EXCLUSIVE: Trump Admin Agrees To Put Taxpayer-Funded Union Work Back Under Microscope After Joni Ernst Request

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) will again report on how much time and money federal employees spend on union activity after a hiatus during the Biden administration following a request from Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa.

Ernst and Republican Rep. Michael Cloud of Texas urged OPM to resume reporting taxpayer-funded union time (TFUT), also known as “official time,” when Ernst introduced the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025” on Feb. 11. Ernst praised the Trump administration for the decision, as revealed in a Feb. 27 memo provided to the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation, in which OPM Acting Director Charles Eskell directed agencies to resume tracking TFUT.

“I am thrilled to see the Trump administration restart the reporting of taxpayer-funded union time, so the American people know just how much money bureaucrats are paid not to work,” Ernst told the DCNF. “Federal employees should be serving taxpayers, not themselves, during the workday. If they want to engage in union activity, they need to refund taxpayers for every last penny.”

The Feb. 27 memo orders federal agencies to provide information on the job positions held by employees carrying out union activities on taxpayer time, whether or not they engaged in telework, the total number of hours employees spent on union time and information on the use of government materials and office space.