Union calls for increase in mileage reimbursement rate

The National Treasury Employees Union is calling for an increase in the rate at which federal employees who drive personal vehicles on government business are reimbursed for the miles they travel.

The current rate of 44.5 cents per mile is inadequate, due to a recent rise in gasoline prices, said Colleen Kelley, the union's president, in a statement Monday.

"If [federal employees] are not being appropriately reimbursed at some reasonable rate, the question remains whether they will continue to use their cars or if the government should provide them with cars," Kelley told Government Executive.

The General Services Administration is permitted under federal law to establish a mileage reimbursement rate for federal employees who use their own vehicles for official business, but the GSA-mandated rate cannot exceed the one established by the Internal Revenue Service primarily for tax deduction purposes.

The IRS typically makes a rate adjustment at the beginning of each year, but in an unusual move it made a special one-time adjustment in September, from 40.5 cents per mile to 48.5 cents per mile, because of skyrocketing fuel prices after hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the Gulf Coast.

GSA followed the IRS' lead less than a week later.

But prices subsided and the rate dropped to 44.5 cents per mile in January. All IRS mileage reimbursement rates are based on a national study of the costs of operating vehicles, including gas, oil, tires and general maintenance.

An IRS spokesman who requested anonymity said he can only confirm that the agency has not made a rate change. He said the IRS typically makes the adjustment once a year and that there are a number of components considered in the study upon which the final rate is based.

"We have had rises in gas prices before," the spokesman said. "It's not the first time. Gas prices are only one element in the overall calculation."

He would not say whether the IRS is considering a rate increase.

Current national gas prices, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic, are 10 cents lower than the $3.02 per gallon drivers were paying on Sept. 9, 2005, when the IRS upped the rate to 48.5 cents per mile. In Washington, D.C., the price on Tuesday was $3.09 per gallon, compared with $3.34 per gallon at the time of the September rate increase.

NTEU is pushing for legislation introduced last year during the fuel price run-up. It would raise the IRS rate to 60 cents per mile and require GSA to follow suit.

Sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., in the Senate (S. 1678) and Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in the House (H.R. 3750), the increased rate would more accurately reflect the true cost of driving a vehicle, NTEU argued.

"If the administration doesn't do that, people will look to Congress to do something," Kelley said.

In a related matter, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced legislation Thursday that would phase in higher fuel efficiency standards for newly purchased federal vehicles.

Under the legislation (S. 2675), new federal cars would have to meet a 45-miles-per-gallon standard; SUVs, 36 miles per gallon; minivans, 20 miles per gallon; and vans, 15 miles per gallon. A provision allows for fuel economy standards to be increased each year if technology improves.

Source: AAA Mid-Atlantic's Daily Fuel Gauge Report