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Washington, D.C.—With significant changes looming at the start of the 110th Congress in January, federal employees and the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) look forward to an opportunity for Congress to closely examine key administration goals that impact the federal workforce and America’s taxpayers, the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees said today.

“The midterm vote is a clear mandate for the government to do a much better job of taking care of taxpayers’ money,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley. “One vital way to do that is to improve oversight of government contractors and to keep inherently government work—like collecting taxes—in the hands of federal employees.”

Since its earliest days, this administration has been determined to contract to the private sector as many federal jobs as possible, despite no credible evidence that this saves taxpayers any money, and despite the poor record of contractor oversight on the part of federal agencies. NTEU has been leading the fight against such runaway contracting.

On another key matter, President Kelley said NTEU will take an assertive posture with the 110th Congress on the need to provide sufficient funding for the Internal Revenue Service to rebuild its decimated workforce—stressing that this is the key to closing the multi-billion-dollar gap between taxes owed and taxes paid.

NTEU also will work with the new Congress to address neglected staffing needs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and to ensure collective bargaining and employee rights.

“These and other issues,” President Kelley said, “impact in meaningful ways the ability of federal employees to provide the services people want, need and deserve, and that means the issues impact virtually everyone in America.”

President Kelley said she hopes the new leadership will encourage a return to more cooperative labor-management relationships like those NTEU cultivated with many federal agencies under partnership.

She added: “NTEU looks forward to working with the new congressional leadership to get good things done not only for those we represent, but for our nation as well.”

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.