Press Releases

Congressman Scott Franklin (FL-18) reintroduced the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act to increase transparency and accountability for “taxpayer-funded union time” (TFUT) by requiring federal agencies publicly report how taxpayer dollars are used to subsidize union-related activities during official work hours. Many of these activities often contradict the interests of the American people. Senator Ernst (R-IA) introduced companion legislation in the Senate.

"Taxpayers shouldn’t pay for empty federal office buildings or for federal employees to unionize on the clock. It’s just common sense — Americans deserve a full, detailed account of how bureaucrats use both their official time and office space for union-related work,” said Congressman Scott Franklin. “This is exactly the kind of waste and abuse my friend, Senator Joni Ernst, and I are fighting to root out alongside the Trump Administration. The President was right to order federal employees back to the office —but if taxpayers are footing the bill, workers must be accountable for how they spend their official time. Our bill will provide critical transparency and expose entrenched bureaucrats who have been skirting these important reporting requirements for far too long."

“Bureaucrats have forgotten that they serve the American people not themselves,” said Senator Joni Ernst. “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.”

Franklin and Ernst first introduced the measure in 2024. This Congress, the pair strengthened the legislation, expanding the scope of reporting requirements. Specifically, the bill requires each federal agency submit detailed annual reports disclosing:

1.    The total cost of official time authorized under federal law;

2.    The purpose behind each authorization of official time;

3.    Individual employee data, including position, pay, bonuses, benefits and the number and percentage of hours spent on union duties;

4.    Total compensation provided for union-related work such as collective bargaining, grievance handling, mediation and arbitration;

5.    Costs associated with travel, lodging and consultants involved in union negotiations;

6.    The square footage and monetary value of government property or real estate provided to unions;

7.    Any reimbursements collected by the agency for such use; and

8.    A year-over-year comparison of official time use, including justifications for any increases.

Additionally, the bill requires the Government Accountability Office to conduct audits of agency practices at least once every four years to ensure compliance and adherence to generally accepted accounting principles.

According to the most recent report from Fiscal Year 2019, American taxpayers spent at least $160 million on TFUT — hours during which federal employees were paid to negotiate union perks rather than fulfill their primary responsibility of serving the American people. Federal law allows federal employees to represent labor organizations and perform other non-agency business while getting paid by American taxpayers. 

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) used to publish annual reports detailing the cost to taxpayers of each agency’s use of TFUT. However, the Biden Administration failed to publish any updated data and removed a decade’s worth of previously available records detailing federal employees’ time spent on union activities. Earlier this month, the Trump Administration agreed to direct the OPM to resume tracking and publicly disclosing the total cost of TFUT across the federal government.

The pair has fought this issue on multiple fronts. Just last year, Franklin and Ernst wrote Biden Acting Labor Secretary, Julie Su, demanding answers about federal employees protesting stricter telework policies in-person outside their office . The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), which represents 45,000 federal employees, organized the event.

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