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The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is set to resume monitoring federal employees’ union activities and their associated costs following pressure from Republican lawmakers. This decision comes after a temporary suspension during President Biden’s administration and was prompted by Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa.

The reinstatement of this reporting requirement coincides with Ernst’s introduction of the “Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025” on February 11, supported by Representative Michael Cloud of Texas. A February 27 memorandum from OPM Acting Director Charles Eskell, shared with the Daily Caller News Foundation, confirmed the resumption of tracking taxpayer-funded union time (TFUT).

“I am thrilled to see the Trump administration restart the reporting of taxpayer-funded union time, so the American people know just how much money bureaucrats are paid not to work,” Ernst told the DCNF. “Federal employees should be serving taxpayers, not themselves, during the workday. If they want to engage in union activity, they need to refund taxpayers for every last penny.”

The new directive requires federal agencies to document various aspects of union activities, including the positions of employees involved, their telework status, time spent on union activities, and their use of government resources and facilities.

Recent data obtained from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) revealed significant union time usage among high-earning employees. Two project managers, earning annual salaries of $171,469 and $166,393 respectively, devoted over 99.5% of their work hours to union activities in fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Additionally, three reliability and risk engineers, each earning more than $163,000 annually, spent nearly half their time on union-related tasks during the same period.

Previous investigations by Ernst exposed misuse of official time, including cases where employees engaged in personal business or faced legal troubles while claiming union time. One employee pursued real estate ventures in Florida, while another was incarcerated for driving under the influence while supposedly on official time.

According to OPM data cited by Ernst, federal employees logged 2.6 million hours on union activities in fiscal year 2019, equivalent to approximately three centuries of work time, costing taxpayers over $135 million. The unions also utilized taxpayer-funded resources, including office space and supplies, valued at more than $24 million.