another loss of pay, jeopardizing family incomes once again.”

Federal employees are already dealing with the deep budget cuts called for under sequestration and many are facing unpaid furlough days that reduce their income. This comes even as the federal workforce is in the third year of a pay freeze. With that pay freeze and with increases in pension contributions from new federal hires, the federal workforce is contributing $114 billion to deficit reduction over 10 years.

“I urge you to seek a way to achieve a deficit reduction plan that will end the sequester and allow federal employees to do their jobs,” President Kelley wrote.

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