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Washington, D.C.—President Bush’s proposal to give federal civilian employees a two percent pay raise for 2004 is “another step in this administration’s efforts to devalue the contributions of federal employees,” President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) said today.

“This is an especially insulting proposal that flies in the face of both common sense and good government,” the NTEU leader said.

“I can’t believe that this administration doesn’t understand the connection between the need for federal pay that is more competitive with the private sector and the recruitment and retention problems plaguing federal agencies,” President Kelley said.

She added: “At the same time we are trying to persuade more college graduates to come to work for the federal government, we are warning them up front that they can’t count on being paid appropriately for their service.”

President Kelley called the two percent pay raise proposal not only insulting, but “a disappointing and foolish policy,” and said that NTEU will work hard in the 108th Congress to see that federal employees get “a fair and appropriate pay raise” in 2004.

“There are those who want to continue to ignore the fact that higher pay is one of the most important incentives the government can offer in the competition with the private sector for the best employees—and that’s a competition federal agencies continue to lose,” she said.

President Kelley noted that the administration originally proposed a dismal 2.6 percent pay raise for federal civilian workers in 2003, breaking with the tradition of parity for civilian-military pay raises. The military pay raise was an average 4.1 percent.

Congress immediately overrode the president’s recommendation, including an average 4.1 percent pay raise for the nation’s civil servants in both the House and Senate versions of the fiscal year 2003 Treasury Appropriations bills, which ultimately failed to make it to the president’s desk for his signature.

President Bush was forced to approve a 3.1 percent civilian pay raise—and the Senate ultimately included a civilian pay raise of 4.1 percent in the Omnibus Appropriations Bill it approved last week.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents more than 150,000 employees in 28 agencies and departments.