Biden and the Democrats are always hiding things.
The White House Office of Personnel Management (OPM) discreetly removed a webpage that tracked the official time spent by federal employees on labor union tasks. The OPM, responsible for overseeing federal employment and recruitment, took down both the webpage and reports spanning the last two decades, which analyzed the taxpayer money allocated for union activities. Furthermore, OPM seems to have ceased the compilation of official time reports, a practice maintained over the past four presidential administrations since 1998.
According to Fox, Maxford Nelson, the director of research and government affairs at the Freedom Foundation, a free-market think tank, expressed concerns to Fox News Digital, stating, “If federal employees are going to be legally permitted to engage in union work while on-the-clock, the very least taxpayers are owed is an accurate accounting of the associated costs.”
Nelson emphasized the lack of transparency under the Biden administration, noting the absence of any reports on taxpayer-funded union time, a practice documented regularly by the previous four administrations. The most recent analysis, conducted in 2019 under the Trump administration, revealed that federal employees spent 2.6 million hours on union activities, costing taxpayers around $135 million.
An OPM spokesperson informed Fox News Digital that the removal of the webpage and past reports was part of a website reconfiguration aimed at enhancing navigation and customer experience. However, the spokesperson did not specify if or when the site would be restored, leaving uncertainty about the impact on other webpages during the apparent months-long reorganization.
Despite the spokesperson’s explanation, concerns persist about the potential increase in time spent on union tasks on federal taxpayer-funded salaries since President Biden took office. Former President Trump had limited official time through an executive order in May 2018, which Biden promptly repealed upon assuming office in January 2021. The Biden administration has actively promoted increased union membership, with the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment reporting a 20% increase in unionized federal workers since 2021.
Maxford Nelson criticized the Biden administration for reversing Trump-era rules and hindering public access to government research on the time federal employees spend on union activities. He expressed disappointment, stating, “Instead, the Biden administration is spotlighting and celebrating its efforts to get more federal employees to join unions and to give these private special interest groups even more control over the already sclerotic federal bureaucracy. This administration’s contempt for taxpayers is palpable.”