DC Mayor Wants Federal Agencies to Coordinate Policies for In-Person Work

With government health emergency nearly ended, the city is closing all COVID-19 centers

Morning traffic builds up on 14th street NW in downtown Washington on March 16, 2016. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Photo)

With the Biden administration’s announcement that it will end the COVID-19 emergency status across the federal workforce and the nation by May 11, the District of Columbia is also trying to return to a prepandemic economy.

Mayor Muriel Bowser is urging President Joe Biden to do more to reinvigorate Washington’s economy, including requiring a unified return-to-work policy for all federal agencies that are housed in the capital’s once-bustling downtown.

“What we want to see is a more centralized policy,” Bowser said during a Saturday interview with Meet the Press NOW on NBC News.

While some federal agencies have recently required workers to return to their downtown offices, many others require only one day in-person or are still 100 percent telework, which is continuing to hurt the local economy, Bowser said.

“As a result, you don’t have a vibrant downtown. And we know that the downtown and the capital of the free world should be vibrant and bustling,” she said. “It has real-life consequences for cities where we don’t have our workers.”

According to a 2022 report put out by the D.C. Policy Center in conjunction with the capital’s Chamber of Commerce, the shift to remote work had a major impact on Washington’s labor market, commuter and tourist activity, unoccupied office space, and decreased economic activity in the city.

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser stands on the rooftop of the Hay Adams Hotel near the White House and looks out at the words "Black Lives Matter" that have been painted in bright yellow letters on the street by city workers and activists in Washington on June 5, 2020. (Executive Office of the Mayor/Khalid Naji-Allah via AP)

George Washington University School of Business professor James Bailey told WTOP News in January that getting federal workers back to in-person work is crucial for Washington’s economy.

“You have to understand how important that is, because the federal government owns or leases one-third of all office space in downtown D.C.,” said Bailey. “Some agencies have 50 percent back. Some only have 10 percent back. Some have set no policy whatsoever. I’ve talked to people who say when they go in, within their office space there are maybe two other people there.”

A fairly large percentage of the district’s workforce moved to other regions, taking with them all of the economic benefits of having workers in the city.

The D.C. Policy Center estimated the 2021 economic loss resulting from the pandemic to be $774 million.

An average of 60 percent of workers in large office buildings have continued to work from home as of July 2022, and many residents have chosen to relocate to areas with lower housing costs and a lower cost of living, resulting in a loss of over 20,000 residents, the report said.

Office buildings have remained largely vacant, with office vacancy reaching a historic high of 15 percent in the second quarter of 2022.

Bowser said the economy has suffered with the COVID lockdowns and remote work, affecting businesses and crime, so she hopes Biden will require federal agencies to unify their policy to bring back workers.

“I just hope that we don’t see that [working from home] have an effect on our investments and public education and public safety,” Bowser said.

Bowser’s administration also announced its decision to shut down all of Washington’s COVID-19 centers, where the district provided vaccines, testing, and masks since January 2022.

As cases of COVID-19 continue to decline in Washington, being the lowest since the pandemic began, Bower’s administration has been prompted to end any pandemic-era measures that remain, including closing all COVID-19 centers on March 31.

The district’s health department said in a recent statement said it’s taking this step because there has been a significant decline in COVID-19 cases and because most residents are vaccinated and have easy access to the vaccines and testing kits for at-home use.