The bill reflects arguments that the higher levels of offsite work have degraded customer service, especially at public-facing agencies such as the IRS, VA and SSA. Image: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffUPDATED: The House approved a bill (HR-139) to require federal agencies to roll back their telework policies to those in place at the end of 2019 and to keep them there unless they can make a management case for the higher levels that for the most part remain in place now three years since the pandemic began.
The “Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems,” or Show Up, Act, passed on a 221-206 vote, with only three Democrats joining the Republican sponsors. It was part of a package of bills Republicans brought to votes over several days, including to declare the pandemic-related national emergency and health emergency at an end, and to invalidate the Biden administration’s Coronavirus vaccination mandate for health care personnel in the Medicare and Medicaid programs.
None of those bills are considered likely to pass the Democratic-controlled Senate, however, and may not even be considered there. President Biden meanwhile has announced that the two emergency designations will end May 11.
Under the “Show Up” bill, each agency would have to address “any adverse effects” of increased offsite work on customer service; the cost of paying locality pay to employees receiving higher city-based rates even though they were no longer working there; the costs of maintaining under-used office space; and any technology-related issues that prevented employees from being “fully productive.”
It further would require that after returning to pre-pandemic levels, an agency could not increase telework again until OPM certified that the agency had produced a plan meeting certain standards. Those would include that more offsite work: would have a substantial positive impact on performance of the agency’s mission, including customer service; would substantially lower the agency’s costs for real estate and locality pay; and would not substantially increase costs for costs for secure network capacity, communications tools, and equipment.
The bill reflects arguments that the higher levels of offsite work have degraded customer service, especially at public-facing agencies such as the IRS, VA and SSA. Republicans also have raised the issue of teleworkers who are living outside higher-paying locality zones receiving the salary rates paid in those zones because their official duty sites are within them, even though they only rarely work at those sites.
Federal employee unions and many Democrats in Congress blame customer service problems on under-funding of agencies rather than offsite work, and cite surveys in which employees say they and their work units are more productive. There has been no comprehensive study of telework’s effect on agency productivity nor of the extent to which employees are receiving higher locality pay than their actual work location would merit.
At a briefing just before the vote, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said that “our view is that the agency decisions should be guided by a focus on delivering results for the American people. That’s how they should move forward, like other major employers and federal agencies are making those decisions based on their performance goals, not only to increase efficiency and effectiveness but also to remain competitive in the labor market.”
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See also,
Lifetime Income Potential of Your TSP
How TSP Expenses Get Paid (Deducted)
Warning Signs for Federal Retirement: Are Feds Over-Compensated?
How Not to Lose Your Federal Insurance at Retirement
