Reardon to Congress: CBP Funding a Necessity, not a Luxury

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Congress was on vacation in August but NTEU was hard at work fighting for federal employees.

President Reardon made headlines last month by lobbying for appropriate resources for Customs and Border Protection (CBP), fighting for equitable bonuses for front-line employees and managers at all agencies, tony_quoterepelling attacks on Internal Revenue Service (IRS) workers and advocating for Federal Communications Commission (FCC) employees.

Some examples:

In a column published in The Hill in late August—just as members of Congress were returning to Washington to work on next year’s appropriations bills—Reardon urged lawmakers to focus on CBP’s funding and staffing woes. Giving CBP the resources it needs “is not a luxury, but a vital necessity for the safety and security of our country, our economy and our food supply,” he wrote.

After the White House OK’d raising the bonus cap for federal managers, Reardon said in a letter to the administration that hardworking front-line employees deserve bigger bonuses too. Quoting from the letter, Government Executive’s article said disparate bonus levels for managers and front-line employees would be “unfair and misguided” and could lead to “significant morale issues” at federal agencies. Reardon’s letter also was the subject of a segment on NewsChannel 8. That video clip is available here.

In a letter to the Salt Lake Tribune, Reardon praised Utah’s largest newspaper for recognizing that Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) was punishing his own state’s taxpayers by shredding the IRS’ budget. A poorly-resourced IRS makes it harder for its front-line workers to do a good job of serving the public, Reardon noted.

The NTEU leader was quoted extensively in an article by Inside Radio about FCC beginning the process of closing a dozen field offices—despite NTEU’s strenuous objections. By delaying the layoffs for a year beyond FCC’s original timetable, NTEU secured a “clear victory for employees,” according to the article, which also praised the union for securing “much-needed protections for the 60 affected employees.”

Read these articles and many more here.

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