House Oversight report says telework is 'wasting billions' in taxpayer cash ahead of 1st hearing

FIRST ON FOX: The House Oversight Committee found that prolonged pandemic-era telework has been "detrimental" to government agencies and new employee training, and it laid out in a new report proposed recommendations for the Trump administration to bring federal workers back to unused and vacant federal office buildings. 

Fox News Digital obtained the House Oversight Committee’s report on the Biden-Harris administration’s policy of keeping federal workers in a telework, work-from-home format, even after COVID restrictions were lifted across the country and private-sector workers returned to in-person work settings.

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The report, titled "The lights are on, but everyone is at home: Why the new administration will enter largely vacant federal agency offices," is 41 pages and was prepared by Republicans on the committee.

During the last Congress, the committee investigated the extent of federal telework and remote work, the degree of oversight over its use and its impact on mission outcomes. The committee found that American taxpayers wasted "billions to pay for owned and leased federal office space that remains largely vacant." 

The report states that "physical and anecdotal evidence suggests the [Biden] Administration’s self-reported telework data exaggerates in-office attendance." 

"But even the self-reported data is striking: of the 2.28 million federal civilian employees, approximately 228,000 are never required to show up to the office, and nearly all of the other 1.1 million employees technically-eligible for telework are engaged in telework," the report states. "Further, telework-eligible employees at several agencies collectively spend less than half their work hours in the office—below the Administration’s own RTO target." 

The report added, "American taxpayers are wasting billions to pay for owned and leased federal office space that remain largely vacant. The Biden-Harris Administration did little to reduce the federal footprint despite maintaining massive telework levels."

The committee also found that the Biden-Harris administration worked with federal labor unions and their allies to maintain "unsupportable high telework levels," which investigators say undermine the ability of the incoming Trump administration to reduce them. 

"The lights may be on in federal buildings, but too many federal bureaucrats continue to work from home," House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., told Fox News Digital in a statement. "The House Oversight Committee’s investigation into prolonged pandemic-era telework reveals the Biden-Harris Administration has ceded too much authority to the federal union bosses, allowing their preference to work from home to take precedence over fulfilling agencies’ missions and serving the American people." 

Comer also told Fox News Digital that President Trump "was elected in a landslide to bring accountability to Washington." 

"Our report not only identifies the many problems with massive federal telework but also proposes solutions to get federal employees back to their offices, dispose of unused and vacant federal property, and prioritize the needs of the American people over the wants of federal bureaucrats," Comer said. "We look forward to working with President Trump and his administration to ensure the federal bureaucracy is fully accountable to the American people."

Comer and committee investigators said the Trump administration should base telework and remote work policies "on achievement of mission outcomes, not employee preferences or union demands." 

They also recommended establishing automated systems for tracking the use of telework and creating "clear, measurable metrics to evaluate its costs and benefits." 

Comer also recommends the Trump administration impose "more frequent and timely reporting requirements on agency-level telework" to better inform executive branch officials and members of Congress. 

Meanwhile, Comer also recommends using the White House and central management agencies to implement an enterprise-wide approach to telework that prioritizes the public interest. He said the administration should "not permit a telework bidding war among agencies looking to attract federal workers that transfer between them based on which will let them stay home the most." 

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The House Oversight Committee’s report comes just hours before it holds its first hearing of the new Congress. 

The hearing, titled "Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Administration Legacy," is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m.

Former Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, Federal City Council Board of Directors President Tom Davis and Rachel Greszler of the Economic Policy Innovation Center are set to testify.

O’Malley, before the end of his tenure, locked in telework agreements for 42,000 Social Security employees until 2029. 

"It’s past time for the federal workforce to get back to work in-person for the American people," Comer told Fox News Digital last week, upon announcing the hearing. "The House Oversight Committee remains committed to ensuring federal employees show up for the American people they serve."

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According to a Senate report authored by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the federal government owns more than 7,000 vacant buildings and nearly 2,500 buildings that are partially empty. 

The report also states that government buildings average an occupancy rate of 12%. 

During the hearing, the committee plans to examine how the Biden-Harris administration "failed to return federal workers to the office" and that failure could "hinder" the incoming Trump administration’s ability to bring them back due to long-term guarantees of telework in deals signed with federal employee unions.