Presidential Documents
Executive Order 13837 of May 25, 2018
Ensuring Transparency, Accountability, and Efficiency in Taxpayer-Funded Union Time Use
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including section 301 of title 3, United States Code, and section 7301 of title 5, United States Code, and to ensure the effective functioning of the executive branch, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Purpose. An effective and efficient government keeps careful track of how it spends the taxpayers’ money and eliminates unnecessary, inefficient, or unreasonable expenditures. To advance this policy, executive branch employees should spend their duty hours performing the work of the Federal Government and serving the public. Federal law allows Federal employees to represent labor organizations and perform other non-agency business while being paid by American taxpayers (taxpayer-funded union time). The Congress, however, has also instructed the executive branch to interpret the law in a manner consistent with the requirements of an effective and efficient government. To that end, agencies should ensure that taxpayer-funded union time is used efficiently and authorized in amounts that are reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest. Federal employees should spend the clear majority of their duty hours working for the public. No agency should pay for Federal labor organizations’ expenses, except where required by law. Agencies should eliminate unrestricted grants of taxpayer-funded union time and instead require employees to obtain specific authorization before using such time. Agencies should also monitor use of taxpayer-funded union time, ensure it is used only for authorized purposes, and make information regarding its use readily available to the public.
Sec. 2. Definitions. For purposes of this order, the following definitions shall apply:
(a) Except for purposes of section 4 of this order, “agency” has the meaning given the term in section 7103(a)(3) of title 5, United States Code, but includes only executive agencies. For purposes of section 4 of this order, “agency” has the meaning given to “Executive agency” in section 105 of title 5, United States Code, but excludes the Government Accountability Office.
(b) “Agency business” shall mean work performed by Federal employees, including detailees or assignees, on behalf of an agency, but does not include work performed on taxpayer-funded union time.
(c) “Bargaining unit” shall mean a group of employees represented by an exclusive representative in an appropriate unit for collective bargaining under subchapter II of chapter 71 of title 5, United States Code.
(d) “Discounted use of government property” means charging less to use government property than the value of the use of such property, as determined by the General Services Administration, where applicable, or otherwise by the generally prevailing commercial cost of using such property.
(e) “Employee” has the meaning given the term in section 7103(a)(2) of title 5, United States Code, except for purposes of section 4 of this order, in which case it means an individual employed in an “Executive
