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Washington, D.C.— The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) announcement today that employees at this critical agency will not face two days of unpaid furloughs is good news for the workforce and America’s taxpayers, said National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) National President Colleen M. Kelley.

“NTEU worked with the IRS to find other ways to handle the ongoing budget cuts the agency is facing. I believe that employees should not have to deal with losing two days of pay because Congress has not provided adequate resources to IRS,” President Kelley said.

She said she is pleased that NTEU’s persistence paid off in defusing the threat of a shutdown of the IRS for this year.

“The threat will return in the future unless Congress increases the IRS budget and allows the agency to hire enough staff to execute its mission,” the NTEU leader said. “Furloughs would have devastated morale among IRS employees. As it is, employees are frustrated that they cannot help taxpayers like they used to before and taxpayers are not getting the assistance they need from the IRS.”

Earlier this year, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said budget cuts may force the IRS to shut down for two days as a last resort to reduce costs. Today he announced that furloughs will not be necessary because the IRS has made other cuts and adjustments to deal with budget reductions. In a message to IRS employees, Koskinen acknowledged NTEU’s efforts and thanked President Kelley.

“Preventing a shutdown was a high priority for both the NTEU and the IRS,” Koskinen wrote. “We are pleased that we were able to avoid this scenario–and the resulting disruptions for taxpayers, the tax community and IRS employees.”

Also today, the NTEU leader renewed her call for Congress to boost funding for the IRS. She submitted a statement to the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, which held a hearing today on the administration’s fiscal year (FY) 2016 budget request for the IRS.

Kelley wrote that Congress has cut a total of $1.2 billion from the agency’s budget in the past five years, which will reduce the IRS workforce by more than 16,000 by the end of the current fiscal year.

The number of IRS employees assigned to answer taxpayer telephone calls fell from 9,400 in FY 2010 to 6,900 in FY 2014—a 26 percent decline. The number of Revenue Officers and Revenue Agents was down more than 3,600 at the end of FY 2013 compared to 2010 levels, and the IRS says it will lose 1,800 enforcement personnel through attrition by this fiscal year, according to the NTEU leader’s statement.

“Despite the critical role that the IRS plays in helping taxpayers meet their tax obligations and generating revenue to fund the federal government, the IRS’ ability to continue doing so has been severely challenged due to funding reductions in recent years,” Kelley wrote. “NTEU believes that only by restoring critical funding for effective enforcement and taxpayer service programs can the IRS provide America's taxpayers with quality service while maximizing revenue collection that is critical to reducing the federal deficit.”

In FY 2014, IRS collected $3.1 trillion in revenue, or about 93 percent of the federal government’s receipts. But the revenue brought in by the agency’s enforcement division has been declining. For instance, IRS enforcement activities brought in $57.1 billion in FY 2014, down more than $2 billion from the $59.2 billion collected in FY 2007, the NTEU leader said.

She reiterated NTEU’s support for the administration’s $12.9 billion FY 2016 request for the IRS, an increase of more than $1.9 billion from the current level. The administration’s budget request would increase funding for taxpayer services by $252 million from the current level and boost the enforcement budget by $539 million compared to this year.

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