Pressure mounts on official time as bill moves to House floor vote

Federal News Radio discusses with Trey Kovacs a bill that requires Office of Personnel Management to submit reports on official time.  

Trey Kovacs, policy analyst at the Competitive Enterprise Institute. said passage of the Ross bill would hold OPM more accountable in disclosing official time information.

“There’s no law on the books that requires annual reporting, so they’ve really just been pretty slow,” Kovacs said in an interview with Federal News Radio. “You’re going to see that the numbers are going to be much higher if any kind of bill passes that would require reporting and a solid methodology.”

“Right now, OPM’s just showing you the hours and the costs of salaries and benefits. There are other costs that are associated with it — there’s travel, per diem, arbitration, offices and supplies — which OPM doesn’t report,” Kovacs said. “It’s very hard to see how the government can be run more effectively and safeguards the public interest when you have federal employees not doing their civic duty, and performing union business. There’s no public interest in official time. They’re performing the private business of the union, which should be supported by union dues.”

Read the full article at Federal News Radio.