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Washington, D.C.—The results of a survey of federal employees released this week by the Brookings Institution reinforces what the National Treasury Employees Union has long known—that given the tools, resources and training, federal employees are willing and able to perform at the highest levels for the American public.

The survey results also reveal a workforce that is increasingly demoralized, with half its population on the verge of retirement, and an inability of the government to attract and retain the skilled and talented employees it needs.

“The problems facing the federal workforce are well documented and the survey results reinforce the seriousness of the situation,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “Unless Congress and the president move quickly and decisively to increase funding for additional personnel, higher pay, and more training, the federal government soon will not have the ability to carry out its many vital missions.”

The survey of more than 1,000 federal employees was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on behalf of the Brookings Institution’s Center for Public Service. Center Director Paul Light, in a special report on the survey in Government Executive Magazine, concludes that “by almost every indicator, the federal government does not give its 1.8 million civil servants the resources to do their jobs well.

“Far too many employees,” Light said, “succeed in spite of their organizations.”

Federal employees “are a deeply committed group of individuals, as the survey indicates,” Kelley said, “but these employees find it hard to succeed because they lack the support they need. It is time for that to change.”

The survey shows that federal employees do not believe their organizations have enough employees to do their jobs well, that morale in agencies is low, that the hiring process is confusing, and that opportunities for advancement do not exist.

Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, the American public has looked to the federal government for action, stability, and reassurance, Kelley said, and federal workers have not let them down. But “increasing the number of federal positions contracted out, continuing to starve federal agencies for the personnel funds they need, and not being able to attract and keep talented employees will hasten the day that the government can’t provide the services citizens count on,” the union leader said.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union representing 150,000 federal employees in 25 federal agencies and departments.