II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1170
To require the heads of Federal agencies to submit to Congress an annual
report regarding official time authorized under title 5, United States
Code, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Ms. E
RNST(for herself and Mrs. BLACKBURN) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Secu-
rity and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the heads of Federal agencies to submit to Con-
gress an annual report regarding official time authorized
under title 5, United States Code, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Taxpayer-Funded 4
Union Time Transparency Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. ANNUAL REPORT REGARDING LABOR MATTERS. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
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(1) AGENCY; COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREE -1
MENT; EMPLOYEE; LABOR ORGANIZATION .—The 2
terms ‘‘agency’’, ‘‘collective bargaining agreement’’, 3
‘‘employee’’, and ‘‘labor organization’’ have the 4
meanings given those terms in section 7103 of title 5
5, United States Code. 6
(2) S
ECTION 7131.—The term ‘‘section 7131’’ 7
means section 7131 of title 5, United States Code. 8
(b) A
NNUALREPORT.—Not later than June 30 of 9
each year that begins after the year in which this Act is 10
enacted, the head of each agency shall submit to Congress, 11
and post on the public website of the agency, a report that 12
details the following for the year covered by the report: 13
(1) The total cost to the agency of official time 14
authorized under section 7131. 15
(2) A detailed explanation of the purpose for 16
which the agency made each authorization of official 17
time under section 7131. 18
(3) With respect to each employee of the agency 19
for whom official time was authorized under section 20
7131— 21
(A) the position and annual rate of basic 22
pay of the employee; 23
(B) the value of any bonus awarded to the 24
employee; 25
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(C) the cost to the agency of providing 1
benefits (including health insurance, retirement 2
contributions, and any other financial benefit 3
other than basic pay and a bonus) to the em-4
ployee; 5
(D) the total number of hours the em-6
ployee spent on activities for which the official 7
time was authorized; and 8
(E) the exact percentage that the number 9
of hours described in subparagraph (D) rep-10
resented with respect to the total number of 11
hours worked by the employee for the applicable 12
year. 13
(4) The total amount of compensation paid to 14
employees of the agency to— 15
(A) negotiate collective bargaining agree-16
ments; 17
(B) negotiate agreements between the 18
agency and a labor organization to address 19
matters of employment with respect to which a 20
collective bargaining agreement does not apply; 21
(C) process grievances pursuant to proce-22
dures established under a collective bargaining 23
agreement; and 24
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(D) engage in mediation, arbitration, or 1
impasse resolution in connection with collective 2
bargaining disputes. 3
(5) The total amount of fees paid by the agency 4
to arbitrators hearing grievances pursuant to proce-5
dures described in paragraph (4)(C). 6
(6) The total amount paid by the agency for 7
travel and lodging expenses incurred by agency staff 8
(including employees for whom official time was au-9
thorized under section 7131 and representatives of 10
the agency) who were traveling for the purposes of 11
negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. 12
(7) The total amount of expenses paid the 13
agency (or with respect to which a labor organiza-14
tion has requested reimbursement from the agency) 15
for retaining experts to assist in the negotiation of 16
a collective bargaining agreement. 17
(8) The total amount of expenses paid by the 18
agency (or with respect to which a labor organiza-19
tion has requested reimbursement from the agency) 20
for retaining factfinders, mediators, or arbitrators to 21
settle a dispute arising under a collective bargaining 22
agreement. 23
(9) The total number of hours for which the 24
agency permitted labor organizations, or employees 25
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of the agency for whom official time was authorized 1
under section 7131, to use agency property at no 2
cost or at a discounted rate. 3
(10) The amount of real estate made available 4
by the agency to labor organizations, which shall be 5
measured by square footage and in consultation with 6
the Administrator of General Services. 7
(11) The total monetary value of the uses de-8
scribed in paragraphs (9) and (10), which shall in-9
clude— 10
(A) the cost of maintaining real estate 11
made available to a labor organization; and 12
(B) the cost of acquiring each asset made 13
available to a labor organization. 14
(12) The amount of each reimbursement col-15
lected by the agency with respect to a use described 16
in paragraph (9) or (10). 17
(13) The total amount of the expenses (includ-18
ing the cost of administrative support and the cost 19
of acquiring technology) incurred by the agency for 20
purposes of activities conducted by a labor organiza-21
tion or a private individual with respect to official 22
time authorized by the agency under section 7131. 23
(14) An explanation of any increase, as com-24
pared to the report submitted in the previous year, 25
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in the amount of official time authorized by the 1
agency under section 7131. 2
(15) The total amount of penalties levied 3
against the agency relating to collective bargaining 4
with a labor organization, including the value of ar-5
bitration awards paid to, or monetary settlements 6
with, a labor organization or a member of a labor 7
organization. 8
(c) GAO A
UDITS.—The Comptroller General of the 9
United States shall, not less frequently than once every 10
4 years— 11
(1) audit the accounting practices that each 12
agency uses to document the items described in sub-13
section (b); and 14
(2) if the Comptroller General finds, in carrying 15
out paragraph (1), that an agency is not using gen-16
erally accepted accounting principles, at minimum, 17
brief the relevant authorizing committees of Con-18
gress regarding that failure by the agency. 19
Æ
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