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Washington, D.C.— The announcement by Sen. James Jeffords of Vermont that he will leave the Republican Party “holds the potential for a healthy and more thorough review of the agenda of the Bush administration,” the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal workers said today. Sen. Jeffords has said he will serve as a political independent, and will caucus with Democrats for purposes of Senate committee and other leadership positions.

President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said that with the new administration and with Republican control of both the House and Senate, there was broad-based concern about a lack of review and analysis on many issues, including on the part of federal employees who “have felt a degree of concern” about such day-to-day vital issues as their pay and job security.

In particular, Kelley said, federal workers continue to be concerned about growing efforts by the Bush administration to contract out government services. Mr. Bush has said he wants to contract to the private sector tens of thousands of federal jobs, including many performing inherently governmental work.

The potential changes afforded by the Jeffords’ switch, she said, “could provide the nation with the opportunity for a much-needed analysis and debate” about contracting out of government work. NTEU, she said, believes such an analysis is critical to determining “the most reliable, most efficient and most cost-effective manner” of delivering such services.

As a member of the newly-formed Commercial Activities Panel (CAP), authorized by Congress last year, Kelley has offered a set of five recommendations that would result in not just more fair public-private

competition for the work, but for critically-needed oversight of contracting out processes and procedures.

The NTEU leader added that whatever the makeup of the Senate, the union looks forward to continuing to work with members of Congress from both parties on a wide range of issues important to federal workers, including the need for both a fair and appropriate pay raise and one that continues pay parity for civilian employees and members of the armed forces.

The Bush budget proposal is for federal civilian employees to receive a 3.6 percent pay raise in 2002, one percentage point below that of the military. Both House and Senate budget resolutions call for continued civilian-military pay parity.

“There are members of both parties who understand well the issues faced by federal employees, including the vital need for competitive pay and benefits to aid in recruiting and retaining quality workers,” Kelley said.

She added that NTEU will continue its strong pursuit of its legislative priorities, including, in addition to issues involving contracting out, full implementation of the Federal Employees Pay Comparability Act, reductions in the cost of health insurance for federal workers, repeal or substantial modification of an unfair section of a law affecting Internal Revenue Service employees and adequate funding for the multiple missions of the Customs Service.

NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 25 agencies and departments.