Reps. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) and John Sarbanes (D-MD) introduced the Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act. The bill would prohibit the kind of indiscriminate anti-telework policies the Trump Administration has announced for the Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Instead of instituting mindless, sweeping bans on telework participation, agencies should be expanding teleworking options. Telework is supposed to be a tool for promoting government efficiency, performance, and emergency preparedness,” Connolly said.
“Federal government telework programs not only improve productivity, but also save taxpayer money by increasing efficiency, strengthening employee retention and reducing costs for federal office space, as numerous studies have demonstrated,” said Congressman Sarbanes, author of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. “We must push back against the Trump Administration’s repeated attacks on federal telework programs, which make our government work better for the American people.”
Pursuant to recommendations from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act establishes uniform guidance for assessing cost savings achieved through telework and requires agencies to collect information on and report their telework cost savings.
The bill also tasks the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) with establishing a plan to maintain or increase the government-wide telework participation above the 22% it reached in FY2016 – up from 14% in FY2012.
“We are making great progress with widespread adoption of telework in the federal government. We cannot go in reverse. Telework is a valuable tool for not only government efficiency, but also recruitment and retention of a talented federal workforce,” Connolly added.
The legislation would require that agencies include in their long-established telework policies goals for telework participation across the agency. In the 2017 Report on the Status of Telework in the Federal Government, just 83% of agencies reported goals for their total telework participation rate. For the telework categories of Frequent, Infrequent, and Situational, those numbers were just 68%, 67%, and 74%, respectively. If agencies do not have goals for telework participation that they are seeking to either maintain or achieve, they will have less of an incentive to improve access to telework for their workforce.
Finally, the bill clarifies the definition of telework to include full-time telework. This resolves a discrepancy between the 2016 and 2017 data calls for the annual OPM Report on the Status of Telework in the Federal Government.
Text of the legislation is available here.
The Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act has been endorsed by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
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Chris Graham
