Republican Staff Report on Telework Encourages Government to Fail

Washington, D.C. (January 15, 2025)— Rep. Gerald E. Connolly, Ranking Member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, issued a statement urging Committee Republicans to focus the Committee’s efforts on assessing whether federal agencies are getting the American people what they want, need, and deserve rather than using federal telework policies as a scapegoat for their failure to invest in an effective and efficient federal government as they do in their recent report.

“The Majority’s report on telework focuses entirely on the wrong thing.  Congress needs to know if federal agencies are doing what they’re supposed to do—like serving veterans, helping in disaster recovery, and improving public health,” said Ranking Member Connolly.  “In many cases telework helps agencies get the job done and save money.  That is what we should care about—performance and the bottom line.” 

Despite overwhelming evidence from agencies and nonpartisan federal research that show telework across the federal government is at the same or lower levels than telework in the private sector, the Majority chose to cherry-pick data, regurgitate the same false claims, and ignore a mountain of data that show telework works.  

Congress has a longstanding and vested interest in an effective federal workforce.  Telework is an important tool that can benefit government performance by giving workers and agencies the flexibilities they need to best fulfill their missions.  

Republican Myth:  Telework increases costs to the federal government. 

Fact:  Multiple federal agencies reported that telework allowed them to consolidate office space and reduce rental or other building costs yielding current or future cost savings to taxpayers, including the Social Security Administration (SSA), the U.S. Agency for International Development, and Commerce.

As the Biden-Harris Administration’s Robin Carnahan testified at a hearing before the Oversight Committee in November 2023, optimizing the federal building footprint to save taxpayer dollars is a shared goal made possible by telework.  However, federal buildings must support agencies’ missions, which requires investing in the Federal Building Fund—a fund that returns $1 for every six invested in it. 

Republican Myth:  Telework prevents agencies from serving families, businesses, and communities.

Fact:  Telework often improves agency performance and allows for a continuity of operations during pandemics and weather events.  For example, Commerce Department officials reported that significantly increasing telework increased their agency productivity allowing it to meet or exceed 87% of key performance goals. 

Despite Republican claims that agency backlogs are linked to telework, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) attributed the Social Security Administration’s (SSA) challenges to chronic underfunding and a dwindling workforce prompted by past hiring freezes and other workforce disruptions. 

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office also found that telework flexibilities contributed to increasing the talent pool available for federal jobs, and that conversely, limited telework flexibilities contribute to recruitment and retention challenges.  The same GAO report found that telework is used to continue operations during emergencies, allowing the government to continue providing services to Americans even when offices are closed or unsafe.

Republican Myth:  Federal workers telework more than the private sector.

Fact:  A recent Congressional Budget Office study found that private sector workers are actually working from home more than their federal government counterparts.  As well, numerous Office of Personnel Management (OPM) annual reports show that less than half of the federal workforce are even eligible for telework. 

Agencies repeatedly say that structured telework, a contractual agreement that maximizes benefits to the American people, helps them compete for top talent in the nation.  For example, the Department of Health and Human Services reported that the agency is “strategically using workplace flexibilities like telework, remote work, and flexible work schedules to advance their missions and better compete in the national labor market to attract and retain a well-qualified and engaged federal workforce.”

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