Are you sure you are in the right context? eg. in a state transition (where you need to return bool to tell the state machine yes/no to switch to a new state)
Here is an example:
State A
– State Transition (Arrow that points to B)
State B
State A must has the animation you want to check time remaining on.
The node Time Remaining (with the animation included in the node name) will only be available in the state transition.
Hope that helps clarify how things work with state machines!