Sens. Gary Peters, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, introduced bipartisan legislation today to increase transparency and oversight of Federal telework policies.
The “Telework Transparency Act” would require agencies to gather quality data and monitor how telework impacts agency performance and Federal property decisions. The goal of the bill, the senators said, is to create more transparency and provide more oversight to “weigh the pros and cons of telework policies.”
“Federal agencies must track and consider the impact of telework on their ability to deliver services, recruit and retain talent, and ensure office operations are cost-efficient,” Sen. Peters said in an April 3 press release. “My bipartisan bill will require agencies to gather accurate data on telework policies to provide more transparency and help ensure federal agencies are effectively carrying out their missions for the American people.”
The senators wrote that there must be significant improvements to agencies’ data collection for the Federal government to better understand the effects of telework on achieving agency goals.
The bipartisan bill aims to make Federal telework policies transparent by requiring agencies to publicly publish policies online. The legislation also will require agencies to establish automated systems to track employee use of telework.
Additionally, agencies must monitor office building utilization and the effects of telework on agency performance, including customer service, backlogs and wait times, cost to operations, security, management of real property and personal property, technology investments, and recruitment and retention.
The bill also directs the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to establish quality data standards and compile the data in a centralized location to ensure transparency for the American people.
“Since ‘temporary’ telework policies went into effect over four years ago, the remote lifestyle comes at the expense of the people federal agencies are meant to serve,” Sen. Ernst said. “My bipartisan bill will provide full transparency into the inefficiencies of telework, so taxpayers are no longer on the hook for expensive wasted space at federal headquarters and misspent locality pay.”
Lawmakers have been calling for more transparency and oversight in Federal agencies’ telework policies for well over a year, arguing that when the governmentwide COVID-19 operating status ended on May 15, 2023 agencies should go back to the office.
A July 2023 Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 17 of 24 Federal agencies it looked at used an estimated average 25 percent or less of their headquarters buildings’ capacity in a three-week sample period during the first three months of 2023.
Several agencies cut back on their telework last year after the Office of Management and Budget told agencies to start ramping up in-person requirements. OPM employees are expected to report to the office at least four days per pay period, and the Department of Veterans Affairs employees in the National Capital Region are required to report for a minimum of five days in the office each pay period.
