OMB said it is in the process of gathering information for a report due to Congress by late June on telework rates and impacts. Image: Honza Hruby/Shutterstock.com
Republicans on the House Oversight and Accountability Committee again have pressed OMB for detailed data telework in the federal workforce and the impact on agency operations, with chairman Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., saying that “If you can prove telework is more efficient through data, we will accept that and begin to sell off federal properties.”
“Massive telework continues under the Biden administration who is intent on making it a permanent fixture of federal work life,” he said to OMB deputy for management Jason Miller at a hearing. “How do we know this is in the best interest of the public? The only data we’ve seen on that is a survey of federal employees themselves. They think it’s working great. How can telework levels be data-driven if you don’t even know how many employees are teleworking?”
Other Republicans raised similar arguments, saying the federal workforce is behind the private sector in onsite work. Several also expressed frustration at the lack of detailed data on telework despite numerous requests to OMB, OPM and individual agencies.
Miller stressed that about half of federal employees are not eligible for regular telework due to the nature of their jobs, and that agencies are progressing toward achieving at least 50 percent in-office presence on average for the rest. “We expect agencies to completely follow through on their implementation and we will hold them accountable for that,” he said.
Counting both categories, he said, 80 percent of federal workers are present at the worksite on average.
He also said that OMB is in the process of gathering information for a report due to Congress by late June required by a recently enacted budget law. That is to include agency-by-agency telework policies, data on telework rates, metrics used to measure the impact on productivity, data on office space utilization, and any plans to shed unneeded space.
Committee members of both parties urged more attention to the possibility of consolidating offices and disposing of unneeded space, which a special review panel recently said is at “unprecedented” levels, resulting in “absurdly high” per-person costs.
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