[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 40 (Wednesday, March 7, 2018)]
[House]
[Page H1450]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




VETERANS AFFAIRS EMPLOYEES SPENDING 100 PERCENT OF THEIR TIME ON UNION 
                               ACTIVITIES

  (Mr. ARRINGTON asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. ARRINGTON. Mr. Speaker, 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.

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