The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee has approved S-2450, to restrict the use of administrative leave in the federal workplace.
In situations that may lead to disciplinary action, employees generally would have to be kept on the job through a temporary reassignment, transfer or telework, unless the agency determines that the employee’s continued employment during the investigative and notice periods would pose a risk to the agency. In those cases, agencies could use a newly designated form of administrative leave to be called investigative leave for up to 10 days during the investigation; also, newly created notice leave would be available for use for up to the length of the notice period.
Agencies would have to keep better records of the administrative leave they allow, including for reasons such as bad weather or other emergencies.
The committee also approved:
S-2590, to require each agency to maintain an inventory of the properties it owns and assess its need for them; encourage them to dispose of excess by allowing them to retain the proceeds from selling them; and create a council to guide agencies on policies and best practices in property management.
S-2340, requiring OMB to order agencies to develop a comprehensive software licensing policy, that will: produce a comprehensive inventory of software licenses; track and maintain those licenses; analyze software usage to make cost-effective decisions; provide software license management training; and establish goals and objectives of the agency’s software license management program.
S-236, to create a base closings commission-like procedure to deal with duplication and overlap in federal programs cited by GAO, in which the White House would submit a list of proposed closings reflecting GAO’s findings and Congress would be compelled to vote on it promptly.
