Comer and Greene Probe Abuse of Federal Employee Bargaining Process by Biden Administration, Intended to Hinder Trump’s Ability to Govern
WASHINGTON—House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Delivering on Government Efficiency Chairwoman Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) are probing the outgoing Biden Administration’s overuse of collective bargaining agreements to entrench telework and cement policies that hinder the Trump Administration’s agenda. Ahead of President Trump’s inauguration, the Biden Administration agreed to numerous collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with the largest federal employee union, American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE). Chairman Comer and Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene wrote to AFGE today to request information about how these CBAs were negotiated, and whether the agreements serve American interests.
“The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating the use—and abuse—of the federal collective bargaining process outlined in 5 U.S.C. Ch. 71. This process was used extensively toward the end of the Biden-Harris Administration to negotiate collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) intended primarily, not to manage the workforce under its own watch, but to constrain the ability of President Donald Trump to do so. The Biden-Harris Administration’s CBAs unduly infringe on President Trump’s ability to exercise his broad authority to oversee the federal workforce and ensure the laws of the land are faithfully executed,” wrote Chairman Comer and Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene.
During the Oversight Committee’s first hearing of the 119th Congress, former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley admitted to signing a last-minute CBA with AFGE to guarantee telework privileges at the agency through 2029. A similar tactic was employed by leaders of the Biden Department of Education days before President Trump took office. The Oversight Committee recently exposed evidence of these efforts in a report highlighting how the Biden Administration worked with Democrat-backed federal labor unions to lock in high telework levels ahead of President Trump’s second term. As President Trump begins his efforts to return federal employees to in-person work, the Oversight Committee is committed to assisting the incoming Administration in reining in America’s runaway bureaucracy and holding federal agencies accountable to the American people.
“President Trump is working to bring efficiency to the federal government, including through reforms to the federal workforce. On his first day in office, President Trump signed an executive order requiring the ‘[h]eads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch…to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis.’ CBAs entered into by the outgoing Administration with AFGE should not undermine President Trump’s ability to bring the federal workforce back to the office to better serve the American people,” continued Chairman Comer and Subcommittee Chairwoman Greene.
Read the letter to AFGE National President Everett Kelley here.
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