The federal government pays more than $100 million a year to employees who aren’t doing their actual government jobs, but rather working for unions representing government employees against management — with taxpayers essentially funding both sides of the bargaining table. 
For decades, the government has tracked and reported those figures, but the Biden administration has removed the reports.
Under the policy known as “official time,” hundreds of nominal government employees haven’t done anything but full-time union work in years, yet remain on the federal payroll. Not only is the policy expensive to taxpayers, but it also props up the power of unions by subsidizing their activities, giving them resources even if employees don’t support them enough to pay dues. Those unions fight against the firing of employees accused of misconduct, and advocate for policies that sometimes pit the interests of employees over the interests of taxpayers, such as resisting a return to in-person work.
The Office of Personnel Management has historically kept track of and published how the program is being used, including during the Obama administration. But the data has not been updated since 2019 — when the government shelled out for <a href="https://www.opm.gov/about-us/reports-publications/agency-reports/taxpayer-funded-union-time-fy-2019.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2.6 million hours</a>, or nearly 300 years&#8217; worth, of employee time that was actually spent on union business.
The Biden administration has even been secretive about its secrecy. In December, The Daily Wire asked OPM why the page listing the reports was missing, along with all historical reports except 2019, which can only be located via the search function. A spokesperson said, “Previous reports on official time are not currently available because OPM is reorganizing our website to improve navigation and customer experience.&#8221;
But months later, they remain gone. OPM refused to answer the question of whether OPM was still collecting the statistics, why it hasn’t published reports for the years since 2019, and whether The Daily Wire could review those reports even if they aren’t housed online. 
A report by the <a href="https://www.freedomfoundation.com/labor/biden-administration-covering-up-taxpayer-funded-union-activities-in-the-federal-workforce/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Freedom Foundation</a> questioned the accuracy of OPM’s explanation, saying that the factual information detailing how taxpayer money was spent was taken down around July 2023, the same month that OPM added a “Worker Empowerment” page boasting that the administration supports “policies, practices, and programs that promote worker power, worker organizing, and collective bargaining.”
The think tank said there is a difference between supporting unions and hiding public data in service of an agenda. “Despite differing views on the policy’s merits, recent presidential administrations of both parties have made regular attempts to at least measure the use of official time across the federal workforce,” it said.
On Thursday, in honor of Sunshine Week—a celebration of government transparency—Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) introduced a bill requiring the reports to be reinstated, called the Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Transparency Act.  She said the bill requires agencies to publish detailed records about the cost and justification of taxpayer-funded union work.
“I’m dragging shady spending into the light and exposing abuse of our dollars. Public service should always be about benefiting taxpayers, not bureaucrats. From failing to return to the office to wasting time on the job, we cannot allow the Biden administration to disregard critical reporting requirements and transparency measures. Every cent of Iowans&#8217; hard-earned money should be serving them, not bargaining for more tele-‘work,’” she said in a statement.
Ernst obtained limited data from the Small Business Administration showing that at that agency, official time hours rose from 3,200 in fiscal year 2020 to nearly 4,000 in fiscal year 2023, suggesting that across the government, official time expenses could be at record highs.
In 2014, the Washington Examiner found more than <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/1939047/too-big-to-manage-taxpayers-fund-top-dollar-federal-employee-union-reps-through-official-time/">500 employees</a> who did no or almost no work for their actual government jobs, despite drawing a full-time salary from taxpayers, because of official time. That includes 271 employees on full-time union release with the Department of Veterans Affairs, and 201 from the IRS.
Then-Sen. Tom Coburn said “I just don’t think the federal taxpayers ought to be paying for that… That’s what union dues are for. What’s irksome to me is that we are paying someone to be a pharmacist or a nurse, but they’re not doing that. They’re doing union work.”

Federal Employees Hold Rally Calling For End Of Government Shutdown

Biden Hides Public Records Showing How Much Taxpayers Are Paying Unions

Joe Biden

Labor Unions

Office of Personnel Management

Transparency

A Republican senator says that federal employees are still working from home as if the coronavirus pandemic was in full swing, and is demanding an investigation into how the widespread failure to get workers back into the office is impacting taxpayers.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) calls into question government claims that remote workers can be just as productive as coming into the office, and points to various inspector general reports to prove her point. One investigation into a Department of Commerce employee found that a government worker was paid for 730 hours of work that was instead spent &#8220;playing golf, shooting pool, and going to happy hour.&#8221;
&#8220;I know what working from home actually means,” Ernst said. “It’s not fair to let the responsibilities of running an agency—and the country—fall on the shoulders of the hardworking public servants who are showing up while others are out golfing on the taxpayer’s dime.&#8221;
Ernst&#8217;s call comes more than a year after President Joe Biden pledged in his 2022 State of the Union address that &#8220;the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.&#8221; But by that fall, only 5% of government employees swiped into the office on a typical day. This month, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/08/04/biden-end-remote-work-federal-employees#" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reiterated</a> the call, telling Cabinet members that it&#8217;s a &#8220;priority&#8221; that Biden expects them &#8220;aggressively execute&#8221; on in order to get &#8220;better results for the American people.&#8221;
There are some indications that federal employees who are working remotely might not be working at all.
A review of Department of Health and Human Services remote employees found that as many as <a href="https://functionalgovernment.org/internal-hhs-report-shows-20-30-of-workforce-may-not-have-been-working/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">30% did not even log in</a> to the agency&#8217;s email or computer systems on days they were &#8220;working&#8221; from home. Those findings were from 2020, the height of the coronavirus pandemic — when Americans presumably might have needed assistance from an agency with &#8220;Health&#8221; in its name.
In the private sector, companies have made the best of remote work by saving money on office costs. But federal agencies spend $5 billion a year to lease office buildings and $2 billion on upkeep, and the Government Accountability Office found that 75% or more of office space at the headquarters of 17 agencies is not being used.
The government also pays people different rates depending on whether their office is in a high-cost-of-living area or a low one — and has failed to update that pay structure to account for remote work. The government is still paying workers based on where their office is, even if that&#8217;s not where they live. That means bureaucrats could be drawing D.C. wages and living like kings in low cost of living areas, Ernst believes.
&#8220;These pay determinations should be re-evaluated, and possibly redefined, to save taxpayers money,&#8221; Ernst wrote.
Ernst <a href="https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/department_of_state_letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sent a letter</a> to every agency&#8217;s Inspector General asking them to use internet IP addresses and physical badge swipe-ins to determine what regions employees actually spend most of their time in, as well as how much additional pay they receive by being paid for the cost-of-living area of the headquarters building rather than where they live. She also asked how agencies&#8217; various metrics, such as delivery of service and wait times, have corresponded to the increase in remote work.
She suggests that since employees are already moving to lower-cost-of-living places, federal agency headquarters could be there, too. Ernst introduced a bill called Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement, or the <a href="https://www.ernst.senate.gov/news/press-releases/ernst-introduces-swamp-act-push-for-relocation-of-agency-headquarters-throughout-us" target="_blank" rel="noopener">SWAMP Act</a>, that would locate agencies in parts of the country with expertise in their topics — for example, the Department of Agriculture would be located in a farming state like Iowa.
She also asked the agencies to determine whether various metrics, such as delivery of service and wait times, have corresponded to the increase in remote work.
In some instances, people are already pointing the finger at absent employees for government failures. At the Atlanta Department of Veterans Affairs hospital, which has one of the longest wait times for medical care in the nation, one manager responsible for scheduling posted a picture of himself &#8220;working&#8221; in a bubble bath. The post led to criticism from another employee, who said, &#8220;It’s almost as if this employee is making a mockery of all the veterans. I can sit here in my tub and relax, and you just have to wait.”
Ernst says one of the veterans served by the hospital felt the consequences.
&#8220;One such veteran temporarily lost his eyesight while waiting six months for an appointment with an eye doctor at the Atlanta VA,&#8221; Ernst wrote.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/thousands-of-pandemic-unemployment-claims-listed-the-names-of-still-employed-government-workers-senator-says" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Thousands Of Pandemic Unemployment Claims Listed The Names Of Still-Employed Government Workers, Senator Says</a>

Fudge Rounds

Federal Workers Ignore Biden’s Call To Stop Working From Home — And Some Might Not Be Working At All

Coronavirus

Joni Ernst

Washington

On January 20, the very day he was inaugurated as President of the United States, Joe Biden issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-ethics-commitments-by-executive-branch-personnel/">executive order</a> on “Ethics Commitments by Executive Branch Personnel” in which he committed new appointees in every executive agency to take an ethics pledge. That pledge promised, “I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts,” and “I will not for a period of 2 years from the date of my appointment participate in any particular matter involving specific parties that is directly and substantially related to my former employer or former clients, including regulations and contracts.”
Yet Biden and his administration, which are heavily connected to labor unions across the country, granted waivers to two former union officials, claiming that the waivers were “in the public interest,” a phrase used in the executive order to give Biden the rationale for circumventing the aforementioned pledges by the prospective appointee.
The executive order states that a waiver may be granted by the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with the Counsel to the President, if it is determined “that the literal application of the restriction is inconsistent with the purposes of the restriction; or that it is in the public interest to grant the waiver.”
In March, the Biden administration granted a waiver to Alethea Predeoux to become a senior official in the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), as <a href="https://www.axios.com/bidens-ethics-union-labor-69aa2550-495e-422c-afce-07a80be0893e.html">Axios</a> reported. Predeoux had previously served as a chief lobbyist for the American Federation of Government Employees, which represents 700,000 federal workers. On March 15, OPM’s general counsel Lynn Eisenberg issued a memo stating, “Ms. Predeoux has been a registered lobbyist for AFGE for six years. Prior to joining AFGE, she served for approximately five years as a registered lobbyist for Paralyzed Veterans of America. While she has lobbied the Hill on OPM-related issues, she has not directly lobbied OPM,” <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9558503/Biden-administration-grants-ethics-waivers-two-former-labor-lobbyists.html">the Daily Mail</a> noted.
In late April, OMB <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Celeste-Drake-Pledge-Waiver.pdf">issued a waiver</a> for Celeste Drake, who had previously served as Executive in Charge of Government Affairs at the Directors Guild of America as well as Trade and Globalization Specialist with the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of unions in the United States.
OMB general counsel Samuel Nagenstos wrote:
<blockquote>I have determined that this waiver is necessary and that it is in the public interest to enable you to effectively carry out your duties as the Director of the Made in America office at the Office of Management and Budget. … Managing an ongoing recusal for you would significantly and negatively affect several of OMB’s important missions. The successful accomplishment of the mission of the newly created Made in America Office relies on extensive, open, and collaborative communications within OMB, between OMB and other parts of the Executive and Legislative Branches of the U.S. Government, and between OMB and non-governmental entities including labor organizations.</blockquote>
Alfredo Ortiz, president of the Job Creators Network, told Axios, “It&#8217;s no surprise that President Biden&#8217;s union boss appointments have resulted in anti-worker policies like the PRO Act and the $15 minimum wage.” Katharine Cooksey, the spokeswoman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-waives-ethics-rules-for-former-union-bosses-who-now-work-in-white-house">Fox News</a>,  “The pattern of corruption between Democrats and big union bosses is obvious – just follow the money and follow the staff.” she said.
Axios noted, “Biden has drawn extensively from union ranks to staff his transition and administration while touting the importance of organized labor to his agenda and the country generally. Labor leaders enjoyed posts on the transition beachhead teams for <a href="https://aflcio.org/2020/11/12/biden-taps-working-people-champions-transition-teams" data-vars-link-text="most major federal agencies" data-vars-click-url="https://aflcio.org/2020/11/12/biden-taps-working-people-champions-transition-teams" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link">most major federal agencies</a>. Biden then tapped former union officials for senior posts in agencies including the <a href="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/biden-taps-former-construction-union-leader-marty-walsh-to-lead-labor-depar/593050/" data-vars-link-text="Labor Department" data-vars-click-url="https://www.constructiondive.com/news/biden-taps-former-construction-union-leader-marty-walsh-to-lead-labor-depar/593050/" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link">Labor Department</a>, the <a href="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-biden-harris-appointees" data-vars-link-text="Education Department" data-vars-click-url="https://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-announces-biden-harris-appointees" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link">Education Department</a>, the <a href="https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/organization/leadership/a-ashley-tabaddor-chief-counsel-office-of-chief-counsel" data-vars-link-text="Department of Homeland Security" data-vars-click-url="https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/organization/leadership/a-ashley-tabaddor-chief-counsel-office-of-chief-counsel" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link">Department of Homeland Security</a> and the <a href="https://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2021/01/21/Joe-Biden-James-Frederick-United-Steelworkers-workplace-safety-official-OSHA-COVID-19-pittsburgh/stories/202101210107" data-vars-link-text="Occupational Safety and Health Administration" data-vars-click-url="https://www.post-gazette.com/business/career-workplace/2021/01/21/Joe-Biden-James-Frederick-United-Steelworkers-workplace-safety-official-OSHA-COVID-19-pittsburgh/stories/202101210107" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link">Occupational Safety and Health Administration</a>.”
Just before he left office, former President Donald Trump <a href="https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-revocation-executive-order-13770/">revoked</a> his <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2017/02/03/2017-02450/ethics-commitments-by-executive-branch-appointees">2017 executive order</a> that stated that “Every appointee in every executive agency appointed on or after January 20, 2017” should commit to a pledge stating, “I will not, within 5 years after the termination of my employment as an appointee in any executive agency in which I am appointed to serve, engage in lobbying activities with respect to that agency.”
<a href="https://www.rollcall.com/2021/01/20/biden-trump-take-dueling-approaches-to-ethics-lobbying/">Roll Call</a> noted, “He isn’t the only president to try to ease restrictions on his former staffers’ post-government job options. On his way out of the presidency, Bill Clinton took a similar move of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2000/12/29/clinton-reverses-5-year-ban-on-lobbying-by-appointees/e5a0571f-5c54-4988-adc6-5571a7557e83/">revoking his own executive order</a> barring his aides from lobbying for five years.”

7B60DCFB-A747-4DAD-949F-21BF1ACAD66D_1_201_a

‘The Pattern Of Corruption Between Democrats And Big Union Bosses Is Obvious’: Biden Uses Waivers In His Ethics Pledge To Appoint Former Union Officials

Office of Management and Budget (OMB)

The Trump administration has been looking into dismantling the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and appears to be moving closer toward accomplishing something no president since Reagan has.
The last time a government agency was closed down was in 1981, The Washington Post reported. At that time, congress shuttered the Community Services Administration and rolled its responsibilities into the Department of Health and Human Services. The transition was rough, so it is important for the Trump administration to carefully examine how to move forward.
The Federal News Network (FNN) <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/opm/2018/06/trump-reorganization-plan-may-spell-major-changes-for-opm/">first announced</a> the administration&#8217;s plans to reorganize the government in June 2018. At the time, the initiative looked like it would shrink OPM, but it now appears that the entire department would be eliminated and its functions shifted elsewhere. Last week, <a href="https://federalnewsnetwork.com/opm/2019/04/democrats-demand-more-details-on-proposed-opm-gsa-merger/">FNN reported</a> that Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee want more details about the proposed elimination.
&#8220;To date, the administration has failed to provide the committee with the plans or any detailed justification,&#8221; committee Chairman Gerry Connolly (D-VA) <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/sites/democrats.oversight.house.gov/files/FY%202020%20OPM%20GSA%20Reorg%20Appropriations%20Letter.pdf">wrote</a> to the leadership of the Appropriations Committee and Financial Service and General Government Subcommittee.
Connolly also demanded &#8220;written legal analysis of the authorities needed for the reorganization.&#8221;
OPM staff were reportedly briefed on the future of the department in March, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/if-trump-has-his-way-this-major-federal-agency-is-on-the-way-out/2019/04/09/935e2dfe-54c0-11e9-9136-f8e636f1f6df_story.html">according to The Washington Post</a>.
&#8220;The agency would be pulled apart and its functions divided among three other departments. An executive order directing parts of the transition by the fall is in the final stages of review, administration officials said, with an announcement by President Trump likely by summer,&#8221; the Post reported.
OPM is essentially a human resources department for the government&#8217;s civilian workforce. The agency employs 5,565 people. Margaret Weichart, the department&#8217;s acting director, told the Post the agency is &#8220;fundamentally not set up for success, structurally.&#8221;
Dissolving the agency could be a boost to Trump, who has not been able to change the bureaucracy embedded in the federal government. The final plan is still not finalized, however.
The Post reported that the agency&#8217;s functions would be spread out among three other departments: The Defense Department would take over background investigations, the General Service Administration would take over human resources, and the Office of Management and Budget would take over &#8220;high-level policies governing federal employees.&#8221;
Though it was not extensively covered (as it would have been under a Republican president) and quickly ushered out of the news cycle, OPM <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/opm-hack-deeper-publicly-acknowledged-undetected-year-sources/story?id=31689059">suffered a major breach</a> in 2015 that resulted in 21.5 million people (including people as tangentially related to the federal government as the family members of those who had undergone federal background checks) having their personal information stolen.

Trump Administration Looking To Dissolve Major Government Department

Trump Administration

A New York dentist learned that you can serve as a military dentist unless you&#8217;re a Jew.
Bret Stephens writes in <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/a-security-concern-due-to-divided-loyalties-1450310897">The Wall Street Journal</a> about Dr. Gershon Pincus, who wanted to become a military dentist after having a successful private practice for 35 years because he could &#8220;think of no better way to experience the sunset of my career than by using my professional skills as a dentist to assist those who have chosen to serve in the United States military.&#8221; 
In his interview for the position, Pincus was open about the fact that he has family in Israel, including his mother, who has dementia, as well as two of his siblings. He also had a son that briefly served in the Israeli army before dying of a drug overdose. Otherwise, he has no friends in Israel and no financial stake in the country. In fact, the security investigation deemed Pincus as someone who was not &#8220;vulnerable to blackmail, extortion, coercion or duress.&#8221;
Despite the investigation&#8217;s results, Pincus was denied security clearance due to &#8220;divided loyalties&#8221; to Israel. The Office of Personnel Management explained:
<blockquote>
&#8220;You have weekly telephone contact with your mother and brother in Israel. You added your mother, sister and brother may have contact with neighbors in Israel. Foreign contacts and interests may be a security concern due to divided loyalties or foreign financial interests, may be manipulated or induced to help a foreign person, group, organization or government in a way that is not in U.S. interests, or is vulnerable to pressure or coercion by foreign interests.&#8221;
</blockquote>
Pincus&#8217;s denial of security clearance because of &#8220;divided loyalties&#8221; to Israel is a part of a pattern in the Obama administration, as they have denied 58 people security clearances for similar reasons, according to Stephens.
Stephens continued, &#8220;The slenderness of the evidence by which Dr. Pincus is being denied his clearance (and thus his job) suggests the level of scrutiny to which any applicant with the slightest Israeli connection is subjected. In one 2014 case, briefly described in the database, a candidate was refused clearance because a sister-in-law serves in the Israeli military.&#8221;
Sam Gluck explains at <a href="http://jpupdates.com/2015/12/17/brooklyn-jewish-dentist-a-security-concern-for-divided-loyalties/">Jewish Political News and Updates</a> that &#8220;divided loyalties&#8221; is an anti-Semitic slur.
<blockquote>
&#8220;Foreign contacts and interests may be a security concern due to divided loyalties &#8230;&#8221;
Office of Personnel Management
</blockquote>
&#8220;The term was used in the infamous Dreyfus Affair in France in the 19th century and in Stalin era Soviet Union. As recently as the 1990&#8217;s and 2000&#8217;s the term was applied to a group of Jewish neo-conservatives or &#8216;Neo-Cons&#8217; also called &#8216;Israel-firsters&#8217; who were accused of seeking to undermine Arab nations hostile to Israel,&#8221; Gluck wrote.
Pincus being denied security clearance to work as a military dentist is yet another example of the Obama administration&#8217;s <a href="http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2014/04/28/anti-semitism-obama-admin/">anti-Semitism.</a>

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Office of Personnel Management

Biden Hides Public Records Showing How Much Taxpayers Are Paying Unions

Federal Workers Ignore Biden’s Call To Stop Working From Home — And Some Might Not Be Working At All

‘The Pattern Of Corruption Between Democrats And Big Union Bosses Is Obvious’: Biden Uses Waivers In His Ethics Pledge To Appoint Former Union Officials

Trump Administration Looking To Dissolve Major Government Department

You Can Serve As a Military Dentist. Unless You’re a Jew.