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The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has increased its spending on union-related activities by 11% over the past five years, according to newly released records. The agency’s expenditure on union time reached $420,074 in fiscal year 2024, up from $377,056 in fiscal year 2019.
These expenses cover various union activities, including labor meetings, union training sessions, and employee representation in disciplinary matters. The records, obtained by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and provided to The Post, also show an increase from the previous fiscal year’s spending of $398,548.
“Federal employees should be serving the American people, not themselves,” said Ernst, who chairs the Senate DOGE Caucus.
“My investigation into the cost of taxpayer-funded union time at the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is just the tip of the iceberg.”
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The number of NRC employees eligible for taxpayer-funded union time has also grown, rising from 38 in fiscal year 2023 to 45 in 2024. The agency’s employees are represented by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).
This revelation comes after Ernst’s December initiative requesting union time expense data from various government agencies. Among the 24 agencies contacted, the NRC was the first to respond. Previous comprehensive data on government-wide union expenses was last published in 2019 by the Office of Personnel Management, which reported total federal spending of at least $135 million on taxpayer-funded union time.
“The fact that one agency racked up more than $800,000 in just two years is exactly why I am working with the Trump administration to get a full accounting across the federal government and end this taxpayer theft,” the Republican added.
Ernst has recently urged the Trump administration to reinstate OPM’s tracking and public disclosure of union time expenses across all government agencies. She has also introduced legislation requiring government workers to reimburse taxpayers for union time.
Oh good, it is only 1%. That means they can fund it themselves since it is so insignificant. https://t.co/bguo8HHS3S
— Casey Biemiller (@cbiemiller) February 17, 2025
The Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute, enacted in 1978, permits government employees to engage in collective bargaining. However, the 2019 OPM report highlighted concerns about full-time union representatives: “In many cases, where agency union representatives serve as full-time union officials, agencies are no longer able to rely on employees even for a portion of their duty time, to complete the duties of the positions for which they were hired.”
The Trump administration has been implementing some of Ernst’s proposed reforms, including restrictions on remote work and addressing underutilized office space leases. These efforts are being led by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Both the NRC and NTEU did not provide immediate responses when asked for comment.
