Servicemember Quality of Life Improvement and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025

Floor Speech

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chair, I claim the time in opposition to the amendment.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chair, I rise in opposition to amendment No. 56, which would require a report that would be prejudicial to the rights and interests of Federal employees by calling into question something called official time.

Official time is a system that we, Congress, established in law almost 40 years ago to ensure that all employees entitled to union representation receive it, regardless if they are in the union or not.

Through official time, Federal employees who volunteer as union representatives spend time on what they call representational activities, working with employers and managers to resolve disputes, to resolve disputes, improvements in the workplace that benefit all employees, one of which--and many people consider it the highest--is for safety issues, so they can walk around, they can do the very inspections that save lives and save people from injury instead of waiting for it to happen and reacting before somebody gets hurt or dies on the job.

Simply put, let's call it what it is. This is an attack on official time, and my colleagues want to gut public sector unions. Call it what it is. The report that this amendment requires would only tally the cost of official time, ignoring many benefits. That official time provides for management as well as workers, their safety, and their productivity.

Workers have the right to have a voice on the job. They have that right. That is exactly what the official time provides for. I know that workplaces are more productive and efficient when management and workers come together. This amendment would lay the groundwork to take us in the opposite direction.

As co-chair of the Labor Caucus, I continue to oppose these efforts to take away rights from workers. When we look back at some of the history on this, it has been incredible. This has been an enhancement for the government.

There has been report after report on this already, but the bottom line is, this is about protecting workers on the job who become more protective of the people, the workers on the job.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chair, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Federal employees, and he picks up one issue in one little area. My God, we can just look to our Members of Congress to see where violations happen.

Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hoyle).

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chair, to wrap up, let's be clear: This is an attack on people's voices at the workplace. This is something that we collectively have looked at for over 40 years, and we continue to have a productive way of keeping people safe on the job and to understand that there is no way that they can use this time to do any union political activities, which has been suggested by the opposition.

Let's keep our workers safe. Let's continue to care about those who make our country the best in the world.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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Mr. NORCROSS. Mr. Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

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