[Congressional Bills 107th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2383 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







107th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 2383

   To amend chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, to establish 
  certain limitations relating to the use of official time by Federal 
                   employees, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             April 29, 2002

 Mr. Thurmond introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
           referred to the Committee on Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, to establish 
  certain limitations relating to the use of official time by Federal 
                   employees, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Workplace Integrity Act of 2002''.

SEC. 2. LIMITATIONS RELATING TO THE USE OF OFFICIAL TIME BY FEDERAL 
              EMPLOYEES.

    Section 7131 of title 5, United States Code, is amended to read as 
follows:
``Sec. 7131. Official time
    ``(a) Official time may only be granted to an employee representing 
an exclusive representative to allow such employee to--
            ``(1) present or process a grievance on behalf of another 
        employee in a unit represented by the exclusive representative;
            ``(2) be present during a grievance proceeding involving an 
        employee in a unit represented by the exclusive representative;
            ``(3) negotiate a collective bargaining agreement under 
        this chapter; or
            ``(4) take part in any proceedings approved by the agency.
    ``(b) Official time may only be granted to an employee represented 
by an exclusive representative (in a circumstance not covered by 
subsection (a)) to allow such employee to--
            ``(1) present a grievance on the employee's own behalf 
        under a negotiated grievance procedure; or
            ``(2) take part in any proceedings approved by the agency.
    ``(c) Notwithstanding subsections (a) and (b), official time may 
not be granted to any employee for activities relating to the internal 
business of a labor organization (including the solicitation of 
membership, elections of labor organization officials, or collection of 
dues).
    ``(d) Official time under subsections (a) and (b) may be granted in 
any amount that the agency and the exclusive representative involved 
agree to be reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest, but only 
to the extent that, with respect to any employee, the total amount of 
official time granted to such employee for use during the calendar year 
does not exceed 25 percent of the total amount of time the employee 
would otherwise be in duty status during the same period.
    ``(e)(1) Not later than April 1 of each year, the Office of 
Personnel Management shall submit to the President and each House of 
Congress a report on the use of official time under this section. The 
report shall apply with respect to the calendar year preceding the 
submission date.
    ``(2) Each report under this subsection shall include, in the 
aggregate and by each agency--
            ``(A) the total number of employees to whom official time 
        was granted under this section;
            ``(B) the total number of employee-hours of official time 
        granted under this section;
            ``(C) the total costs attributable to official time granted 
        under this section; and
            ``(D) the total number of each activity (as categorized by 
        the Office) for which official time was granted under this 
        section.
    ``(3) Agencies shall submit to the Office such data as the Office 
may by regulation require in connection with any report under this 
subsection.''.

SEC. 3. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    The amendment made by this Act shall take effect on the date of 
enactment of this Act, except that the first report under section 
7131(e) of title 5, United States Code (as added by this Act) shall be 
submitted on the first April 1, following the date occurring 6 months 
after the date of enactment of this Act.
                                 <all>