The Republican-led House Committee on Education and the Workforce sent a trio of letters Wednesday morning demanding that the Biden-Harris administration provide information on how government unions are using taxpayer resources to advance their interests.
Federal employees currently are allowed to use paid time during their workdays to engage in union-related business, like labor activism or filing grievances, in an arrangement called “official time.” The Biden-Harris administration has broken with historical precedent and failed to produce a report on how federal employees are using their “official time,” even going as far as to allegedly pull down old reports. Now, Republican House Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx is requesting that three federal agencies provide Congress with information about how much in taxpayer-funded wages employees have received to engage in union activism, how long employees spent on such activities and what they did with their official time in a series of letters obtained exclusively by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
“The Biden-Harris administration has also covered up the practice of ‘official time,’ which permits federal employees to engage in union activities during work hours instead of focusing on the public service they were hired to do,” the committee’s letter to the Department of Labor reads. “Federal agencies and unions negotiate over issues most taxpayers would consider a waste of time and attention. Examples include the addition of 14 inches in the height of cubicle desk panels, designated smoking areas on an otherwise tobacco-free campus; and federal employees’ right to wear shorts, sweatpants and spandex at work.”
The House Workforce Committee has also requested that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) disclose to Congress how their employees are using their official time.
During the 2019 fiscal year, the last year for which data is available, on-the-clock union activism conducted by federal employees cost taxpayers $135 million, according to an Office of Personnel Management report. Federal employees spent 2.6 million hours, roughly 296 years, engaging in union-related activities instead of doing their jobs.
“Taxpayers deserve federal agencies that spend every ounce of their efforts to fulfill their missions as created by Congress,” the committee’s letter reads.
Public unions, including those representing federal employees, overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party.
The top 20 recipients of public union funds this election cycle have been Democrats and virtually all public unions give primarily to Democratic or liberal causes, according to OpenSecrets. Roughly 60% of contributions from federal workers went to Joe Biden during the 2020 election, including 91% of donations from DOL workers and 85% of donations from people employed by the Department of Justice, according to Government Executive.
In addition to compensating federal employees for their union activities, the federal government is also on the hook to cover costs related to collective bargaining, according to the letters.
The House Workforce Committee, for instance, is requesting that the trio of agencies disclose the total amount of taxpayer dollars that went toward retaining experts for use in union negotiations, travel, lodging expenses, administrative costs for collective bargaining and the market cost of government-owned office space provided to unions.
The agencies use “significant amounts of taxpayers’ money to promote the interests of federal employee unions” that could be used to “implement programs that would benefit the American people,” according to the letters. The three government bodies have until Oct. 24 to respond to the committee’s requests.
“We have received the letter,” an EEOC spokesperson told the DCNF. “We will continue to work with our partners in Congress to prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal employment opportunity for all.”
The DOL and NLRB did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
(Featured Image Media Credit: Flickr/Architect of the Capitol)
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