The new Senate bill comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is set to hold two more hearings on telework. Image: melissamn/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffA newly introduced bipartisan bill in the Senate (S-2015) aims to chart a middle course between advocates of rolling back offsite work to pre-pandemic levels and those arguing for keeping it at higher levels.
The bill would require agencies to produce within a year a report on “the potential value that would result from increasing remote work and other telework opportunities” including describing the positions most suitable for it, the impact on productivity and an assessment of the technology that would be needed and its potential cost.
In addition, agencies could fill such positions without competition by determining an applicant is “qualified,” if that person is a veteran, a spouse of a law enforcement officer or of a member of the armed forces, or a someone who had been considered “high-performing” before separating from a competitive service federal job within the last six years.
Meanwhile, though, agencies would be required to review offsite work agreements with their employees annually, taking into account the employee’s performance, the agency’s needs, and whether the employee’s work duties have changed. Also, agencies would have to annually report on how performance of offsite workers is assessed and “strategies for engaging” with employees while they are working offsite.
The new Senate bill comes as the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is set to hold two more hearings on telework. One will follow up on a recent hearing on the impact of offsite work on productivity, this time focusing on several agencies including SSA that have been the subject of customer service complaints.
The other will center on GSA management of federal buildings in light of a recent GAO report that already finding that as of early this year, 17 of 24 headquarters buildings for federal departments and large agencies were using less than 25 percent of their capacity on average. That report already has been the subject of a hearing in a different House committee.
The House has passed language to roll back offsite work as a stand-alone bill and as an amendment to a spending bill. The Senate has not taken up the former and its version of the latter does not contain that provision. However, it would tell OMB and OPM to “examine how policies for in-person work, telework, and remote work impact agency productivity and performance as well as how effectively and efficiently agencies are able to carry out their missions and serve the public.”
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