Over the last month, attacks on the use of official time have ramped up on Capitol Hill as lawmakers respond to the recently released report from the Office of Personnel Management (OMB) on the use of official time in the federal government for fiscal year 2016. (Below, Rep. Jamie Raskin with Chapter MD1 members.)
On May 16, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on the Workforce for the 21st Century that was intended to examine the workforce modernization provisions contained within the President’s Management Agenda released earlier this year. During the hearing, lawmakers pressed witnesses on positive ways to uplift the federal workforce in light of recent attacks on their pay and benefits. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) discussed his visit earlier this month with PASS members and highlighted the importance of official time and what it allows federal employees, including management, to accomplish together.
“The Professional Aviation Safety Specialists thought it was critical to do their job that all the employees who were represented were at the table when they’re developing new projects. Management and the PASS employees expressed that official time was critical to absorbing the shock of a lot of the cuts and allows representatives of the employees to sit down with management to facilitate that transition ahead of time,” said Raskin.
On May 24, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held another hearing titled “Union Time on the People’s Dime: A Closer Look at Official Time,” where lawmakers once again questioned the importance and cost of the use of official time within the federal government. During the hearing there were several heated exchanges between lawmakers and witnesses in addition to inflammatory statements about the cost of official time.
In a statement submitted to the committee, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) disputed that official time was “union time,” saying the time was not used to recruit union members, hold union meetings, campaign or hold elections for union office, or collect dues. Rather, AFGE said, “it is time spent representing workers who are the victims of illegal discrimination, illegal harassment, or other prohibited personnel practices.”
Some of federal employees’ strongest allies in Congress used the hearing to defend employees and the hard work they perform on behalf of the American public. “The administration is launching a multi-front attack on our independent civil service,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.). “These actions will harm middle-class workers who dedicate their lives to public service, impair our ability to recruit and retain the best and brightest, and degrade the services that our government delivers to the American people.”
It should be noted that no federal employee representatives were invited to speak at the hearing.
In other news, PASS joined other federal employee unions this week to fight two harmful attacks on the rights of federal workers including an attempt to privatize portions of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and an attack on the use of official time at the Department of Defense (DoD).
PASS signed onto a letter sent to Capitol Hill urging senators to oppose the VA MISSION Act (S. 2372). “S. 2372, which passed the House last week, gives the VA Secretary the authority to privatize and dismantle broad swaths of the VA health care system. Sadly, while S. 2372 is titled the VA MISSION Act, it does nothing to help the VA fulfill its mission to veterans,” the letter states. “This bill outsources primary care to the private sector, authorizes the closure of service lines, and fails to address the chronic and prolonged issue of understaffing that is currently plaguing the VA.”
Unfortunately, the legislation passed the Senate by a vote of 92–5 and is expected to be signed by the president by Memorial Day.
Additionally, this week, the House approved an amendment from Rep. Dennis Ross (R-Fla.) to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2019 (NDAA) to require OPM to submit to Congress a report on official time activities by federal employees. PASS joined the United DoD Workers Coalition in sending a letter to the House warning lawmakers of the chilling effect this amendment could have on federal employees.
“Official time is essential to ensure that federal employees have a voice at the worksite—those who belong to unions as well as those who do not,” the coalition stated. “Employee representatives use official time to address issues such as working conditions and workplace safety; protect employees from discrimination on the basis of race, gender, age, sexual orientation, and other factors unrelated to job performance; and explore training and educational opportunities.”
While the Ross amendment was successfully added to the House version of the NDAA legislation, PASS is working closely with our allies to fight its inclusion in the Senate version.
PASS will continue to work with our allies in the federal employee community to educate lawmakers on the importance of official time and fight attacks to reduce or eliminate its use.
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