WASHINGTON
– Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) joined Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Martin
Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) today, to introduce The Return Employees To Understaffed Worksites
to Reopen Now (RETURN) Act. This bipartisan legislation would direct
federal agencies to submit a comprehensive plan to resume in-person operations
and address constituents’ concerns about federal government services.
“Iowans,
who show up for work each day, have contacted my office about how they can’t
get federal agency staff to return phone calls or complete casework because
bureaucrats aren’t in the office. This is totally unacceptable. My casework
team has been pushing to get Iowans the assistance they deserve, and it’s high
time the rest of the government get back to the office and get back to work,” Grassley
said.
On
June 10, 2021, GSA, OMB and OPM issued a memo regarding the return of federal
employees and contractors to physical workplaces. The deadline to submit plans
was July 19, 2021. However, given the spread of new coronavirus variants, many
agencies have had to produce new plans, which are currently still unavailable
to the general public and to Congress despite ongoing requests.
The
extended absence of some federal workers from their workstations has
exacerbated
ongoing
concerns about the federal government’s general responsiveness and
accessibility. For example, the Department of Veterans Affairs case backlog
rose sharply
to 204,000 cases in October 2021 because of a pause of in-person Compensation
and Pension examinations in 2020. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
has
warned that Americans should expect delays in the processing of their 2021
tax returns because the agency reportedly has 6 million unprocessed individual
2020 tax returns and 2.3 million unprocessed amended tax returns as of Jan. 1.
Last year, the wait time for a new passport
rose
to 12 to 18 weeks. And the Social Security Administration has been widely
criticized for a drop in services because offices are still closed to the
public.
The
senators’ legislation would codify and expand upon the Biden administration
order for agencies to submit plans to return their workers to the office, while
also recognizing the need to make plans for future disruptions to federal
services.
Among
other provisions, the legislation would:
·
Direct
federal agencies to submit to Congress and publish on their website a plan for
the agency to resume in-person operations no later than 30 days after enactment
of the legislation;
·
Enable
employees who can successfully achieve their duties outside their workstation
to work remotely if agency policy permits;
·
Require
federal agencies to devise explicit guidelines for employees who handle
sensitive or private information to ensure essential services can be provided;
·
Require
agencies to implement performance metrics to identify employees failing to
fulfill duties;
·
Require
federal agencies to establish a contingency plan for an increase in COVID-19
transmission that would require employees to work remotely;
·
Require
agencies to submit plans to prepare for an event in which remote work would
become necessary; and
·
Require
agencies to report the utilization of physical work spaces and recommend the
termination of leases for underused spaces to the Administrator of General
Services no later than 60 days after enactment.
Click
here
to read the full text of the legislation.