Both of Tennessee’s U.S. senators were part of a letter that questioned the removal of an Office of Personnel Management (OPM) web page that formerly provided the number of work hours used as “official time” for union activities since 2013.
Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) led a group of 10 senators in a letter sent December 14, 2023, “to express concern” over OPM’s decision “to remove a page from its website that has documented, for over a decade, the amount of ‘official time’ taken by employees of federal agencies.”
“It is also concerning that under this administration, OPM appears to have stopped creating official time reports which have been published since 1998,” wrote Blackburn on behalf of the senators. “The American people deserve to know how much ‘official time’ is being conducted and funded by their hard-earned taxpayer dollars.”
Blackburn signed the letter, which also included signatures from Senators Bill Hagerty (R-TN), Mike Braun (R-IN), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ted Budd (R-NC), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Mike Lee (R-UT), Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), James Lankford (R-OK), and John Barrasso (R-WY).
In remarks made via a spokesman to Government Executive on December 20, 2023, the agency acknowledged the disappearance of the web page, and claimed it was “casualty” of a website redesign for the government agency.
However, OPM did not answer other questions from Blackburn and the senators, including when the OPM intends to issue its next official time report. Likewise, the agency did not publicly respond when asked for its “most up-to-date estimate for yearly ‘official time’ conducted by federal employees” or when these estimates will be made public.
The outlet also disputed the senators’ definition of “official time.” Instead, the outlet said, “It refers to time during which union officials in the federal workforce are paid to engage in representation activities, such as negotiating with management or representing colleagues in disciplinary hearings and grievance proceedings.” Other “Internal union activities, like soliciting people to become a member or taking part in union elections, are not eligible for compensation via official time,” the outlet said.
Additionally, only the 1998 and 2019 “official time” reports were legally required, Government Executive reported. The reports were voluntarily submitted for most of the agency’s history, but their issuance became “sporadic” under the Obama administration.
Still, the senators noted that the last OPM “public time” report, issued in 2019 after former President Donald Trump mandated it with an executive order, “approximated that federal employees spent at least $2.6 million hours on labor union activities, which equate to roughly $135 million in federal taxpayer dollars.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Both RINOs, need stronger leaders
If they really dig, they will find the “”official time” includes working on Democrat campaigns.
Ten Senators signed the letter? Were the other Ninety having sex with interns and staffers in conference rooms? Unions within the government should be eliminated. They serve no legitimate function of behalf of the public..