Staff Reports
The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has uncovered a shocking revelation: under the Biden administration, federal employees have taken “work from home” to a whole new level, potentially costing taxpayers billions on empty office spaces. It appears the only thing more out of touch than the Biden-Harris leadership is the prized federal employees lounging in their pajamas, all while the government foots the bill for office space they’re not using. Unsurprisingly, the committee’s report indicates that the problem isn’t just about empty desks; it’s about a federal workforce that has seemingly adopted a cozy telework culture, with little regard for accountability or productivity.
Numerous investigations reveal that the Biden administration might be puffing up the numbers regarding how many federal employees are actually showing up for duty. Statistics from May indicate that amidst over 2.28 million federal civilian positions, around 228,000 employees never need to step foot inside an office, with those eligible for telework spending less than half their work hours in a federal building. Meanwhile, federal workers on telework have roughly doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic, ballooning from a mere 2% remote in 2019 to a whopping 10% today. It seems like there’s been more telecommuting than actual telecommunications happening at the federal level.
Stay-at-Home Bureaucrats: Congressional probe exposes billions in waste from federal telework gigs https://t.co/PsiKFlK7iK
— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) January 15, 2025
Even more entertaining is the fact that some agencies are reporting astronomical occupancy rates. The General Services Administration and the Department of Health and Human Services are prime examples, with some buildings reporting occupancy as low as 9%. It might be time to hire a detective to find out where everyone’s disappearing to, considering the government has been shelling out $7 billion annually on maintaining these largely vacant office spaces. As if handing out paychecks was not enough, some agencies have spent lavishly on furniture and conference room updates, all for rooms that are barely witnessing any meetings or discussions.
The icing on the cake is that the outgoing Biden administration ensured that its telework policies would continue to thrive in the next administration. By cementing long-term agreements with powerful federal unions, union bosses can now ensure that their members can continue teleworking well into the future, with no accountability in sight. Instead of easing up on remote work, the Biden crew threw a telework party that would make any slacker’s dreams come true. Unfortunately for taxpayers, this means a continuation of lame-duck politics that only serve to congest the gears of government under the weight of union agreements.
The good news is that the House Oversight Committee has laid out a set of recommendations aimed at dialing back this telework trend. Suggestions include establishing clearer metrics for performance, limiting telework to pre-pandemic levels, and potentially cutting out collective bargaining over telework entirely. One can only hope that the incoming Trump administration will embrace these ideas to restore order, prioritize accountability for federal employees, and get them back to work, where they belong. After all, prioritizing the American people’s needs over the whims of their overpriced government employees is a battle worth fighting.
