(The Center Square) – Work-from-home policies implemented in the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic have outlasted that era, but workers may be leaving their houses soon under Republican rule.
Republican lawmakers are again criticizing the work-from-home policies that have become the new normal for many federal workers after an outgoing Biden administration official codified more of those policies.
Critics say federal workers should have to come into the office. Billionaire Elon Musk, who now helps oversee the president’s government efficiency efforts, has been a vocal critic of working from home, saying it is unfair to those who go into the office.
That issue resurfaced this week when House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., criticized a new agreement signed by outgoing Social Security Administrator Martin O’Malley that keeps in place teleworking policies through 2029.
“President Trump was elected specifically on the promise of greater accountability in our federal government, yet, if these reports are to be believed, the outgoing Administration – having been overwhelmingly rejected by the American people – is undermining the will of the people and the incoming Administration’s ability to provide service to the roughly 68 million Americans who rely on Social Security,” Smith said.
The telework policies were part of a larger union deal struck by the Biden administration. President Joe Biden has repeatedly pledged to be the most pro-union president in history.
“By guaranteeing that front-line employees at the struggling Social Security Administration can work from home up to two days a week instead of providing face-to-face service to the approximately 170,000 Americans who visit Social Security offices each day, the Biden Administration makes it clear that they value federal employee unions over the American public,” Smith said.
“This comes after another unilateral decision by the now former Social Security Commissioner to shutter Social Security offices to give random days off to workers without consideration for the impact to beneficiaries,” he added.
The U.S. Office of Management and Budget, an agency closely controlled by the White House that oversees the federal government, released a Congressionally-mandated report on teleworking in August.
The roughly 3,000-page report found that of the 1.1 million workers whose jobs do not necessarily require them to always be in person, they work in-person about 60% of the time.
This partisan report may overestimate the amount of in-person work to anticipate the criticisms of many Republicans, who say the telework policies are abused by lazy bureaucrats at the expense of the American taxpayer.
The SSA deal serves as a reminder of those policies and may provoke Republicans to take action when they take control of the House, Senate and the White House next year.
“THOUSANDS of federal employees just landed a work from home deal ahead of @realDonaldTrump taking office,” House Oversight Chair Rep. James Comer wrote on X. “This is why I introduced the SHOW UP Act. Our government needs to show up for the people it serves.”
