Senate bill aims to increase oversight of federal teleworkers

New bill would require federal workers to return back to their offices

Two-thirds of federal workers say they're still teleworking occasionally. On Capitol Hill, there's a new push to get federal workers out of their homes, and back into the office. FOX 5's Tom Fitzgerald has the story.

WASHINGTON - As two-thirds of federal employees say they still telework occasionally, there's a new push on Capitol Hill to get federal workers out of their homes and into the office.

Republican Senator Joni Ernst and Democratic Senator Gary Peters recently introduced the bipartisan "Telework Transparency Act." The senators say they're tired of getting conflicting information from federal agencies regarding the number of workers who have yet to return to their offices. During a recent hearing, Ernst engaged in a tense exchange with USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack over telework productivity.

"Your employee goes on to say that remote work and telework employees are often unreachable and don’t even respond to simple email questions for hours," said Ernst.

"To suggest that they’re not working, I think, is an affront to the hard-working members of the USA family," said Vilsack. "I can show you chapter and verse of all the work that’s getting done."

The proposed bill aims to provide updated information on federal telework, including reports on productivity and office space usage. It also seeks to establish automated systems to track telework usage across federal agencies.

"Americans have been on hold while bureaucrats phone it in," Ernst said in a statement to FOX 5, adding the remote lifestyle comes at the expense of the people federal agencies are meant to serve.