Tipsheet

'Out of Office': GOP Senator Releases Shocking Report on Telework Abuse by Federal Employees

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  December 08, 2024 10:30 AM

Nearly five years have passed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but Washington bureaucrats continue to operate as if the U.S. is in the midst of an emergency, a new Senate report found.

“The headquarters of most agencies remain largely abandoned,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, in a report titled “Out of Office.” 

“Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business, and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time,” the summary states. “Members of President Biden’s own cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable. Just three percent of the federal workforce teleworked daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, six percent of workers report in-person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are entirely remote. Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90 percent of those are. Some come to the office as infrequently as once a week.” 

The report calls out a number of problems associated with these MIA bureaucrats, including delayed services, backlogs, unanswered calls and emails—all of which are harming taxpayers looking for assistance.

Public employees have also been found to be living thousands of miles away from their office while still claiming to be working from locations with higher pay rates, thereby boosting their salaries. 

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Additionally, abandoned government buildings are costing taxpayers billions and in some cases pose serious health threats. 

In September 2023, the GSA OIG issued an alert memorandum warning, “the current reduced building occupancy levels can lead to water stagnation, which provides ideal conditions for the growth and spread of legionella and increases the likelihood that other buildings may be contaminated.” Yet, like other government agencies in this work-from-home era, GSA was slow to respond. As a result, employees and visitors to government offices serving veterans, senior citizens, and the disabled were potentially exposed to toxic water. Bacteria levels exceeding safe thresholds have been found in a children’s playroom and a toddler restroom.

Underutilized buildings causing hazardous water are creating a vicious cycle as workers are being evacuated en masse once again. Federal Trade Commission employees were only required to show up to the office “about once a week,” but now the agency’s 600 workers are being told to stay home due to the Legionella in the agency’s headquarters. Similarly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) complex was closed in June 2024 after Legionella bacteria was discovered, sending the agency’s 3,500 employees and contractors home “until the situation is resolved.”  The agency declined to comment when asked about its telework policies, so “it is not clear how many CMS workers have been on campus in recent months after staff largely shifted to remote work during the coronavirus pandemic.” As long as government buildings remain abandoned, this problem will persist.

You may be more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat haunting the halls of some government buildings in Washington, D.C. these days.Not a single headquarters of a major government agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full. Yet it’s costing $8 billion every year to maintain or lease government office buildings. (Out of Office)

Based on her findings, Ernst recommends relocating Washington’s workforce across the country to areas more aligned with their missions, take a “use it or lose it” approach to office space, track employees’ work and productivity, end paycheck padding, and begin tracking who is present in office buildings and when through card access systems, allowing agencies to hold no-shows accountable and keep track of how much office space agencies truly need.