PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 23 - 21.
Congressional Research Service
No official summary is available in the imported record yet.
People & committees
Rep. Perry, Scott [R-PA-10] · R–PA
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 23 - 21.
Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held
Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
Source last updated: Jul 10, 2025. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze H.R.1210 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine H.R.1210 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine H.R.1210 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine H.R.1210 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.
PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-02-11 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025 would require unions representing federal employees to pay quarterly charges for employees’ on-duty union work and other agency resources used for union business. Unpaid charges would trigger escalating penalties, ultimately including loss of recognition as employees’ exclusive representative. Union representatives would also have to record their union time, with disciplinary consequences for failing to do so.
This Act may be cited as the Protecting Taxpayers’ Wallets Act of 2025.
the head of each agency shall charge each labor organization recognized as an exclusive representative of employees of such agency a fee each calendar quarter for the use of the resources of such agency during such quarter.
(A) the value of the union time of each labor representative for such labor organization while employed by such agency in such quarter; and (B) the value of agency resources provided for union use to such labor organization by such agency in such quarter.
on the date that is 380 days after the date on which such period begins, the Authority shall terminate the certification of such labor organization as the exclusive representative of employees of such agency.
A labor representative who uses union time and fails to record such use in the applicable time and attendance tracking system shall be considered absent without leave and subject to appropriate adverse action.
Section 2 would add a new section 7136 to the federal labor-relations chapter of title 5. It would require agency heads to charge exclusive-representative unions quarterly fees, notwithstanding other provisions of that chapter.
Chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new section: 7136. Charging labor organizations for use of Federal resources
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the head of each agency shall charge each labor organization recognized as an exclusive representative of employees of such agency a fee each calendar quarter for the use of the resources of such agency during such quarter.
The definition of a covered labor organization includes unions recognized under chapter 71 and organizations representing employees under a system established by the Transportation Security Administration Administrator. Covered labor representatives include employees acting as union officers, stewards, or in other representative roles.
The term labor organization means a labor organization recognized as an exclusive representative of employees of an agency under this chapter or as a representative of agency employees under any system established by the Transportation Security Administration Administrator pursuant to section 111(d) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (49 U.S.C. 44935 note).
The term labor representative means an employee of an agency serving in any official or other representative capacity for a labor organization (including as any officer or steward of a labor organization) that is the exclusive representative of employees of such agency under this chapter or is the representative of employees under any system established by the Transportation Security Administration Administrator pursuant to section 111(d) of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act (49 U.S.C. 44935 note).
Each quarterly charge would combine the value of union representatives’ on-duty union time and the value of other agency resources provided for union use. “Union time” would include non-agency work performed on duty for a union or as an employee representative, including time authorized under existing section 7131.
The amount of the fee the head of an agency charges a labor organization under paragraph (1) with respect to a calendar quarter shall be equal to the amount that is the sum of— (A) the value of the union time of each labor representative for such labor organization while employed by such agency in such quarter; and (B) the value of agency resources provided for union use to such labor organization by such agency in such quarter.
The term union time means the time an employee of an agency who is a labor representative for a labor organization spends performing non-agency business while on duty, either in service of such labor organization or otherwise acting in the capacity as an employee representative, including official time authorized under section 7131.
Agencies would have to send fee notices within 30 days after each calendar quarter ends. A union’s payment would be due within 60 days after it receives the notice.
Not later than 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter, the head of each agency shall submit to each labor organization charged a fee by such head under paragraph (1) with respect to such calendar quarter a notice stating the amount of such fee.
Payment of a fee charged under paragraph (1) is due not later than 60 days after the date on which the labor organization charged such fee receives a notice under paragraph (A) with respect to such fee.
Unions would pay the agency head that charged the fee. The agency would have to transfer the money to the Treasury’s general fund.
Payment of a fee charged under paragraph (1) shall be made to the head of the agency that charged such fee.
The head of an agency shall transfer each payment of a fee charged under paragraph (1) that such head receives to the general fund of the Treasury.
Agencies would value union time by multiplying on-duty union hours by an hourly employment-cost rate. That rate would include pay, agency health and retirement contributions, employer payroll taxes, paid leave accruals, and other benefits—not just wages.
the value of the union time of a labor representative during a calendar quarter is equal to amount that is the product of the hourly rate of pay of such labor representative paid by such agency and the number of hours of union time of such labor representative during such calendar quarter during which such labor representative was on duty as an employee of such agency
The term hourly rate of pay means the total cost to an agency of employing an employee in a pay period or pay periods, including wages, salary, and other cash payments, agency contributions to employee health and retirement benefits, employer payroll tax payments, paid leave accruals, and the cost to the agency for other benefits, divided by the number of hours such employee worked in such pay period or pay periods.
Other chargeable resources would include agency office space, parking, equipment, and expense reimbursements for union time or other non-agency work. Resources used for agency business would be excluded to that extent; agency business means work done for an agency or under its direction and control.
The term agency resources provided for union use means the resources of an agency, other than the time of employees in a duty status, that such agency provides to labor representatives for purposes pertaining to matters covered by this chapter, including agency office space, parking space, equipment, and reimbursement for expenses incurred while on union time or otherwise performing non-agency business, except that this term does not include any resource to the extent that such resource is used for agency business.
The term agency business means work performed by employees on behalf of an agency, or under the direction and control of the agency.
Agency heads would value resources using General Services Administration rates where applicable and market rates otherwise. For resources shared between agency and union business, only the union-use portion would count.
such head of such agency shall determine the value of agency resources provided for union use during a calendar quarter using rates established by the General Services Administration, where applicable, or to the extent that such rates are inapplicable to such the use of such resources, the market rate for the use of such resources, except that with respect to resources used for both agency business and for purposes pertaining to matters covered by this chapter, only the value of the portion of the use of such resources for the business of such labor organization shall be included.
The bill would bar challenges to agency heads’ valuations of union time and resources. Those determinations could not be treated as unfair labor practices, negotiated through collective bargaining, addressed through chapter 71 grievance procedures, or otherwise contested or appealed.
The head of an agency charging a labor organization a fee under subsection (a) shall determine the value of union time used by labor representatives and the value of agency resources provided for union use for the purposes of paragraph (2) of such subsection in accordance with this subsection.
No determination of the head of an agency described in paragraph (1) may be determined to be an unfair labor practice or subject to collective bargaining or grievance procedures under this chapter, or otherwise contested or appealed.
If a union missed a payment deadline, the penalty period would run from the due date until every fee charged to that union was fully paid. The overdue fee would increase at a rate equal to the average market yield on outstanding marketable 30-year U.S. government debt plus one percentage point.
If a labor organization does not pay a fee charged to such labor organization under subsection (a)(1) on or before the date on which payment for such fee becomes due, during the period beginning on the date on which such payment becomes due and ending on the date on which every fee charged to such labor organization under such subsection is fully paid— (i) the amount of such fee shall be increased at a rate equal to the interest rate
The term interest rate means the average market yield of outstanding marketable obligations of the United States having maturities of 30 years plus one percentage point.
Starting 90 days into that unpaid-fee period, each agency head would have to deny the union and its representatives further union time and stop providing agency resources for that union’s business.
the head of each agency shall— (I) beginning on the date that is 90 days after the date on which such period begins— (aa) deny such labor organization and the labor representatives for such labor organization any further union time; (bb) cease providing and the deny further use of agency resources provided for union use by such labor representatives for the business of such labor organization
Starting 90 days into the unpaid-fee period, agency heads would also be exempt from grievance procedures and binding arbitration invoked by that union under section 7121, and from chapter 71 unfair-labor-practice complaints or proceedings concerning the union or its represented employees.
the head of each agency shall— (I) beginning on the date that is 90 days after the date on which such period begins
(cc) not be subject to— (AA) any grievance procedures or binding arbitration invoked by such labor organization under section 7121; or (BB) any unfair labor practice complaints or proceedings under this chapter pertaining to such labor organization or employees represented by such labor organization
That exemption would not pause legal or contractual deadlines for filing grievances, unfair-labor-practice complaints, or arbitration proceedings. Agencies would remain able to file grievances against unions and take those grievances to binding arbitration.
Subparagraph (A)(ii)(I)(cc) may not be construed as— (i) tolling any statutory or contractual deadline for the filing of a grievance, complaint of an unfair labor practice, or proceeding to binding arbitration; or (ii) preventing or limiting an agency from filing any grievance against a labor organization or advancing such grievances to binding arbitration.
Starting 180 days into the unpaid-fee period, agency heads would have to end existing arrangements called “allotments” under section 7115 for the union and stop authorizing them. The supplied text does not reproduce section 7115 or explain how those arrangements operate.
beginning on the date that is 180 days after the date on which such period begins— (aa) terminate all allotments made by or on behalf of the agency with respect to such labor organization under section 7115; and (bb) not authorize any such allotments with respect to such labor organization
At 365 days into the unpaid-fee period, agency heads would have to notify the union and the body called the “Authority.” At 380 days, the Authority would have to end the union’s certification as employees’ exclusive representative at the agency.
on the date that is 365 days after the date on which such period begins, inform the Authority and such labor organization that such period has reached a duration of 365 days
on the date that is 380 days after the date on which such period begins, the Authority shall terminate the certification of such labor organization as the exclusive representative of employees of such agency.
A union whose certification was terminated under this process could not be certified again to represent any employee of that agency unless it paid all fees charged by that agency, including the increases for late payment. Payment would be a prerequisite, not a promise of automatic recertification.
A labor organization for which the Authority terminates a certification as the exclusive representatives of employees of an agency under subparagraph (A)(iii) may not be certified as the exclusive representative of any employee of such agency unless such labor organization pays all fees charged to such labor organization by the head of such agency under subsection (a)(1), including any increases to such fees under subparagraph (A)(i).
Each agency would have to track representatives’ union time in its time-and-attendance system. Representatives who used union time without recording it would be treated as absent without leave and subject to appropriate disciplinary action.
Each agency shall track the use of union time by labor representatives using the applicable time and attendance tracking system of such agency.
A labor representative who uses union time and fails to record such use in the applicable time and attendance tracking system shall be considered absent without leave and subject to appropriate adverse action.
A willful failure to record union time, or another failure by the same representative in the same fiscal year, would legally count as impairing the service’s efficiency.
A failure of a labor representative described in clause (i) shall constitute an impairment to the efficient of the service if such failure is willful or occurs in the same fiscal year as another such failure by such labor representative.
Disciplinary action for failing to record union time could not be treated as an unfair labor practice or challenged through section 7121 grievance procedures or binding arbitration. On appeal, the action would have to be upheld if the agency’s determination was supported by substantial evidence, notwithstanding other law.
Adverse action take against an employee under clause (i)— (I) may not be determined to be an unfair labor practice or subject to grievance procedures or binding arbitration under section 7121; and (II) notwithstanding any other provision of law, shall be sustained on appeal if the determination of the agency to take such adverse action against such employee is supported by substantial evidence.
Agency heads would be prohibited from forgiving, reimbursing, waiving, or otherwise reducing any fee charged under the new section.
The head of an agency may not forgive, reimburse, waive, or in any other manner reduce any fee charged under this section.
Within two years after enactment, and every two years afterward, each agency’s Inspector General would have to evaluate agency and union compliance. Reviews would cover time-recording accuracy, timely billing and payment, and resource valuations. Reports would go to the agency head and the specified House and Senate oversight committees.
Not later than two years after the date of the enactment of this section, and every two years thereafter, the Inspector General of each agency shall— (A) conduct an evaluation of the compliance of such agency and each relevant labor organization with the requirements of this section, including the accuracy with which labor representatives recorded the use of union time, the promptness with which fees under subsection (a) were charged and paid, and the valuation of agency resources provided for union use by such agency pursuant to subsection (b)(2)(B)
submit to the head of such agency, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of the House of Representatives, and the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate a report on the findings of the evaluation required by subparagraph (A).
The supplied official-actions snapshot, updated July 10, 2025, records introduction and referral to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on February 11, 2025. It also records a March 25, 2025 committee markup and an order to report the bill with amendments by a 23–21 vote. That entry does not establish passage or enactment.
Source snapshot updated 2025-07-10T18:05:16Z. 2025-03-25: Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 23 - 21. 2025-03-25: Committee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held 2025-02-11: Referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. 2025-02-11: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-02-11. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or appropriations policy rider was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish the contents of other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending for a particular recipient or place was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version; accompanying disclosure and committee materials are not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
None identified in the reviewed text
No materially narrow preferential benefit was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. The fee rules and enforcement provisions form the proposal’s general policy rather than a separate beneficiary-specific carve-out. This conclusion is limited to the supplied version.
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Jul 10, 2025. How PlainBill uses AI