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Washington, D.C.—The Senate Appropriations Committee today approved a fiscal 2009 funding bill that would provide federal civilian employees with a 3.9 percent pay raise—a full percentage point higher than that proposed by the White House, and an amount in step with a 2009 military pay raise moving through Congress.

At the same time, in marking up its version of the fiscal 2009 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill, this key Senate committee joined its House counterpart in approving a one-year moratorium on new public-private competitions for federal work, and in moving to prevent the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) from using appropriated funds to continue its costly private tax collection program.

“By its actions, the Senate Appropriations Committee not only recognizes the value of the federal workforce,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), “it takes a major step toward reining in the runaway contracting of federal jobs to the private sector that has been a hallmark of this administration’s domestic agenda.”

Last month, in approving its version of the Financial Services bill, the House Appropriations Committee also voted to approve a 3.9 percent raise for civilian employees. President Kelley applauded the willingness of both House and Senate members to approve a competitive pay increase and to continue the long tradition of parity in military and civilian pay raises. The administration initially proposed only a 2.9 percent raise for civilian employees next year, and a 3.4 percent raise for those in the military.

“Congressional support for a fair and reasonable pay raise is a clear message for the federal employees who perform the work of the American people every day that their efforts and commitment to excellence are recognized and appreciated,” said President Kelley.

The proposed moratorium on federal contracting would ease the pressure agencies feel from the administration to put up for public-private bid an increasing number of federal jobs, including many that heretofore have been considered inherently governmental.

“The smart, cost-effective step to take for taxpayers,” said President Kelley, “is to keep the work of the public in the hands of trained, accountable federal employees.”

That is particularly true of the inherently governmental function of collecting taxes, she said; NTEU has been at the forefront of the fight against the IRS’s use of private debt collectors. This program, which has lost more than $50 million through fiscal 2007, increasingly has drawn bipartisan congressional opposition. The bills approved by the Appropriations Committees would bar the use of appropriated funds for the program in fiscal 2009.

Most recently, Nina Olson, the IRS’s National Taxpayer Advocate—who has called repeatedly for an end to the program—provided Congress with a mid-year report which identified a raft of new problems with the program.

These include giving private companies outstanding cases involving complex issues that IRS employees currently are working to resolve—a step that undercuts the original rationale for the program—as well as underreported costs and the fact that the IRS’s own collection activities account for a significant portion of the revenues attributed to the private collection program.

“The program is a money loser and now the private collection agencies want taxpayers to pay them for work IRS employees are doing,” Kelley said.

The Senate committee also approved fiscal 2009 funding of $938 million for the Securities and Exchange Commission--$25 million more than the White House proposal. The House Appropriations Committee also provided additional SEC funding for the coming fiscal year.

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