Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Millions in Federal Employees Doing Union Work Instead of Government Jobs
• Federal government pays over $100 million a year for employees to work full-time on union activities instead of their actual government jobs.
• Biden administration removed historical reports tracking this "official time" spending and has not updated data since 2019.
• In 2019, taxpayers covered 2.6 million hours (nearly 300 years) of employee time spent on union work.
• Senator Ernst introduced bill requiring reinstatement of detailed official time reports to improve transparency around this taxpayer-funded union work.
• Historical data shows steady increases in official time hours at agencies like SBA, suggesting current costs could be at record highs government-wide.