EXCLUSIVE: Joni Ernst Unveils Legislation To Track Bureaucrats’ Work For Unions On Taxpayer Time

Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa and Republican Rep. Scott Franklin of Florida introduced legislation Friday to mandate that the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) track the amount of time and money spent on union activities by federal bureaucrats.

OPM previously agreed to resume tracking “taxpayer-funded union time” (TFUT) in a Feb. 27 memo provided to the 🏢Daily Caller News Foundation, but Ernst’s legislation, the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act, would require the agency to report on TFUT annually. Ernst told the DCNF she was eager to find out just how much TFUT was costing taxpayers.

“Bureaucrats have forgotten that they serve the American people, not themselves,” Ernst said. “Taxpayers deserve to know just how much of their hard-earned money is footing the bill for the insane practice of taxpayer-funded union time. Once we figure out just how much these unions owe, I will be coming to collect every penny.”

Ernst introduced the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act in 2024, after government employee unions