Federal Insider: Broad probe of federal employees gets specific with names

With a flurry of letters to a variety of federal agencies, the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has launched a broad investigation into the federal workforce.

The letters, sent over the past few weeks by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), contain no accusations of wrongdoing but are heavy with implication.

One set of letters to more than two dozen agencies requests the names of individual employees who are allowed to do union-related work on government time. Another letter tells the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to answer 16 questions about federal employee compensation in agencies across the government. A third letter, sent to three agencies, demands information about spending on awards to employees, including “documents sufficient to identify each performance award” to senior executives by “name, title, and salary grade.”

Citing Republican attacks on federal employee pay and benefits, Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, said the letters “may be just another extension of that misguided effort. These requests for information on official time and employee compensation could be attempts to eliminate official time, slash compensation and benefits, and reduce due process rights.”

Yet he joined Chaffetz in a letter sent Friday that calls on 26 agencies to give the panel information on “all policies, procedures, directives and/or guidance for taking corrective, disciplinary, and adverse actions against civilian employees.”

It is a Feb. 12 letter from Chaffetz, also to 26 agencies, large and small, that has drawn the most heat. It probes the use of “official time,” long the object of Republican criticism. In exchange for representing everyone in a bargaining unit, even those who don’t pay union dues, some federal labor representatives work part or full time on union business while being paid by the government. Labor leaders on official time also work with management on such things as workplace safety and training.

In addition to Chaffetz, the letter was signed by Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the government operations subcommittee, and Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.), who sponsored committee-approved legislation against what he has called “this shady, wasteful practice.” While their letter says the committee wants to “better understand the number of federal employees” on official time, it demands specific information about individual workers, including name, title, salary and duty station. The missive is much more specific than the bill, which would require agencies to report more general information like the total amount of time and money spent on the practice. Both ask for the square footage of space designated for official-time activities.