"YES" on Hice Amendment to Stop Abuses of "Official Time"
"YES" on Hice Amendment to Stop Abuses of "Official Time"
This week, the House will vote on an amendment offered by Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) to the FY16 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act (H.R. 2029). The amendment would prohibit any funds in the act from going to pay federal employees for union activities.
As The Heritage Foundation explains, "official time" is the practice of federal employees being paid, not for doing their jobs, but for engaging in union activities such as negotiating collective bargaining agreements, filing complaints, and even lobbying Congress.
In 2010, Federal employees spent 3.1 million hours on official time, costing taxpayers $137 million. As Heritage's James Sherk said, "Paying federal employees to do union work interferes with providing the services the taxpayers are paying them to perform." Federal employees are free to engage in union activities on their own time and they are free to use union resources and dues to fund those activities, but public, taxpayer dollars should be used for public, not private, ends.
Heritage Action supports the Hice Amendment and will include it as a key vote on our legislative scorecard.
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"YES" on Hice Amendment to Stop Abuses of "Official Time"