Press Releases

Congressman Jodey Arrington (TX-19) today released the following statement after U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) introduced a Senate companion to legislation Arrington introduced in the House, the Veterans, Employees and Taxpayer (VET) Protection Act. This legislation would limit time Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) employees can spend on union activity and ensure that those employees, including doctors and highly-paid health care providers, remain focused on serving veterans. “With well over 40,000 veterans in our district and roughly 20 million veterans nationwide, it is important VA employees are doing what they were hired to do – serve our nation’s heroes, rather than focus their time conducting union activities. I commend Senator Cruz for introducing the VET Protection Act in the Senate, legislation that is vital to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, the time VA employees can spend on union matters. I look forward to the Senate taking up this legislation in a timely manner so our veterans can receive the care they so greatly deserve.” Following introduction of the Senate legislation, Senator Cruz said, “meeting the needs of veterans – not union activity – should be the top priority of the VA and its employees. The VA must prioritize care for our veterans over the VA bureaucracy. VA employees should focus their time, attention, and energy on the duties to which they were hired. The findings in this GAO report are unacceptable. Veterans across Texas and the country should not be waiting to receive care while VA employees spend even a moment of their time at work dealing with union activities.” BACKGROUND Under VA’s current union agreements, union members can use “official time” to conduct union business such as working on employee grievances, addressing bargaining issues and some lobbying efforts while being paid by VA. A Government Accountability Office report found that more than 340 VA employees, including numerous high-level health care providers, spend 100% of their time working on union duties instead of the work VA hired them to do. In addition, VA does not have a standardized system to track how much time its employees spend doing union work. For more information, see Congressman Arrington’s op-ed in the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.

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