Finally, someone in Washington is taking issue with the unconscionable practice of paying public employees to do union work.
On Wednesday, Finance Committee Ranking Member Orrin Hatch, of Utah, gave an impassioned speech on the floor of the U.S. Senate regarding public employees at the Departments of Veterans Affairs and the Internal Revenue Service who are paid by taxpayers to perform union duties, according to a Senate finance committee press release.
“I, for one, don’t believe that taxpayers ought to be footing the bill for union work. I think that the majority of the American people, if given an opportunity to fully understand this practice and the abuse it entails, would agree with me,” Hatch said.
“I don’t think it’s unreasonable to argue that most Americans would be outraged to learn that the federal government pays tens of millions of dollars every year to pay hundreds – if not thousands – of government employees not to work,” he said.
Hatch explained that union release time, or “official time” – the practice of giving some employees full or part time off to conduct union work at taxpayers’ expense – is the modern-day itineration of what used to be called “featherbedding.”
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