[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 114 (Thursday, August 5, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1785]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        IN RECOGNITION OF DEDICATED SERVICE BY MR. ROBERT TOBIAS

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                       HON. CONSTANCE A. MORELLA

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 27, 1999

  Mrs. MORELLA. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate Robert Tobias on his 
outstanding service as President of the National President of the 
National Treasury Employees Union and wish him continued success as he 
engages in other professional challenges. I am proud to count Bob as my 
constituent and I thank him for the assistance he has given me on 
behalf of federal employees.
  During the past 31 years that he has spent with the NTEU, Bob has 
been an effective advocate of federal employees, working his way up 
from staff attorney, to general counsel, to executive vice president, 
and finally, in 1983, to National President. Over these 31 years, NTEU 
has grown from 20,000 members in one agency to 155,000 members in 22 
agencies.
  During his impressive career, Bob received numerous Presidential 
appointments and awards: President Bush appointed him to the Federal 
Employees Salary Council; and President Clinton appointed him to both 
the National Partnership Council and the Commission to Restructure the 
IRS.
  Bob also has been at the forefront of recent government reform 
efforts through his membership in the National Commission on 
Restructuring the IRS. The Commission's work was the basis for the most 
far-reaching changes in the agency in nearly 50 years. Currently, he 
has been nominated to serve on the IRS Oversight Board and is awaiting 
Senate confirmation.
  Bob's leadership style is firm but fair, and he is on the cutting 
edge of new developments in labor relations. I have worked personally 
with Bob on many issues, and often times we met with great success.
  For example:
  We collaborated on establishing the Fair Share formula, which 
prevented a large FEHBP monthly premium increase, thereby insulating 
federal employees and retirees from the full rise in health care 
premiums.
  We worked to strike Medical Savings Accounts as an FEHBP option MSA's 
would have resulted in ``cherry picking,'' and increased FEHBP premiums 
by siphoning off relatively healthy enrolles into catastrophic/MSA 
plans.
  Bob's expertise on these issues was invaluable.
  A glimpse into some of his other accomplishments further illuminates 
the reasons why Bob is such a great source of information and 
expertise. Through collective bargaining, Bob reached important 
agreements regarding: Quality of work life; developing the first 
national alternative work schedule; and child care facilities.
  Bob was also instrumental in the Hatch Act reform, which allows 
federal employees to exercise their rights to participate in political 
activity.
  Bob's work does not stop with advocacy on behalf of the NTEU. All 
federal employees benefit from his efforts, at the bargaining table and 
in the courtroom. He has used litigation to protect federal employee 
rights in a number of landmark cases. For example:
  Bob worked on a Supreme Court victory just this year that established 
the right of federal employees and their collective bargaining 
representatives to initiate midterm bargaining;
  Bob successfully sued Presidents Nixon in 1975 and Reagan in 1981 to 
obtain back pay for federal employees; and
  Bob achieved a federal court victory that gave federal employees the 
right to engage in informational picketing.
  I wish Bob the best of luck in his teaching and writing endeavors. 
His recommendation for the next National President, NTEU Executive Vice 
President Colleen Kelly, has a tough act to follow. The wonderful staff 
at NTEU will ease her transition, while Bob's legacy will benefit 
federal employees for generations. I heartily thank Bob for his 
devotion and service to civil servants. Shakespeare could have had Bob 
Tobias in mind when he wrote in Henry VIII: ``The force of his own 
merit makes his way.''

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