Leave fed pay and benefits alone, union says

A federal employee union says feds have already contributed $60 billion to deficit reduction efforts and asks Congress to leave the federal workforce's pay and benefits alone, reports Federal Daily.

This week National Treasury Employees Union President Colleen Kelley sent letters to the seven Senate and 13 House conferees assigned to hammer out a compromise on H.R. 3630, which passed even though Congress failed to reach agreement. While federal pay and benefits measures were not included in that short-term legislation, proposed cuts to benefits and a possible freeze extension are expected to reemerge as major issues as lawmakers work on a compromise.

Kelly urged the conferees to oppose using cuts to federal employee pay and benefits as a means of offsetting a longer-term extension of the payroll tax cut and other measures in the bill.