WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has introduced legislation that would ban “official time” for federal employee unions.
Lee’s proposal – dubbed the nearly unpronounceable No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act – was introduced in the 119th Congress on April 7. That legislation would prohibit the misuse of taxpayers’ dollars for union-related activities by federal employees during their regular work hours.
“American taxpayers shouldn’t have to fund union organizing,” according to Lee. “Federal employees should be working full-time for the American people when they’re on the clock.”
Since the enactment of the Civil Service Reform Act in 1978, Utah’s senior senator explains, the practice known as “official time” has allowed federal employees to be compensated for hours spent on union-related activities and arguing cases before the Federal Labor Relations Authority.
The federal payroll lists some 3 million employees, including more than 26,000 here in Utah with an average annual salary of slightly less than $100,000.
The number of those employees who are union members has grown steadily during the Biden administration. In 2023, for example, federal union membership jumped by 62,000, from 970,000 to 1.032 million.
Until recently, federal employees were considered to be immune from evaluations and protected from undue political influence or reprisal.
As of April 1, however, more than 24,000 workers at 18 federal agencies had been fired as part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to shrink the size of the government.
In addition to those who’ve been fired, 75,000 federal workers have accepted early retirement and/or buyout offers.
It’s unclear when those dismissals will stand, however, in the face of district court rulings that those employees must be reinstated. Trump administration lawyers are appealing those rulings.
Lee’s proposed No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act would ban federal employees from engaging in union work — including representing collective bargaining units and advancing union causes – while being paid by the taxpayers.
The cost of union activities by federal workers to the American taxpayer is significant, according to Lee’s staff members in Washington.
A 2016 study by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported that federal employees spent 3.6 million hours on union-related business at a cost of more than $177 million.
Under the first Trump administration, that number dropped to an average of 2.6 million hours costing nearly $135 million.
But no effort was made to estimate the cost of federal union activities during the Biden administration from 2021 to 2024, creating a transparency gap in the current use of official time.
Companion legislation to the No Union Time on the Taxpayer’s Dime Act is being introduced in the House of Representatives by U.S. Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA).
Lee’s proposed legislation is being supported by the Heritage Action group, Americans for Prosperity and the National Right to Work Committee.
“Even Democratic leaders like President Franklin D. Roosevelt thought that unions for federal employees shouldn’t existing in the first place,” Lee argues. “So President Trump is taking strong steps to rein-in overpowered public sector unions.”