Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients disagree on most issues. But one thing they agree about is the importance of federal workers working in their offices instead of their homes.
In a January 23 letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young, Ms. Ernst pointed to the poor attendance levels of President Joe Biden and several of his top appointees as setting a bad example that too many federal workers are following.
“Three years into the Biden administration, it is clear: The federal workforce—and major players in the Biden administration—are taking their lead from President Joe Biden, who has spent about 40 percent of his time in office on vacation,” Ms. Ernst told Ms. Young.
“Notably, President Biden was staying at a swanky vacation home of a Democratic donor on ’tropical St. Croix' at the same time [Defense] Secretary Austin was in the hospital and [Defense] Deputy Secretary Kathleen Hicks was running the Pentagon from Puerto Rico,” Ms. Ernst continued.
“Meanwhile, the Administrator of the General Services Administration (GSA) has also been absent from her D.C. office.
“Administrator [Robin] Carnahan has been thumbing her nose at you from Missouri, where she has spent most of her time working, all while the agency’s ‘full reentry’ plan called employees back to their offices.
“It should be no surprise to learn GSA has an 11 percent office space utilization rate,” Ms Ernst wrote.
The Iowa Republican said President Biden was out of the office 37 percent of the time in 2023, the most of any chief executive in U.S. history.
“While Biden and his bureaucrats are living like every week is beach week, the hardworking Americans paying their salaries don’t have the same luxury of setting their own office hours.
The absence of federal workers from their offices was prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic that reportedly has killed more than 1 million Americans since January 2020.
Private and public sector workers stayed home throughout the pandemic, but then after Mr. Biden declared the crisis over, anywhere from half to three-quarters of the 2.2 million career civil servants continued working from home.
In addition, GAO said “underutilized office space has financial and environmental costs. Federal agencies spend about $2 billion a year to operate and maintain federal office buildings regardless of the buildings’ utilization. In addition, agencies spend about $5 billion annually to lease office buildings.
“Any reduction in office space could reduce these costs. Office buildings also have environmental costs that could be lowered with better utilization. For example, GSA renovated and reduced its current agency real estate footprint, which helped reduce energy consumption and costs.”
The federal government owns more than 500 million square feet of office space in an estimated 1,500 buildings and leases another 180 million square feet in buildings covered by 7,685 rental agreements, according to GAO.
“The federal workforce needs to get back to work. Federal agencies are falling short of their missions. They are not carrying out their duties. They are failing the American people,” Mr. Comer told the House of Representatives during a floor speech explaining his proposal.
“During the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the federal workforce stayed home. They relied on telework because they could. But as the rest of America went back to work in-person, federal workers did not. And the American people have suffered as a result,” Mr. Comer said.
“They have waited for months for their tax refunds from the IRS. They have waited for months for the Social Security Administration to answer their questions and provide their benefits. Our veterans have even waited for months to get their medical records from the National Archives,” he continued.
