President Biden officially ended the national COVID-19 public health emergency. However, federal agencies have faced difficulties getting employees back to their offices, while some are still figuring out how to monitor those working from home.
The White House aims for a 50-50 arrangement, where employees with office jobs spend at least five days out of every 10-day work period in the office. While agency chiefs strive towards this goal, reports of low attendance remain evident otherwise.
The Public Buildings Reform Board analyzed cellphone location data to assess the occupancy rates of agency headquarters buildings in Washington from January through September 2023, revealing them only at 30% of their pre-pandemic levels. Meanwhile, department and agency heads are facing scrutiny from lawmakers as they attend hearings on Capitol Hill this spring to justify their budget requests for 2025.
Representative James Comer, a Republican from Kentucky and chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee challenged a senior official from the White House Office of Management and Budget, questioning the presidential authority as to why civil servants would disobey the president's orders if instructed to return to work. Representative Michael Waltz, a Republican from Florida, underscored the gravity of the situation by stating that lives are on the line.
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"Back to Work Act of 2024"
Utah Senator Mitt Romney, a Republican, and West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat, advocate for federal employees to return to their offices. Their proposed legislation, named the "Back to Work Act of 2024," seeks to cap remote work to a maximum of 40% of days within a federal employee's pay period. Agencies are mandated to monitor and report on telework activities, including the potential adverse impacts on productivity, morale, security vulnerabilities, or instances of waste, fraud, or abuse.
An issue for Romney and Manchin, who are not seeking reelection, stems from a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released last fall. The report found that 17 out of 24 federal agency headquarters operated at 25% capacity or less during the first three months of 2023. The GAO recommended establishing new benchmarks for building utilization that consider increased levels of telework.
As for Romney, nearly a year has passed since the nation's COVID-19 public health emergency declaration ended. Yet, many federal office buildings remain largely empty, resulting in wasteful expenditure of taxpayer dollars, citing that Americans deserve a federal workforce that is both present and productive.
Independent Studies Revealing The Split Stances of Workers
According to an article in Federal Times last November, the 2023 annual government-wide survey conducted by the US Office of Personnel Management revealed that nearly 70% of federal employees work remotely at least occasionally.
In the survey of over 625,000 employees, approximately one-third stated they do not work remotely due to technological constraints, in-office obligations, or personal preference. Despite pressures from Congress and the White House to step up in-office work, the split remained unchanged from the previous year.
Employees and unions have long resisted the push for increased in-office work. The American Federation of Government Employees, representing approximately 750,000 federal and Washington, D.C. government workers, stated in a recent issue paper that telework fosters healthier workers, reduces burnout and sick leave usage, and allows for a better work-life balance.
A union spokesperson said that restricting telework could be a serious mistake that could lead to the departure of skilled employees and detrimentally impact the services expected from the federal government.
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