Scott Perry: “Let me start out by saying happy birthday to the United States Army. I spent a fair amount of time in my life in uniform…”

“Let me start out by saying happy birthday to the United States Army. I spent a fair amount of time in my life in uniform in the Army. It is a defining thing in anybody's life who has spent time in uniform, and it has been a wonderful institution for many, many Americans over a long period of time. I also thank the chairman for the work on this bill. I know that while we are debating it here today and we are going to vote later today, that the work for next year's bill will start tomorrow. I thank him for his hard work. This amendment is pretty straightforward. It just requires the Secretary of Defense to report on the use of taxpayer-funded union time by DOD employees. We are not saying it is bad. We are not saying it is good. We are not saying it is too much. It is too little. We just want to know what it is. We just want to know. For those who may be unfamiliar, Congress granted certain employees the ability to perform certain tasks for labor unions while on duty. To be clear, that means that these employees are being paid by our constituents to work for union activities instead of doing the job that they were hired to perform. I think maybe it would be fine if we said in the job description that your job is to do organized labor activities, but that is not what is in the job description. The job description is what is needed for the country for the Department of Defense; but instead of doing that work, you are doing other work.…”