Congress wants answers on federal employees working from home

(The Center Square) — House Republicans are pushing for more information from the federal government about how often workers are in the office and how often they are teleworking in the post-COVID era.

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Subcommittee on Government Operations and the Federal Workforce Chairman Pete Sessions, R-Texas, sent a letter to Shalanda Young, the director for the federal Office of Management and Budget.

In the letter, the oversight lawmakers said they sent a request to 25 federal agencies asking for data on how often employees are teleworking but to little avail.

"Yet, even after a protracted delay in providing any response at all, agencies generally produced very little quantitative data underpinning their telework and remote work policies. While the Committee continues our efforts to obtain substantive responses, we assume these agencies have been more responsive to your agency."

In a memorandum from the Office and Personnel Management, the federal agency says it expects employees to increase their in-person work.

The letter also points to an briefing last year where OMB said setting a standard of working an average of 2-3 days per week in the office. For the lawmakers, it is unclear how broadly that standard has been adhered to, if at all.

"The public's perception of federal agency performance is likely further damaged by reports that federal workers are resisting even the President's own direction to increase in-person work, as well as union grievances that hinder agency management's efforts to increase in-person work to better accomplish their missions," the letter said.

The lawmakers said the issue is about stewarding taxpayer dollars and improving agency performance.

"The better agencies are able to measure performance, the better they can improve customer satisfaction and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently," the letter said. "Both Congress and the Administration will also be able to better conduct oversight and make policy and budgeting decisions. As your own guidance states, current performance frameworks do not reach to a sufficiently granular level, a possible contributing factor to the public being 'often dissatisfied with government services when compared to the private sector.'"