II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 511
To amend chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, to charge labor organiza-
tions for the agency resources and employee time used by such labor
organizations, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY11, 2025
Ms. E
RNST(for herself and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To amend chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, to
charge labor organizations for the agency resources and
employee time used by such labor organizations, and
for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Protecting Taxpayers’ 4
Wallets Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. CHARGING LABOR ORGANIZATIONS FOR USE OF 1
FEDERAL RESOURCES. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter IV of chapter 71 of 3
title 5, United States Code, is amended by inserting after 4
section 7135 the following: 5
‘‘§ 7136. Charging labor organizations for use of Fed-6
eral resources 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
‘‘(1) A
GENCY BUSINESS.—The term ‘agency 9
business’ means work performed by employees on 10
behalf of an agency or under the direction and con-11
trol of the agency. 12
‘‘(2) A
GENCY RESOURCES PROVIDED FOR 13
UNION USE.—The term ‘agency resources provided 14
for union use’— 15
‘‘(A) means the resources of an agency, 16
other than the time of employees in a duty sta-17
tus, that such agency provides to labor rep-18
resentatives for purposes pertaining to matters 19
covered by this chapter, including agency office 20
space, parking space, equipment, and reim-21
bursement for expenses incurred while on union 22
time or otherwise performing non-agency busi-23
ness; and 24
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‘‘(B) does not include any resource to the 1
extent that the resource is used for agency busi-2
ness. 3
‘‘(3) L
ABOR ORGANIZATION .—Notwithstanding 4
section 7103, the term ‘labor organization’ means a 5
labor organization recognized as an exclusive rep-6
resentative of employees of an agency under this 7
chapter or as a representative of agency employees 8
under any system established by the Transportation 9
Security Administration Administrator pursuant to 10
section 111(d) of the Aviation and Transportation 11
Security Act (49 U.S.C. 44935 note). 12
‘‘(4) H
OURLY RATE OF PAY.—The term ‘hourly 13
rate of pay’ means the total cost to an agency of em-14
ploying an employee in a pay period or pay periods, 15
including wages, salary, and other cash payments, 16
agency contributions to employee health and retire-17
ment benefits, employer payroll tax payments, paid 18
leave accruals, and the cost to the agency for other 19
benefits, divided by the number of hours that em-20
ployee worked in that pay period or pay periods. 21
‘‘(5) I
NTEREST RATE.—The term ‘interest rate’ 22
means the average market yield of outstanding mar-23
ketable obligations of the United States having ma-24
turities of 30 years, plus 1 percentage point. 25
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‘‘(6) LABOR REPRESENTATIVE .—The term 1
‘labor representative’ means an employee of an agen-2
cy serving in any official or other representative ca-3
pacity for a labor organization (including as any of-4
ficer or steward of a labor organization) that is the 5
exclusive representative of employees of such agency 6
under this chapter or is the representative of em-7
ployees under any system established by the Trans-8
portation Security Administration Administrator 9
pursuant to section 111(d) of the Aviation and 10
Transportation Security Act (49 U.S.C. 44935 11
note). 12
‘‘(7) U
NION TIME.—The term ‘union time’ 13
means the time an employee of an agency who is a 14
labor representative for a labor organization spends 15
performing non-agency business while on duty, ei-16
ther in service of that labor organization or other-17
wise acting in the capacity as an employee represent-18
ative, including official time authorized under sec-19
tion 7131. 20
‘‘(b) F
EES FORUSE OFAGENCYRESOURCES.— 21
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 22
provision of this chapter, the head of each agency 23
shall charge each labor organization recognized as 24
an exclusive representative of employees of that 25
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agency a fee each calendar quarter for the use of the 1
resources of that agency during that quarter. 2
‘‘(2) F
EE CALCULATION.—The amount of the 3
fee the head of an agency charges a labor organiza-4
tion under paragraph (1) with respect to a calendar 5
quarter shall be equal to the amount that is the sum 6
of— 7
‘‘(A) the value of the union time of each 8
labor representative for that labor organization 9
while employed by that agency in that quarter; 10
and 11
‘‘(B) the value of agency resources pro-12
vided for union use to that labor organization 13
by that agency in that quarter. 14
‘‘(3) T
IMING.— 15
‘‘(A) N
OTICE.—Not later than 30 days 16
after the end of each calendar quarter, the head 17
of each agency shall submit to each labor orga-18
nization charged a fee by that agency head 19
under paragraph (1) with respect to that cal-20
endar quarter a notice stating the amount of 21
that fee. 22
‘‘(B) D
UE DATE.—Payment of a fee 23
charged under paragraph (1) is due not later 24
than 60 days after the date on which the labor 25
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organization charged the fee receives a notice 1
under subparagraph (A) with respect to that 2
fee. 3
‘‘(4) P
AYMENT.— 4
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Payment of a fee 5
charged under paragraph (1) shall be made to 6
the head of the agency that charged the fee. 7
‘‘(B) T
RANSFER TO GENERAL FUND .—The 8
head of an agency shall transfer each payment 9
of a fee charged under paragraph (1) that the 10
agency head receives to the general fund of the 11
Treasury. 12
‘‘(c) V
ALUEDETERMINATIONS.— 13
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The head of an agency 14
charging a labor organization a fee under subsection 15
(b) shall determine the value of union time used by 16
labor representatives and the value of agency re-17
sources provided for union use for the purposes of 18
paragraph (2) of that subsection in accordance with 19
this subsection. 20
‘‘(2) V
ALUES.—For the purposes of paragraph 21
(2) of subsection (b), with respect to a fee charged 22
to a labor organization by the head of an agency 23
under paragraph (1) of that subsection— 24
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‘‘(A) the value of the union time of a labor 1
representative during a calendar quarter is 2
equal to amount that is the product of the 3
hourly rate of pay of that labor representative 4
paid by that agency and the number of hours 5
of union time of that labor representative dur-6
ing that calendar quarter during which that 7
labor representative was on duty as an em-8
ployee of that agency; and 9
‘‘(B) that agency head shall determine the 10
value of agency resources provided for union 11
use during a calendar quarter using rates es-12
tablished by the General Services Administra-13
tion, where applicable, or to the extent that 14
those rates are inapplicable to the use of those 15
resources, the market rate for the use of those 16
resources, except that with respect to resources 17
used for both agency business and for purposes 18
pertaining to matters covered by this chapter, 19
only the value of the portion of the use of those 20
resources for the business of that labor organi-21
zation shall be included. 22
‘‘(3) D
ETERMINATIONS NOT SUBJECT TO RE -23
VIEW.—No determination of the head of an agency 24
described in paragraph (1) may be determined to be 25
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an unfair labor practice or subject to collective bar-1
gaining or grievance procedures under this chapter, 2
or otherwise contested or appealed. 3
‘‘(d) E
NFORCEMENT AND PENALTIES.— 4
‘‘(1) P
ENALTIES.— 5
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a labor organization 6
does not pay a fee charged to that labor organi-7
zation under subsection (b)(1) on or before the 8
date on which payment for that fee becomes 9
due, during the period beginning on the date on 10
which that payment becomes due and ending on 11
the date on which every fee charged to that 12
labor organization under that subsection is fully 13
paid— 14
‘‘(i) the amount of that fee shall be 15
increased at a rate equal to the interest 16
rate; 17
‘‘(ii) the head of each agency shall— 18
‘‘(I) beginning on the date that is 19
90 days after the date on which that 20
period begins— 21
‘‘(aa) deny that labor orga-22
nization and the labor represent-23
atives for that labor organization 24
any further union time; 25
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‘‘(bb) cease providing and 1
the deny further use of agency 2
resources provided for union use 3
by that labor representatives for 4
the business of that labor organi-5
zation; and 6
‘‘(cc) not be subject to— 7
‘‘(AA) any grievance 8
procedures or binding arbi-9
tration invoked by that labor 10
organization under section 11
7121; or 12
‘‘(BB) any unfair labor 13
practice complaints or pro-14
ceedings under this chapter 15
pertaining to that labor or-16
ganization or employees rep-17
resented by that labor orga-18
nization; 19
‘‘(II) beginning on the date that 20
is 180 days after the date on which 21
that period begins— 22
‘‘(aa) terminate all allot-23
ments made by or on behalf of 24
the agency with respect to that 25
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labor organization under section 1
7115; and 2
‘‘(bb) not authorize any al-3
lotments described in item (aa) 4
with respect to that labor organi-5
zation; and 6
‘‘(III) on the date that is 365 7
days after the date on which that pe-8
riod begins, inform the Authority and 9
that labor organization that such pe-10
riod has reached a duration of 365 11
days; and 12
‘‘(iii) on the date that is 380 days 13
after the date on which that period begins, 14
the Authority shall terminate the certifi-15
cation of that labor organization as the ex-16
clusive representative of employees of that 17
agency. 18
‘‘(B) E
XCLUSIVE REPRESENTATIVE PROHI -19
BITION.—A labor organization for which the 20
Authority terminates a certification as the ex-21
clusive representatives of employees of an agen-22
cy under subparagraph (A)(iii) may not be cer-23
tified as the exclusive representative of any em-24
ployee of that agency unless that labor organi-25
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zation pays all fees charged to that labor orga-1
nization by the head of that agency under sub-2
section (b)(1), including any increases to those 3
fees under subparagraph (A)(i). 4
‘‘(C) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION .—Subpara-5
graph (A)(ii)(I)(cc) may not be construed as— 6
‘‘(i) tolling any statutory or contrac-7
tual deadline for the filing of a grievance, 8
complaint of an unfair labor practice, or 9
proceeding to binding arbitration; or 10
‘‘(ii) preventing or limiting an agency 11
from filing any grievance against a labor 12
organization or advancing such a grievance 13
to binding arbitration. 14
‘‘(2) T
IME TRACKING.— 15
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each agency shall 16
track the use of union time by labor representa-17
tives using the applicable time and attendance 18
tracking system of that agency. 19
‘‘(B) F
AILURE TO RECORD.— 20
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—A labor represent-21
ative who uses union time and fails to 22
record that use in the applicable time and 23
attendance tracking system shall be consid-24
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ered absent without leave and subject to 1
appropriate adverse action. 2
‘‘(ii) W
ILLFUL OR REPEATED FAIL -3
URES.—A failure of a labor representative 4
described in clause (i) shall constitute an 5
impairment to the efficient of the service if 6
that failure is willful or occurs in the same 7
fiscal year as another such failure by that 8
labor representative. 9
‘‘(iii) L
IMITED REVIEW.—Adverse ac-10
tion taken against an employee under 11
clause (i)— 12
‘‘(I) may not be determined to be 13
an unfair labor practice or subject to 14
grievance procedures or binding arbi-15
tration under section 7121; and 16
‘‘(II) notwithstanding any other 17
provision of law, shall be sustained on 18
appeal if the determination of the 19
agency to take that adverse action 20
against that employee is supported by 21
substantial evidence. 22
‘‘(3) P
AYMENT REQUIRED .—The head of an 23
agency may not forgive, reimburse, waive, or in any 24
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other manner reduce any fee charged under this sec-1
tion. 2
‘‘(4) C
OMPLIANCE.—Not later than 2 years 3
after the date of enactment of this section, and every 4
2 years thereafter, the Inspector General of each 5
agency shall— 6
‘‘(A) conduct an evaluation of the compli-7
ance of that agency and each relevant labor or-8
ganization with the requirements of this section, 9
including the accuracy with which labor rep-10
resentatives recorded the use of union time, the 11
promptness with which fees under subsection 12
(b) were charged and paid, and the valuation of 13
agency resources provided for union use by that 14
agency pursuant to subsection (c)(2)(B); and 15
‘‘(B) submit to the head of that agency, 16
the Committee on Homeland Security and Gov-17
ernmental Affairs of the Senate, and the Com-18
mittee on Oversight and Government Reform of 19
the House of Representatives a report on the 20
findings of the evaluation required by subpara-21
graph (A).’’. 22
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of sections 23
for subchapter IV of chapter 71 of title 5, United States 24
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Code, is amended by inserting after the item relating to 1
section 7135 the following: 2
‘‘7136. Charging labor organizations for use of Federal resources.’’.
Æ
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