Veterans Affairs Employees Spent 1.1 Million Hours on Union Activities

Trey Kovacs • February 21, 2017

The Department of Veterans Affairs has a simple, but crucial mission. The agency’s website quotes President Lincoln’s promise to veterans to describe it:

‘To care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan’ by serving and honoring the men and women who are America’s Veterans.

 

Last week, the Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Subcommittee on Economic Opportunities held a joint hearing because many Veterans Affairs employees are performing union activities instead of fulfilling the mission of the agency............ it also takes away millions of dollars away from caring for veterans to subsidize federal employee unions. In 2008, according to Office of Personnel Management, official time cost nearly $30 million. In 2012, the price tag for official time jumped to almost $47 million, a 36 percent increase over just a four year period.

Unfortunately, those numbers are mere estimations―and lowball ones at that................Union official time is a federal-wide practice that does not serve a public purpose and should be eliminated. Hopefully, in this Congress, elected officials will address this waste......To Read More.....\

My Take - What has gone on at the VA has been a disgrace......for years!!!!  If Congress really wants to fix this all they have to do is send a few of these people to jail.  If any of the reports I've been reading over the last two year are true then someone has clearly violated some federal law.  As for those who didn't violate the law with their outrageous conduct and expenditures.....they need to be sued.   Someone has to be held accountable!  There's nothing like a good criminal or civil penalty to get people's heads on right.