On the recordMarch 7, 2018
I came to the floor today to speak about my cotton farmers, but my heart is heavy after a conversation with our veterans--our VFW, to be exact--about this issue of union time, union activities on the taxpayer dole. There was a GAO report a year ago that said there were hundreds of VA employees spending 100 percent of their time on union activity, not the job they were hired to do, not in service to our veterans who wait in line to get healthcare, who sometimes get sicker and sometimes even die. The law says that the only way to do official time is it must be administered in a way that is reasonable, necessary, and in the public's best interests. Somebody spending 100 percent of their time on anything other than what they were hired to do, and especially in service to our veterans, is not reasonable; it is not necessary, and it certainly isn't in the best interests of the American people. It is outrageous. ____________________
