$3.3 Million: Defense Health Agency Workers Spent 87,000 Hours on Union Work — Not Their Government Jobs

§ 01 / The Program

Federal Law Lets Union Workers Spend Their Federal Workday on Union Business — At Full Government Pay. The Defense Health Agency Spent $3.3 Million on It.

“Official time” is a provision in federal labor law that allows federal employees who are also union officials to spend a portion of their official government work hours — at full federal government pay — on union representational activities, including contract negotiations, grievance processing, and union organizing work. This is entirely legal under the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The Defense Health Agency reported that its unionized employees spent 87,000 hours on official time activities in a recent fiscal year, at a cost of $3.3 million in taxpayer salary while the employees were not performing their government duties.

The Office of Personnel Management publishes an annual report on government-wide official time. Across the entire federal government, official time has historically ranged from 2 million to 3.5 million hours per year. Trump’s first term Executive Order 13837 restricted official time; Biden reversed it with EO 14003 in 2021, restoring full official time protections. The second Trump administration has again limited official time. The Defense Health Agency is a particularly salient example because it employs healthcare workers — the 87,000 hours diverted to union activity is 87,000 fewer hours of healthcare worker capacity.

The Policy Question Is Simple

Private sector unions use their own resources to pay union officials and negotiate contracts. Federal unions use taxpayer-funded government time. Whether taxpayers should subsidize federal union activity — beyond the baseline labor-law representational rights — is a legitimate policy question that Republicans and Democrats have answered differently across administrations. The DOGE flag on this item is correct on the merits: 87,000 hours of Defense Health Agency employee time diverted from patient care and government duties to union administrative work, paid by the federal government, is a real cost with a real alternative use. The union pays $0 of it.

§ 02 / The Bottom Line

What This Means

$3.3 million in Defense Health Agency employee salaries paid while those employees spent 87,000 hours on union official time activities — legally authorized, entirely at taxpayer expense. The Trump administration restricted official time government-wide in 2025. In the context of the Defense Health Agency specifically, the opportunity cost is healthcare worker capacity. The fundamental policy question — should taxpayers subsidize federal union activity beyond baseline legal representation rights? — is one where the DOGE critique is substantively correct.

Sources · 10 Citations