Last year the House had put into a spending bill a requirement to roll back telework to pre-pandemic levels, but that language was dropped in negotiations with the Senate. Image: Arturo Grados Luyando/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffThe House is set to vote as soon as this week on two spending bills that target agency telework practices, including one that on its face would bar the practice entirely at the Defense Department.
The DoD appropriations bill would bar the department from paying “for the costs of teleworking or remote working for any employee or contractor of the Department of Defense on a regular and recurring basis.”
There was no explanation of the reasoning or intent behind the language, which appears to constitute the most severe move by congressional Republicans against offsite work to date. Last year the House had put into a spending bill a general requirement to roll back telework to pre-pandemic levels and require agencies to make a business case for increasing it, but that language was dropped in negotiations with the Senate.
A White House statement said the administration “strongly objects” to the provision, saying that “Teleworking and remote working are essential for supporting key Administration, Departmental, and congressional objectives, including to promote career continuity for employees who are military spouses relocating due to their Service member spouse’s assignments, and to aid in recruiting and retaining a national security workforce with specialized skills for hard-to-fill positions.”
It added: “Telework and remote work are also key forms of reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities and critical to satisfying the Department’s legal obligations under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act. The National Defense Strategy is predicated on the Department’s ability to cultivate the workforce it needs in order to build enduring advantages over competitors. While DOD continues to reflect relatively low numbers of telework and remote workers, restricting this flexibility would put the Department at a disadvantage in competing for top talent and would reduce the Department’s ability to promote military spouse employment.”
The House also has on its schedule for this week a spending bill that would require the State Department and USAID to report on occupancy rates of all leased space, telework practices and physical attendance rates at office sites, and any plans to modify those practices.
That language is more in line with language in a committee-approved general government funding bill that likely won’t get a House vote until July.
That measure orders the GSA and OMB to make recommendations within 180 days for consolidating office space, ending leases and selling federal buildings where average office space utilization is less than 60 percent, based on 150 usable square feet per person.
The White House statement on that bill did not mention that provision.
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