To U.S.

Taxpayers
From Senator Joni Ernst

Out of Office
Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths
but not in office buildings
Aa Send

2024
 Table of Contents
Aa

03
Executive Summary
05
Introduction: Out of Office
Bounceback

08
Bureaucrat Hide-and-Seek:
14
Bureaucrats Phone It In:
The President Doesn’t Even Services Suffer as Taxpayers
Know Where His Own Staff Is Are Put on Hold

21
Public Employees Padding
25
Abandoned Government
Paychecks By Avoiding the Buildings Continue Costing
Office Billions of Dollars

35
Union Members Show Up to
39
Recommendations: Making
the Office Demanding the Telework Work for Taxpayers
Right to Stay Home

Out of Office 1
 Executive Summary
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Bureaucrats Are Playing Hide-and-Seek

Bureaucrats have been found in a bubble bath, on the golf course, running their own business,
and even getting busted doing crime while on taxpayers’ time. Members of President Biden’s
own cabinet claimed to be on the clock while being out of office and unreachable.
Just three percent of the federal workforce teleworked daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Today, six percent of workers report in-person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are
entirely remote.
Most federal employees are eligible to telework and 90 percent of those are. Some come to the
office as infrequently as once a week.
The Biden administration redacted the locations of over 281,000 rank-and-file federal
employees.

Services Suffer as Taxpayers are Put on Hold by Bureaucrats

Phoning It in
Service backlogs and delays, unanswered phone calls and emails, and no-show appointments
are harming the health, lives, and aspirations of Americans.
Thousands of calls from veterans seeking mental health care go unanswered. Remote work may
be partly responsible for the recent baby formula crisis. Small businesses, students, and other
taxpayers seeking assistance are instead getting sent to voicemail.

Public Employees Padding Their Paychecks by Avoiding the Office

Some bureaucrats are claiming to be working in areas with higher pay rates while actually living
elsewhere.
My audits are finding as many as 23 to 68 percent of teleworking employees for some agencies
are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay.
Some employees live more than 2,000 miles away from their office and one “temporary”
teleworker collected higher locality pay for nearly a decade.

Maintaining Abandoned Government Buildings Costs Billions of

Dollars
Not a single headquarters of a major agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half
full. Government buildings average an occupancy rate of 12 percent.

2 Senator Joni Ernst

Maintaining and leasing government office buildings costs $8 billion every year. Another $7.7
billion is spent for the energy to keep them running.
Billions more are spent buying brand new furnishings for the abandoned offices. The
government also owns 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are partially empty. An
additional $14 million is being spent leasing underutilized space and nearly $1 million more for
its maintenance.

Union Members Demand the Right to Stay Home

Federal employee unions believe their collective bargaining agreements cannot be overridden
by presidential directives. Unions are filing lawsuits and grievances opposing efforts to return
government employees to the office.
Apparently, the president of a public employees union, not the President of the United States, is
currently deciding personnel policy for the U.S government.

Make Telework Work for Taxpayers

Drain the swamp by relocating Washington’s workforce. Moving those making the rules closer
to those who live under them will benefit all Americans. More than 29,000 federal employees
are relocated each year. Most government managers say the reassignments achieve cost savings
and are effective for skills development.
Downsize the federal government by implementing a “use it or lose it” approach to government
real estate. Allow unnecessary leases to expire and auction off unused office space. Consolidate
offices to ensure maximum space utilization.
If, whether, and how often each employee is allowed to telework must be determined by that
employee’s individual performance. Effective management means ending blanket teleworking
determinations and tracking each employee’s performance and place of work.
Knowing and showing where employees are prevents fraudulent paycheck padding and
increases accountability. Employees’ locations and work product can be monitored via virtual
private networks (VPNs), office swipe-ins, and network traffic. Tracking employees’ locations
and work products—like the private sector does—can identify poor performers and improve
management.
If bureaucrats don’t want to return to work, make their wish come true.

Out of Office 3
 Out of Office Bounceback
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“Out of the office” is taking on a whole new meaning in the nation’s capital since most
government employees are rarely in the office.
Just three percent of the federal workforce teleworked on a daily basis before the COVID-19
pandemic.1 Today, the temporary pandemic-era practice is a presumed public employee
perk. Six percent report in-person on a full-time basis while nearly a third of the government
workforce is entirely remote.2
President Biden is setting the example. He was out of office 532 days over the last three-and-
a-half years, about 40 percent of the time he was expected to be in the Oval Office.3 While
Hurricane Helene was leaving a path of destruction across the southeast United States, the
president was once again at the beach in Delaware and the vice president was also out of town
collecting campaign cash in California.4
And since no one’s home at the White House, the bureaucrats are setting their own schedules.
As a result, the nation’s capital is a ghost town, with government buildings averaging an
occupancy rate of 12 percent.5
If federal employees can’t be found at their desks, exactly where are they?
I tried tracking them down with the help of the non-profit transparency group Open the Books.
But it became a game of bureaucrat hide-and-seek, with the Biden Administration redacting the
work locations of over 281,000 rank-and-file federal employees.6
Some Americans are literally getting sick of employees not showing up to do their jobs.
Babies may be harmed because a whistleblower complaint was left unread by the Food and
Drug Administration. Warnings about unsanitary conditions at a baby formula factory linked
to the deaths emailed and FedExed to the agency were ignored for months as the problem
grew worse.7 The FDA says the oversight was “likely due to COVID-19 staffing issues.”8 A similar
tragedy could occur any day because a massive backlog of inspections piled up after the agency
curtailed on-site reviews of food and drug manufacturing facilities during the pandemic that
persists to this day.9
Getting government employees to even answer their office phones is a challenge.
The pleas from students calling for help with financial aid forms10 and small businesses seeking
disaster assistance11 are going straight to voicemail.
Folks in Iowa caring for the disadvantaged contacted me frustrated by the lack of responsiveness
from the local Social Security Administration office where employees telework several days a
week. Months passed before receiving replies to simple questions, causing significant delays
serving the elderly and disabled. The desperate situation threatened to put the caregivers out of
business12 and was only resolved after I personally intervened and discussed the matter face-to-
face with the administrator.

4 Senator Joni Ernst

But perhaps most disturbing, thousands of calls from veterans seeking mental health care
went unanswered and therapists didn’t even show up for their appointments with veterans at
an Atlanta VA.13 Meanwhile, a manager responsible for overseeing the scheduling of veterans’
appointments in Atlanta dialed into a meeting from a bubble bath—and even posted a selfie on
social media soaking in the tub with the caption, “my office for the next hour.”14
Instead of pulling the plug on these “bubble bath bureaucrats,” taxpayer dollars keep going
down the drain paying their salaries and maintaining their empty offices.
Over the past two years, I’ve sent over 100 oversight letters to departments and agencies
requesting documents and audits. At my request, 14 inspector general investigations are
ongoing or completed. This report reflects the initial findings from my continuing oversight
efforts into telework abuse along with recommendations for better managing the federal
workforce to ensure our government is working for the people first and foremost.
Being out of office isn’t just a dereliction of duty.
Taxpayers are being ripped off. Some bureaucrats are padding their paychecks by claiming to
be working in areas with higher pay rates while actually living elsewhere. My audits are finding
as many as 23 to 68 percent of teleworking employees for some agencies are boosting their
salaries by receiving incorrect locality pay.15 This is fraud, folks. Additionally, billions of dollars
are being spent heating, cooling, and maintaining largely empty buildings. Billions more is being
wasted on new office furniture. Meanwhile, getting rid of just 23 of the government’s many
underutilized buildings and properties will save taxpayers more than $1 billion.16 This is a small
fraction of potential savings if other unused space was sold off.
Veterans, seniors, families, students, small business owners, and others are being harmed.
The VA, SSA, FDA, and other agencies exist to serve Americans. A veteran who put their life on
the line protecting our nation deserves respect. A senior who lived a lifetime, raising a family,
working, and paying taxes, should be honored, not forgotten, in retirement. A student pursuing
an education and a dream should be not ignored but rather encouraged to succeed. Too
frequently that is not happening. Public service is a public trust and right now trust in our public
institutions is hitting rock bottom.
Festering health hazards endanger the civil servants and visitors who are showing up.
Dangerous contaminants are collecting in stagnant water caused by reduced building
occupancy. Several employees who work in federal buildings have been diagnosed with
Legionnaires’ Disease17 and the potentially deadly bacteria is being found in underutilized
government buildings across the country.18 Unsafe levels of lead and copper are being detected
in the drinking water in child care centers located in government buildings.19 It’s safer to drink
water out of the tap in Flint, Michigan today than from the faucets in many federal buildings!20
AWOL leadership creates national security risks. While American citizens were being held
hostage by terrorists and wars were escalating in Europe and the Middle East, the commander-
in-chief, the Secretary of Defense, and the de facto head of the Pentagon were all missing in
action at the same time this past year.21 The defense of our nation isn’t a part-time job and
cannot be conducted while relaxing on a beach.
Americans are being put on hold by bureaucrats who are phoning it in. Our government is
supposed to be of the people, by the people, for the people. Our citizens are taxed way too

Out of Office 5
 much to pay the salaries of government employees who don’t seem to understand or care who
they work for.
My office keeps answering the calls from veterans, students, small business owners, taxpayers,
and even federal employees frustrated by Washington’s out of office attitude.
Growing up on a farm, I know what working from home really means. But in Washington,
working from home apparently means having a field day. If bureaucrats want to be out of the
office so badly, we can make that wish come true by putting them out to pasture for good.
The most basic expectation for public service is being available and responsive to citizens. If
showing up is half the battle, many in the federal workforce are in full retreat. It is not fair when
slackers are allowed to tarnish the reputations of the hardworking public servants who are
showing up and answering the call of duty.
This report provides insights and recommendations to make telework work for taxpayers, not
just bureaucrats.

6 Senator Joni Ernst

 Bureaucrat Hide-and-Seek
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The President Doesn’t Even Know Where His Own Staff Is

When I was making the biscuits at Hardee’s, I clocked in every morning. At the end of my shift, I
clocked out. If I didn’t show up, the biscuits wouldn’t be made, and I wouldn’t be paid. Plain and
simple.
There is no such accountability today for the federal workforce.
Over half of federal employees are telework-eligible, and nearly 90 percent of those are
teleworking.22 But no one is checking to make sure everyone made it to work or even logged on
to their computer. Backlogs for services are typical and accountability is rare.
It took years to fire a senior IRS employee who routinely abused his remote work arrangement
by playing golf during the workday for nearly a decade. Legal appeals by the “golf ball
bureaucrat” dragged on for many years before the court finally ruled firing someone for taking
tee time on the taxpayers’ dime is par for the course.23
Should it really take a decade to resolve a single case that should have been an easy hole-in-
one?
There are over two million civilian employees sprawled across countless departments and
agencies.24 With being away from the office now the expectation for most government
employees, monitoring telework abuse is even more challenging. That is, if anyone is even
bothering to track time being spent in the office or working from a designated telework location
during the duty day.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) oversees personnel policy for the federal
government’s workforce, or at least it’s supposed to. But the Biden/Harris OPM is delegating
this duty, saying “agencies are responsible” for making their own telework decisions, including
determining employees’ official worksites,25 proper locality pay,26 the number of days per pay
period an employee may be permitted to work remotely,27 and all other major components of
telework policy.28
Agencies, in turn, are delegating responsibility for tracking, recording, and holding teleworking
employees accountable to supervisors and managers.
Since the missions of each agency and office differ, telework practices could vary. Some jobs
may be almost entirely in the field. Others can be performed anywhere. But many require a
physical presence. It should be relatively easy to look at a job description and determine if
remote work, telework, or in-office work makes sense. Likewise, if an employee isn’t meeting
performance goals, telework is not appropriate and more face-to-face management may be
required to achieve better results.
However, agencies are not tracking telework in the same way or collecting the same data.
Teleworking employees’ productivity is also not being tracked in any comprehensive way. This
lack of information, transparency, and curiosity is undermining the ability to make meaningful,

Out of Office 7
 broader decisions and comparisons about workforce management policy and workspace needs.
While maximum telework policy was implemented as a temporary measure to slow the spread
of COVID-19 and protect the health of federal employees, nearly five years have passed and the
emergency is over. The world has changed as a result of that experience and all employers are
adapting, except the federal government.
Washington is still operating as if it’s March 2020. The headquarters of most agencies remain
largely abandoned. Government employees are scattered and often unreachable—including
members of the president’s cabinet and other agency heads!
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, his Deputy Kathleen Hicks, General Services Administrator Robin
Carnahan, and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg all claimed to be on the clock while being
out of office and unreachable.
• Secretary Austin didn’t inform the president, the national security advisor, or other White
House officials when he was hospitalized for days;29
• Deputy Secretary Hicks ran the Pentagon while on a beach vacation in Puerto Rico;30
• Secretary Buttigieg claimed to be online 24/7 while on paternity leave, but declined phone
calls and meetings with Members of Congress of both parties;31 and
• Administrator Carnahan largely works from home in Missouri, not from her D.C. office.32

These absences are negatively impacting agency performance and morale as even employees
within the agencies are frustrated by the unresponsiveness of their own managers and
colleagues.
A whistleblower who is a current supervisor within the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
informs me “the vast majority of USDA employees are not working in person. On the occasions
I have gone to USDA headquarters in Washington, D.C., it resembles a ghost town. Hallways
are mostly empty, and offices are unoccupied.”33 This whistleblower says, “remote work and
telework employees are often unreachable and do not respond to simple email questions for
hours. This leads to inefficiency in completing tasks in a timely manner and to delays in clearing
documents and reports due to the inability to reach colleagues.”34
This should come as no surprise since “all USDA employees, regardless of tenure, grade, job
series, title, or supervisory designation are presumed eligible for telework.”35
An Iowan who worked for the USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service tells me his former
colleagues describe working from home as, “like being on vacation. Very little work was
assigned and all they had to do was be available by phone.”36
USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack pushed back when I questioned him about these claims when he
testified before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. The Secretary
claimed D.C.-based managers and employees are required to physically be in the office “a
majority of the week,” and, when asked for clarification, he said he meant three-to-four days
per week.37 However, public reporting indicates telework-eligible managers and supervisors at
the USDA’s D.C. headquarters have been required to be in the office five days per two-week pay
period—which is less than three days a week—since September 10, 2023.38
Secretary Vilsack also took issue with findings from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)
that nearly 90 percent of the office space in USDA’s headquarters is sitting idle and unused.39

8 Senator Joni Ernst

Secretary Vilsack said that calculation is “not even close to correct” and these numbers do
not reflect “what is happening.”40 A separate analysis by the Public Buildings Reform Board,
however, confirmed GAO’s estimates, finding a mere six percent of the office space at USDA is
currently being used.41
When a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
manager posted a picture of himself “working”
from a bubble bath on social media, his frustrated
coworkers became whistleblowers. One of which
stated, “If you think that this is not a big deal then
what is a big deal? Is it a big deal when a veteran
dies?”42 That’s right, the employees of the agency
turned in their own manager for abusing telework.
The failure of managers to set the right example
and properly monitor teleworkers creates an
“anything goes” attitude with other employees.
More than 90 percent of the employees at the
Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) regularly work from home and are not
required to come to the office more than one day a
week.43
A whistleblower who contacted my office is
frustrated that HUD telework flexibilities are so lax,
some employees engage in personal activities—
even drinking and then driving intoxicated—while
on taxpayer-funded time. This whistleblower claims
first-hand knowledge that a long-time employee of
the department44 and the former president of the
American Federation of Government Employees
Local 313845 was allegedly arrested for driving
under the influence of alcohol during the workday. The bubble bath bureaucrat logged into a meeting
She allegedly claimed she was engaged in taxpayer- from his tub then posted this pic on social media.
funded union activities46 while being held at a His coworkers turned him in for “making a mockery
of all the veterans.”
county jail in Oklahoma. 47

The whistleblower contends multiple DUIs weren’t sufficient grounds for suspension from
her job at HUD. According to documents my office received from the whistleblower, this
“jailbird bureaucrat” remained a HUD employee until she was finally fired for embezzling over
$20,000 of union funds in August 2023.48 The DOL Office of Labor-Management Standards
(OLMS) brought criminal charges against her on June 26, 202449 for making false statements
and fraudulently reporting no receipts of union funds to conceal how she was embezzling the
money for personal use.50
While the disgraced former federal employee is disputing the allegations, without providing
documentation, HUD is reviewing the claims at my request and is committed to providing
answers about the case of the jailbird bureaucrat.

Out of Office 9
 She isn’t the only teleworking bureaucrat busted committing crime on taxpayer time.
For more than three years, a Social Security Administration (SSA) employee claimed to
be teleworking while running his own personal business. He “routinely performed home
inspections for his personal business during the workweek while purporting to ‘telework’ on
official SSA time. He concealed the fact that he was not performing SSA work during official
work hours by having his wife and his mother access the SSA computer system and send emails
to supervisors to make it appear as though he was online and working.” During this time, he
submitted 53 fraudulent time reports to the SSA and falsified daily work logs to his supervisors.
In total, his fraudulent conduct cost taxpayers nearly $50,000.51
“Telework and emergency leave policies exist to provide needed flexibility and support to hard-
working federal employees—not to supplement the incomes of no-show employees who want
to double-dip on the public’s dime while working for a private business,” said the U.S. Attorney
for the Southern District of Indiana. “The defendant’s conduct was even more egregious
because his failure to work harmed Americans who were depending on him to receive the
much-needed benefits to which they were entitled. Public service is a public trust, and those
who abuse that trust will be held accountable.”52
Other telework abuses may not be criminal but should be.
DOD established a Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office (CDAO) in 2022 to ensure “our
warfighters have the best digital capabilities.”53 From its beginnings, this AI office was plagued
by AL—absent leadership.54
Despite being headquartered at the Pentagon, the head of CDAO worked remotely from the
West Coast. He hired two others who work in California and, according to a source, have “no
situational awareness of what’s going on in D.C.” As a result, “they can’t do their job.” One is
paid “almost $450,000 as a remote worker to fly in and out from California,” what the source
says amounts to “waste, fraud, and abuse.”55
The absent chief departed earlier this year.56 How do you leave when you were never actually
there? A classic “if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?”
moment.
Another senior teleworker who is supposed to oversee acquisition “is never at work and
can’t functionally lead her people,” according to a source. The situation was first reported by
Breitbart, which notes “this lack of direction and cohesion has been exacerbated by the office’s
lenient remote work policy put into place during the COVID pandemic that is still in effect, the
sources said. They said some people have even moved to different states.”57
Calls, letters, and messages to my office by other federal employees provide similar anecdotal
examples.
A federal employee who wished to remain anonymous says “he is one of few who reports to
the Washington, D.C., office, and contractors have commented to him about the whereabouts
of agency employees.” He observes, “it’s all empty around me. I’m the only person within three
rows where I sit. It doesn’t look good.”58
The leadership is either blind to the problem or part of it.
There are allegations rank-and-file Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) supervisors and

10 Senator Joni Ernst

employees are ignoring Administrator Michael Whitaker’s directive for teleworking employees
to report to their official worksites at least four days per two-week pay period.59
And while DOT claims its telework-eligible workforce is spending 60 percent of the time in the
office,60 food services at the department’s headquarters have been closed apparently due to
lack of demand.61
“Some federal employees who have been allowed to work fully remotely say that forcing them
to come back to the office would upend their lives.” Some moved across the country and
complain returning to the office would require them to commute and spend less time with
family.62 That’s the reality of working for most Americans!
The Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government state, “without a strong tone
at the top to support an internal control system, … results … may not be … acted upon to
remediate deficiencies.”63 This principle of fraud prevention also applies perfectly to telework
abuse.
The “tone at the top” currently being set in Washington is out of office, out of sight, and out of
mind.
I contacted the inspectors general of the 24 major federal departments and agencies requesting
investigations of teleworking practices at each to determine the impact on both services and
building utilization and if measures are being taken to ensure the salary system cannot be
gamed to pad paychecks.
Fourteen investigations have been initiated. Three are completed and the rest are being
finalized.
• The Architect of the Capitol OIG found 80 percent of the office’s teleworkers are receiving
incorrect locality pay;64
• The Department of Commerce OIG found nearly one in four teleworkers sampled across ten
bureaus were being overpaid;65
• The HUD OIG found some department employees live more than 2,000 miles away from the
office;66
• The USDA OIG is completing an audit of department locality pay practices and a review of
office space utilization;
• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission OIG will complete an audit of telework and locality pay
policies and practices;
• The EPA OIG is evaluating locality pay of remote and teleworking employees;
• The DOD OIG is evaluating internal controls for locality pay of remote workers;
• The Department of Interior OIG is evaluating the locality pay of remote workers;
• The DOT OIG is evaluating in-office, telework, and remote work policies;
• The OPM OIG is evaluating procedures the agency uses to manage its workforce in a hybrid
work environment;
• The SSA OIG is evaluating locality pay issues, workplace utilization, and productivity;
• The Treasury OIG is evaluating expanded telework implementation during and after the
pandemic;
• The National Aeronautics and Space Administration OIG is evaluating office and property
utilization; and
• The GSA OIG included telework in its future audit plans.

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 The departments and agencies declining or not responding to my request include:
• The United States Agency for International Development (USAID);
• The Department of Education;
• The Department of Energy;
• The Department of Homeland Security;
• The Department of Justice;
• The Department of Labor;
• The Department of State;
• The Department of Health and Human Services; and
• The National Science Foundation.

I will keep asking these questions.

The heads of every department and agency should provide the answers to taxpayers.

12 Senator Joni Ernst

 Bureaucrats Phone It In
Aa

Services Suffer as Taxpayers Are Put on Hold

Frustrated Americans are sick of being put on hold while many federal employees are phoning it
in, “working” from home.
Not figuratively, literally, some Americans are getting sick as a result of employees not showing
up to do their jobs.
More than 100 days passed before the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took action on
whistleblower complaints about the unsanitary conditions at a baby formula factory67 linked
to the deaths of nine children and illness of dozens of others.68 Desperate parents struggled
for months to feed their children when an FDA recall then caused a nationwide shortage of
formula.69
The whistleblower complaint detailing safety concerns at an infant formula plant was delivered
to the FDA in October 2021. But “mailroom staffing issues due to COVID-19,” namely employees
working remotely,70 “prevented the hardcopies from reaching FDA senior leaders” until
February, when the plant was then shut down.71
While there were numerous causes for the baby formula crisis, the FDA’s curtailing of “required
food facility inspections” during the pandemic impacted its ability to ensure food safety.72
A former senior government official with firsthand knowledge of the FDA’s response shared
these insights: “When critical FDA safety officials don’t show up to work, people die. The FDA’s
remote work policy allowed problems at infant formula plants to fester into catastrophes
by failing to catch issues before they harmed infants and families. By working remotely, FDA
officials failed to catch problems before they grew worse, failed to keep tabs on industry, and
failed to protect infants and their families who rely on the FDA’s gold seal of approval to mean
something. There’s no excuse for FDA’s failure to send safety inspectors out into the field,
there’s no excuse for FDA inspectors to not be in the plants, working with industry, to keep
Americans safe. Were it not for the failed policies of the FDA, shortages would have been
mitigated and lives would have been saved.”73
It’s not just baby food, either. A backlog of food facility inspections caused by COVID-19 era
policies is currently being reviewed by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Office of Inspector General (OIG). The findings are expected to be released in 2025.74
Thousands of pharmaceutical plants that manufacture antibiotics, cancer therapies, and other
medicines have also not been inspected since prior to the pandemic. The Associated Press
reports the FDA “began using video and other online tools to evaluate plants remotely during
COVID-19, although those aren’t equivalent to physical inspections.” And even with remote
inspections, almost 40 percent fewer inspections are being conducted now than before the
pandemic.75
Despite the backlog, FDA isn’t looking at bringing employees back to the workplace to get

Out of Office 13
 caught up. The agency’s Commissioner of Food and Drugs explains, “an outgrowth of the
pandemic was the realization that the FDA could construct a hybrid work environment,
optimized for productivity and lifestyle. Looking forward, it’s not so much about COVID-19.”76
The FDA isn’t the only health agency suffering from “no shows.”
Up to 30 percent of HHS employees “did not appear to be working” on any given day at the
height of the COVID-19 pandemic.77 This analysis is based on HHS employees’ login activity used
to access the agency’s email and file systems remotely collected by the HHS Office of the Chief
Information Officer and disclosed by a whistleblower.78
Apparently, the government doesn’t consider health department employees to be essential
workers, even during a once-in-a-century global health emergency.
Facing another health crisis, veterans are encountering similar problems accessing mental
health therapy.
After putting their lives on the line defending our nation, more than 17 veterans are taking their
own lives every day.79
Yet, thousands of calls to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) from veterans seeking mental
health care went unanswered last year.80 And that was just at the Atlanta VA!
One veteran in the midst of a mental health crisis called ten times over a three-month period
but could not get the care she needed, much less anyone to answer her calls, so she ended up
in an emergency room.81
Suffering from PTSD, anxiety, and depression from serving in combat and being sexually
assaulted during her deployment, her calls frequently went unanswered. She says she begged
to speak with someone who could help and was told a mental health professional would call
her back. But no one ever did.82 The last time she called, this veteran said she “wanted to go to
sleep forever.” While the VA did provide her with a drug prescription, there was no follow-up
from a mental health provider.83
A VA whistleblower alleges out of roughly 22,000 mental health calls made to the Atlanta VA
Health Care System over a 12-month period, about 7,200, went unanswered.84 “There is no
sense of urgency,” the whistleblower says.85
Meanwhile, a manager at the Atlanta VA responsible for overseeing the scheduling of veterans’

Thousands of calls to the VA from veterans in crisis are going unanswered.

14 Senator Joni Ernst

appointments actually called into a meeting from a bubble bath—and posted a selfie on social
media with the caption, “my office for the next hour.”86
Another VA staffer lamented, “It’s almost as if this employee is making a mockery of all the
veterans. I can sit here in my tub and relax, and you just have to wait.”87
That is exactly what is happening.
And even when someone does answer the phones and schedules an appointment, too many
veterans say their therapists cancel at the last minute or don’t even bother showing up.88
“Any cancellation can affect continuity of care and have a negative impact on a veteran’s health,
however. They may even contribute to suicide among veterans, although exactly how many is
unknown. The number is not zero, however, according to families,” according to a report by the
Pulitzer Center and Military.com.89
Elderly, disabled, and other vulnerable folks who rely on caregivers with support from the Social
Security Administration (SSA) are struggling with similar frustrations.
A nonprofit serving Iowans in need contacted my office frustrated by the growing delays the
organization is experiencing dealing with the SSA.
The executive director says prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the response time from the local
Social Security office was just a few days at most. But now, it takes weeks and even months to
get a call back. Some of the folks the nonprofit serves have gone without benefits as a result of
the unreturned phone calls. Approvals to provide support to others seeking assistance are also
being delayed.
The situation was dire: emails to the SSA Sioux City, Iowa field office went unanswered, and calls
were often directed to voicemail without response. This lack of communication from the field
office staff caused months-long delays for beneficiaries.
The agency’s executive director says the lack of communication “is having an impact on the
clients we serve and our ability to provide quality service,” and that “they are running us out of
business.”90
When federal employees largely abandoned their offices to work from home nearly five years
ago at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, these essential workers remained on the front lines
serving the vulnerable, disabled, and elderly.
Today, the SSA’s headquarters is still more than 90 percent empty,91 but these folks helping
Iowans in need are showing up. Because the support they provide is being threatened by the
SSA’s unresponsiveness, I called on the agency’s Inspector General to investigate.92
Almost immediately, my phone started ringing and the SSA commissioner personally paid a visit
to me to discuss the matter. He shared statistics showing Iowans were receiving some of the
SSA’s best customer service in the country. Considering the efforts required just to get Iowans’
phone calls returned, I shudder to think what may be happening elsewhere.93
Requests like this, to assist the elderly and vulnerable were going unanswered for months, until
I discussed the situation face-to-face with the Social Security Administration’s commissioner.
The commissioner explained other government agencies, such as the VA, are recruiting away

Out of Office 15
 current and potential SSA staff by
promising even more excessive
teleworking possibilities for new hires.94
It’s right there on the Veterans Affairs
website: “At VA, you can break away
from the traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour
workweek without sacrificing the
opportunities and benefits that come
with job security. We’ll let you choose
a schedule that accommodates your
needs and lifestyle. For instance, you
might choose to vary your arrival and
departure times, working longer but
fewer days during your pay period.”95
While teleworking may be allowing VA
employees to live their best lives, it’s a
disservice to the vets the department
exists to serve.
An Army veteran who served as a
Black Hawk crew chief stopped seeking
mental health care from the VA after
suffering through years of scheduling
problems and cancelations at multiple VA promises greater benefits for bureaucrats while veterans
medical centers. When he finally did wait for the benefits they were promised.
connect with a therapist, she “spent the
appointment singing the praises of

16 Senator Joni Ernst

remote work with her cat draped around her neck.” He says, “it was, pardon my French, a
f***ing disaster ... so now I’m just on my meds doing my best.” 96
These are not isolated examples.
Four million calls to the Department of Education’s call center recently went unanswered,
denying students information needed to help complete student aid applications.97
And while taxpayers wouldn’t dare ignore a call from the IRS, only two of the agency’s 76 local
offices across the country set up to assist those experiencing financial hardship are actually
picking up the phone.98
“Virtual training and maximizing telework in response to the pandemic also may have
contributed to declines in productivity” at the IRS, concludes the Treasury Inspector General for
Tax Administration.99
Witnesses at a recent Senate Small Business Committee hearing lamented the challenges trying
to contact the Small Business Administration (SBA) for help and disaster assistance. One stated,
“finding a person and getting advice is kind of priceless,” but added, even if you need assistance,
“you don’t call.”100

While taxpayers don’t dare ignore calls from the IRS, the agency
isn’t answering calls made to most of its local offices.
Veterans seeking copies of their service records necessary for VA health care and benefits,
disability compensation, and pensions experienced immediate backlogs when teleworking
began. It took nearly four years for the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), which
maintains the files, to resolve the problem caused by “a lack of on-site staff due to facility
occupancy restrictions in place from March 2020 to February 2022, and limited remote
processing capabilities.”101
NPRC had been turning around document requests within ten working days prior to the closing
of all its facilities and the initiation of COVID-era telework. In March 2020, fewer than 56,000
military requests awaited responses. “As the closures remained in place, this figure grew until it
reached a backlog” of nearly 604,000 in March 2022.102
For two years, between 49 and 278 NPRC staffers showed up to work. “Employees came on-site
on a volunteer basis once facilities began to be re-opened,” according to the National Archives
Office of Inspector General.103

Out of Office 17
 Veterans seeking copies of their service records necessary for applying for health care, benefits, and
pensions experienced immediate backlogs when teleworking began.

Poor customer service outcomes were already occurring because of government teleworking
before the COVID-19 pandemic made the practice the norm.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) began experimenting with telework nearly
three decades ago. In 1997, 18 trademark examining attorneys participated in a telework pilot
program. Today, more than 12,000 USPTO staff telework.104
The USPTO claims “to be a leader of telework in the federal government” that “has created a
sustainable and best-in-class model for distributed work serving external stakeholders from
across the United States.”105
Those claims began unraveling after a tipster called out a patent examiner who “never shows
up to work” and whose work is “garbage.” A review by the Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General (OIG) determined the employee was paid $25,000 for 730 hours not worked.
He was instead playing golf, shooting pool, and going to happy hours.106
The case provoked a comprehensive investigation that found USPTO’s lax oversight and
inadequate internal controls of telework wasted millions of dollars paying thousands of
teleworkers for hours not worked and contributed to a patent application backlog.107
Over just a nine-months, USPTO “failed to receive nearly $8.8 million in work product that
would advance its mission and lessen the patent application backlog by an estimated 7,530
cases.” The OIG noted these are conservative estimates and the true costs “could be twice as
high.” Additionally, more than 4,000 examiners paid for hours they did not appear to be working
received above-average ratings on their annual performance reviews and many were paid
bonuses.108
These deadbeat bureaucrats were paid bonuses for not working at a cost to innovative
entrepreneurs and society alike. Patent backlogs delay consumers’ access to products, like life-
saving drugs, and result in potential economic losses totaling billions of dollars every year.109
Today, the agency’s backlog of unexamined patent applications “may be near or at an all-time
high.”110

18 Senator Joni Ernst

While USPTO’s experiment with telework is now the government-wide practice, the OIG’s
review in 2016 demonstrates it is possible to review productively, performance, and work
presence—whether at home or in the office—and identify when, where, and if employees are
working and what they are or are not accomplishing.
The OIG noted that USPTO’s own “policies limit the agency’s ability to prevent and detect
attendance abuse,” suggesting teleworkers log in to computers and provide supervisors with
work schedules while in-person employees use ID badges when for building access.111
At the IRS, over 37,000 employees were already teleworking prior to the pandemic. During
2019, more than 10,000 of these did not report to the office at least once a week as
required.112 Some IRS employees who had been disciplined for being Absent Without Leave
(AWOL) five days or more were teleworking despite being prohibited from doing so by the
Telework Enhancement Act.113 Similarly, IRS policy does not permit employees who received
poor performance reviews to telework. Regardless, 138 poor performers were still allowed to
telework by the IRS.114
Locking in transparency and accountability is essential for guaranteeing the level of public
service taxpayers deserve and should be the standard for determining the future of government
teleworking.

Out of Office 19
 Public Employees Padding Paychecks
By Avoiding the Office
Aa

Imagine if you could inflate your paycheck by $1,000 or more every month by simply
designating a desk in an office you only have to sit at a handful of times throughout the year as
your official duty station.
Some bureaucrats are doing just that, padding their paychecks by claiming to be working in
areas with higher pay rates while living elsewhere.
More than a quarter of federal employees who telework daily live more than 50 miles away
from their worksite, according to an OPM survey.115
Government salaries are determined, in part, by the locations of an employee’s official worksite.
There are 58 locality pay areas with base pay for federal employees adjusted to account for the
cost-of-living in each.116 The pay difference for employees doing the same or comparable jobs
can differ by as much as $20,000 or more between these geographic locations.117
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) says the official worksite for teleworkers
“remains the location of the agency worksite (i.e., the agency worksite where they would
normally work, not the telework location).” OPM stipulates employees “generally should be
scheduled to be at the agency worksite at least twice each biweekly pay period on a regular and
recurring basis.”118 This means they should, but not must, be at the designated desk a mere four
days every month.
An employee is obligated to show up at their official worksite at least once a week to get that
locality pay. However, that requirement can be waived on an employee-by-employee basis, in
perpetuity. Some agencies used this flexibility in a blanket manner for years beginning in March
2020.119 If not periodically reviewed, these exceptions are ripe for abuse.
After being tipped off that some unscrupulous federal employees were gaming the pay system
by a whistleblower, I asked OPM in March 2023 how, or if, federal agencies are reviewing
compensation packages to certify federal employees who predominantly work from areas
outside the national capital region are not receiving Washington, D.C. locality pay, which is on
the higher end of the pay scale.
OPM washed their hands of the issue by kicking the decision making to the agencies
themselves.
Unsatisfied with this mismanagement and lack of leadership, I took my case to the inspectors
general by requesting audits of agencies’ teleworking policies. Thus far, the Office of Inspectors
General (OIGs) are finding as many as 23 to 68 percent of teleworking employees are receiving
incorrect locality pay that is higher than it should be.120
The Department of Commerce OIG found nearly 23 percent of teleworkers sampled across ten
bureaus were being overpaid.121 This includes employees in the Secretary’s own office as well as
the U.S. Census Bureau, the Economic Development Administration, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and United States Patent and Trademark Office.

20 Senator Joni Ernst

The OIG also found the Commerce Department can’t verify employees are showing up to the
office as required.
As examples, two NOAA employees with duty stations in the higher paying areas of Seattle,
Washington, and Silver Spring, Maryland, in suburban Washington, D.C., were both teleworking
in distant states with lower locality rates. No electronic badge swipe-in information could be
found that these employees entered the agency worksite. The department also couldn’t provide
any other evidence proving the employees worked in the office at least two days per two-
week pay period as required by their telework agreements. A more extensive review of their
timesheets showed both employees rarely worked in the office.122
The OIG notes, “the locality pay these employees received was based on their duty station while
they were teleworking in geographic regions with lower locality payments,” and explains if any
employee, like either of these, is not physically reporting to the office as required, that employee
is “not a teleworker but a remote worker, which can affect the employee’s locality pay.”123
The lax management of the department is largely to blame for the overpayments. When new
remote and telework agreements resulted in changes in duty stations for some employees, the
department took many months, in one case nearly a year, to update the locations.
It’s concerning the U.S. Census Bureau whose primary mission is to account for every citizen of
this country cannot locate the whereabouts of its own employees!
A number of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) employees have also been
busted fraudulently collecting Washington, D.C. locality pay while living elsewhere.
One senior USAID employee lived in Florida for the duration of her employment but used an
office supply store in Virginia for work-related correspondences to deceptively collect D.C.
locality pay. Despite being required to report to the USAID office in Washington, D.C. twice
every pay period, she was permitted to violate the telework agreement by her supervisor.124
When questioned by OIG special agents, the supervisor denied knowing where the employee
lived. The OIG found evidence, however, showing “the supervisor knew the employee lived
in Florida and was using an address in Virginia to receive the higher locality pay.”125 Criminal
charges against both the employee and the supervisor were dropped and the employee
retired.126
When confronted by my office in July 2024 as to whether this case could represent a broader
issue at USAID, officials unironically stated such a concern was unfounded given the agency’s
spotless locality pay audit record.127
According to USAID, “it is the supervisor’s responsibility to ensure the employee is performing
the official duties at the duty location annotated on the official records.”128
Pressed further, USAID admitted it does not collect data regarding why certain USAID employees
have their telework privileges revoked.129 The agency has also been unable to produce even
basic information about how many employees have had their telework agreements adjusted or
why.
Several weeks later, in September 2024, USAID’s OIG announced another senior employee of
the agency was receiving Washington, D.C. locality pay while living elsewhere. This time in North
Carolina. Over a seven-month period, the employee was overpaid nearly $10,000 due to

Out of Office 21
 the higher pay rate. No criminal charges were pursued against the employee.130
A Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) employee set up a mailbox at a UPS box facility in an
area with higher locality pay than the location where he lived and worked. He was convicted
earlier this year for defrauding taxpayers out of nearly $125,000 in overpayments.131
A VA employee approved for “temporary” telework relocated to an area with lower locality
pay but continued collecting the higher salary for nearly a decade. The OIG found no evidence
“suggesting that the employee’s telework arrangement was ever reassessed to determine
whether the employee’s emergent circumstances had ended.”132
Reviews I have requested of locality pay by inspectors general are detecting other paycheck
padding schemes and errors at additional departments and agencies.
With nearly one in ten Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) teleworkers
located more than 50 miles away from their actual duty station, the department’s OIG warns
some of these may be receiving incorrect locality payments.133 A review of the department’s
telework agreements found some HUD employees are supposed to be commuting more than
2,000 miles every week!134 That’s the distance from one side of the country to the other.
Even smaller agencies with smaller workforces are susceptible.
Consider the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) which cares for the buildings and the grounds
surrounding the U.S. Capitol, a mission requiring a largely onsite workforce but with a handful
of employees who telework. A review by the agency’s OIG found 80 percent of the teleworkers
were receiving incorrect locality pay!135 More than two-thirds, 68 percent, were being
overpaid.136 As a result, over $100,000 in taxpayer dollars were misspent before this error was
identified. Most of these inflated AOC remote work salaries were paid after the pandemic.137
The OIG continues receiving complaints from AOC’s own employees that the office’s remote
work policy is confusing and lacks transparency. “Without a robust and comprehensive policy,
the AOC risks the continued waste of government funds,” the OIG warns.138
These cases demonstrate locality-based compensation is highly vulnerable to abuse because
some managers are lax in updating employee locations, ensuring the terms of teleworking
arrangements are being met, and sometimes even allowing the system to be taken advantage of
by teleworkers.
There is no excuse for managers not knowing if employees are complying with telework
arrangements when digital records can easily identify when, where, and if an employee is
logging onto a computer or swiping an access card to enter a building.
The current unaccountable telework arrangements are providing a significant financial incentive
for employees to stay away from the office. An employee can collect a bigger paycheck by
claiming a workstation in an area with higher locality pay while living somewhere else with the
added benefit of not having to commute to the office.
Locality pay fraud isn’t limited to just paychecks. It could involve tax evasion and longer-term
implications, like increasing pension payments later in life.
Collecting a salary set at the pay scale for Washington, D.C., which is one of the highest taxed
areas in the country,139 while living in Florida, where there is no state income tax,140 effectively

22 Senator Joni Ernst

dodges liability for thousands of dollars in state and local tax bills.
Federal pensions are determined, in part, by an employee’s highest salary.141 Therefore,
collecting higher locality pay for just a few years can permanently plus-up a pension after an
employee retires.
The irony is many Americans would accept a pay cut in exchange for the flexibility to work from
anywhere,142 while some federal employees are working anywhere they please for more money.

Out of Office 23
 ADD CHART
Abandoned Government Buildings Continue
Costing Billions of Dollars
Aa

You may be more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat haunting the halls of some government
buildings in Washington, D.C. these days.
Not a single headquarters of a major government agency or department in the nation’s capital
is even half full.143 Yet it’s costing $8 billion every year to maintain or lease government office
buildings.144 Another $7.7 billion is being expended annually for the energy to keep them
running.145 And billions more are being spent buying brand new furnishings for the largely
abandoned offices inside them.146
The average occupancy rate in more than 20 headquarters is a mere 12 percent, according
to the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB), an independent agency created to reduce
unnecessary government property.
Three-quarters or more of the space in the buildings are going unused, according to a separate
analysis by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO).147
Federal agencies own 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are partially empty.148
Over $81 million is being wasted every year for the underutilized government office space
alone.149

Not a single government building is even half full .

24 Senator Joni Ernst

 You may be more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat haunting the halls of government buildings in
Washington, D.C., these days.

This includes over 24 million square feet of federal government office space, costing taxpayers
nearly $68 million every year for maintenance and operation.150 An additional $14 million is
being spent leasing underutilized space and nearly $1 million more for its maintenance.151
Only Washington would waste $15 million leasing office space and property that isn’t needed
and not being used.
The PBRB warns the “status quo of nearly empty federal buildings is not financially or politically
sustainable.”152
Yet, little is being done to fill the buildings with workers or consolidate the unused space or sell
off the unneeded property.
GAO and the PBRB used different methods and metrics to reach the same findings: agency
headquarters are overwhelmingly underutilized. While both agencies focused solely on
buildings located around the nation’s capital, there is no comprehensive analysis of the
occupancy rates of other government offices.
Despite the calculations produced by these two separate independent agencies, whistleblower
accounts, and anecdotal evidence, department heads continue claiming employees are showing
up to work and pushing back on any suggestions to take attendance.

Out of Office 25
 Top Ten Emptiest Government Headquarters
According to the Public Buildings Reform Board

Without elaborating, the Office of Personnel Management “indicated information about the
relative concentration of federal personnel in any given building may raise security risks for
federal personnel.”153 With so few employees in any government building, it is unclear what
risks there might be from providing these numbers—other than some of them getting caught
not working or taking a bubble bath on taxpayer time.
When just eight employees were counted being present at the Department of Energy (DOE)
headquarters on an average day, the PBRB assumed the number was flawed since it was so low.
The board reached out to the department to clarify staff attendance estimates, but DOE did not
provide answers.154
When I sought answers myself, DOE’s director of Office of Management replied, “while I
cannot comment on the methods used by the Public Buildings Reform Board in evaluating the
occupancy of the Department of Energy’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., I assure you

26 Senator Joni Ernst

thousands of personnel are reporting to work at Headquarters when the federal government is
in operation.”155
Taxpayers are being charged more than $182,000 per employee a year to cover operating and
maintenance expenses at the Department of Labor headquarters. On an average day, fewer
than 500 employees are reporting to work at the building which costs nearly $60 million a year
to rent, operate, and maintain. The PBRB notes, “This level of expenditure to house such a small
number of federal employees cannot be justified and is not sustainable. It also is not unique.”156
As Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I am
closely monitoring the telework practices of the Small Business Administration (SBA). The
agency does not know the number of employees showing up to work in person,157 does not
track changes in teleworking status of employees,158 and doesn’t know how much of its office
space is currently being used.159
SBA claims the agency’s headquarters is operating at 50 percent.160 However, SBA inked a
Memorandum of Understanding with a federal employee union authorizing employees to show
up to the office once a week, or not at all.161 And more than 90 percent of SBA’s headquarters is
empty on a daily basis.162
As mentioned previously, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack took issue with GAO’s findings that nearly
90 percent of the office space in USDA’s headquarters is not being used on a daily basis.163
Secretary Vilsack said this calculation is “not even close to correct” and these numbers do not
reflect “what is happening.”164 But the GAO numbers are confirmed by PBRB’s findings that
a mere six percent of the office space at USDA is being utilized and less than 500 people are
showing up daily at the USDA headquarters which has capacity for more than 7,400.165

Empty workstations at USDA’s Beltsville, Maryland office, Fall 2023

Out of Office 27
 The EPA is spending $90 million a year for its headquarters,166 but uses just eight percent of the
office space.167 An EPA official says in-person attendance in some of its offices can drop as low as
ten percent on a Friday.168
Teleworking should be environmentally friendly, but not at the EPA. With climate gases being
emitted warming and cooling empty offices and dangerous toxins festering in stagnant drinking
water, the EPA’s hollow headquarters stands as an ironic Washington monument to government
teleworking’s toll on the environment.

With climate gases emitting from empty offices and dangerous toxins festering in
stagnant water, the EPA’s headquarters stands as an ironic Washington monument to
government teleworking’s toll on the environment.
GAO explains buildings “have environmental costs, and any reduction in office space could
reduce those costs. Emissions—and their associated monetary costs—are still generated with
underutilized space because agencies continue to operate buildings even when staff are not in
the office.”169
The PBRB adds, “In addition to high costs, other problems with low utilization rates include
environmental and health impacts. The per person carbon emissions from heating and cooling
nearly empty buildings, not to mention energy costs, are indefensible. Severely underutilized
buildings can also pose health risks to their occupants as GSA recently discovered with
Legionella outbreaks in many of its buildings when water stagnated in their plumbing systems
from underutilization.”170
Legionella is a bacterium that can cause Legionnaires’ Disease, a severe form of pneumonia
with a 33 percent mortality rate in pediatric cases,171 and up to 80 percent mortality rate in
at-risk adults.172 While most healthy people exposed to the bacteria don’t get sick, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) notes, “there’s no known safe level or type of
Legionella.”173

28 Senator Joni Ernst

Legionella has been found in the water at agency’s headquarters174 and other EPA offices
outside of Washington.175 Multiple grievances have been filed against the agency by its own
employees who are seeking protection from the unsafe water in their workplace.176
While the situation is particularly egregious since the EPA’s mission “is to protect human health
and the environment” and ensure clean water, the problem isn’t isolated to a single agency or
building.
The stagnant water in empty federal office buildings across the country is collecting dangerous
contaminants, like lead and copper, and becoming a breeding ground for deadly bacteria, all of
which are hazardous to human health. Legionella is turning up in faucets and sinks in federal
office buildings,177 courthouses,178 and even childcare centers179 across the country due to
“extended periods of reduced or no occupancy” buildings.180 At least two people who worked in
government buildings have recently been diagnosed with Legionnaires’ disease.181
“Legionella is flourishing,” says Elliot Doomes, commissioner of the GSA’s public buildings
service.182 One-fourth of the locations in federal buildings tested “have shown the presence of
Legionella bacteria in exceedance of established thresholds.”183
It’s safer to drink water out of the tap in Flint, Michigan today184 than from the faucets in many
federal buildings.
In September 2023, the GSA OIG issued an alert memorandum warning, “the current reduced
building occupancy levels can lead to water stagnation, which provides ideal conditions for
the growth and spread of legionella and increases the likelihood that other buildings may be
contaminated.”185
Yet, like other government agencies in this work-from-home era, GSA was slow to respond. As
a result, employees and visitors to government offices serving veterans, senior citizens, and the
disabled were potentially exposed to toxic water.186 Bacteria levels exceeding safe thresholds
have been found in a children’s playroom and a toddler restroom.187
Underutilized buildings causing hazardous water are creating a vicious cycle as workers are
being evacuated en masse once again.
Federal Trade Commission employees were only required to show up to the office “about once
a week,” but now the agency’s 600 workers are being told to stay home due to the Legionella in
the agency’s headquarters.188
Similarly, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) complex was closed in June
2024 after Legionella bacteria was discovered, sending the agency’s 3,500 employees and
contractors home “until the situation is resolved.”189 The agency declined to comment when
asked about its telework policies, so “it is not clear how many CMS workers have been on
campus in recent months after staff largely shifted to remote work during the coronavirus
pandemic.”190
As long as government buildings remain abandoned, this problem will persist.
Despite all the empty chairs sitting around these offices, government agencies are spending as
much or more purchasing furniture today than they were in 2018, before telework became the
norm.

Out of Office 29
 According to a review of receipts by the transparency group Open the Books, between 2020 and
2022:
• The federal government purchased $3.3 billion worth of furniture;
• $26 million was spent furnishing government conference rooms while meetings were being
replaced by Zoom calls;
• The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, with a payroll of 1,000 employees, spent $14.4
million on new furniture, or $14,400 per staffer;
• The Pentagon paid $1.2 billion for new furniture;
• Despite using just 11 percent of its office space, USDA bought nearly $57 million of
furniture; and
• The Department of Transportation spent more than $55 million on furniture while only using
14 percent of its office space. 191

With billions wasted purchasing this plush furnishing, federal agencies now need to fill the seats
and get back to the people’s business.
While agency heads claim their headquarters aren’t empty, none appear to have a system to
track building utilization, and if they do, they aren’t sharing it.

The federal government spent $3.3 billion purchasing new furniture during the pandemic years, according to Open
the Books

30 Senator Joni Ernst

Congress passed legislation this year setting a goal for all agencies to achieve a 60 percent space
utilization rate.192 Not a single department or agency is using even half of its office space and
most are averaging usage levels of 25 percent or less.193
There are two options for reaching the goal:
1. Call government employees back to work; and/or
2. Consolidate office space and get rid of unused and unnecessary excess property.

Self-imposed bureaucratic hurdles are complicating both solutions.

Consider a temporary government building completed in 1919 is only now finally slated to
close next year.194 The Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Fiscal Service, now occupying the
building, is relocating into the U.S. Mint’s headquarters. The move will save taxpayers $15
million.195 It shouldn’t take a century to get rid of a temporary building and taxpayers cannot
wait another 100 years before we start disposing of all of the other unused office space in
Washington.

It’s taking more than a century to close this building, completed as a temporary
structure in 1919.

But agencies are reluctant to give up space and say sharing offices with other agencies is “a
challenge.”196 An official with one department worries sharing space “could lower their per-
ceived standing as a cabinet-level agency.”
Last year, GSA announced more than $1 billion would be saved by disposing of just 23
properties, including post offices, courthouses, and federal buildings, that the agency says, “are
underperforming, underused, or otherwise don’t use taxpayer dollars effectively.”197 This move
will downsize the federal government’s property portfolio by 3.5 million square feet.
Considering GSA owns and leases over 363 million square feet of space in 8,397 buildings,198
not one of which is known to be using even half of its available space, tens of billions of dollars
could be saved through more real estate rightsizing.
Most of GSA’s leases (4,108 out of 7,685) will expire by the end of 2027.199 Before any of these
are renewed, agencies must justify the need and cost for the space. This must take into account

Out of Office 31
 how much is currently being used. Consolidation of offices could increase overall utilization and
reduce costs being wasted leasing and maintaining empty space.
The lease for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) D.C. headquarters
expires in 2028.200 The building is “one of D.C.’s largest federal leases,”201 yet 85 percent of its
office space is going unused.202
“Buying a different building” for NASA “or construction of a new headquarters building, all
within the Washington area,” are options now under consideration, according to internal emails
obtained by the Functional Government Initiative.203
Office space is the new final frontier for NASA employees to explore. While the agency spends
millions of dollars every year searching for life on other planets, NASA can’t detect how many
employees are even showing up for work in its own office building.204
The new space race is on: Will NASA return to its own offices or the moon first?
Instead of launching plans to buy or build a new building, the agency should find habitable
space within another underutilized government building to land in.
Selling unneeded and unused government property can also generate revenue, but doing so is a
long lengthy, costly, and bureaucratic process.205
To expedite the procedures, Congress passed the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016
(FASTA). The law established the Public Buildings Reform Board (PBRB) to identify underutilized

The new space race is on: Will NASA return to its own offices or the moon first?

properties to be put up for sale by the GSA, but only after the White House Office of
Management and Budget (OMB) approves the recommendations.206
While the law resulted in the sale of ten unneeded properties for a total of $194 million,
problems persist.207
OMB has blocked PBRB recommendations, causing significant delays and multiple PBRB

32 Senator Joni Ernst

member resignations.208 When OMB rejected the second round of recommendations, taxpayers
lost out on $2.5 billion in potential proceeds.209 OMB halted the sale of a National Archives and
Records Administration (NARA) facility in Seattle, Washington, with a deferred maintenance
backlog of $2.5 million.210 While the sale was supported by NARA staff, some members of
Congress intervened to keep it open.211
A recent sale provides great case studies on both how to and how not to get rid of an unneeded
government building.
Taxpayers will see a total return of more than half-a-billion from the sale of the Chet Holifield
Federal Building, better known as the “Ziggurat,” located in Orange County, California.

But just a year ago it looked like taxpayers would be stuck with the Ziggurat as a result of
bureaucratic incompetence. GSA ignored warnings from real estate experts and the PBRB that
imposing historic preservation requirements on any buyer would discourage potential buyers
from putting in a bid.212
They were right. When GSA initially put the Ziggurat up for sale at a price of $70 million with the
historic preservation requirements, there were no buyers.213
Then GSA tried again. The building was put back on the auction block, but without the historic
preservation requirements.214 A frenzy of bidding continued for months. The building eventually
sold for $177 million, more than twice the original asking price215 and a record price for a
federal auction.216
Lessons learned: Reducing red tape attracts more buyers, saves time, and maximizes the return
for taxpayers.
These takeaways should be applied to the sale of other underutilized properties.
Downsizing government to the appropriate level first and foremost requires agencies to know
how much space is needed for the in-person workforce. But OMB, which heads the Federal Real
Property Council,217 is years behind developing the metrics needed for determining the amount
of excess property agencies own or lease.218 OMB reports it is still “developing occupancy
metrics that will require the calculation of average occupancy in federal buildings in the near
term,”219 which is creating “uncertainty about how to measure utilization.”220
As long as the government avoids setting firm rules requiring consistent in-person employee
attendance, billions of taxpayer dollars will continue being wasted on empty, unused, and
unneeded office space.
The bottom line for bureaucrats is simple: Use it or lose it!

Out of Office 33
 ADD CHART
Union Members Show Up to the Office
Demanding the Right to Stay Home
Aa

Government employees showing up to work shouldn’t make headlines. But they are.
Bureaucrats from the Department of Labor gathered together earlier this year, not to do the
business of the people, but to protest for their “right to work remotely.”221
If that isn’t rich enough, the event occurred outside of a federal building named in honor of
John F. Kennedy, the president who inspired the nation with his call to public service: “Ask not
what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.”
Kennedy’s call is being flipped upside down by bureaucrats not asking but demanding telework
be a guarantee for government employees.
These public employee union members know showing up makes a difference and that is why
they are protesting in-person.
Some local federal employee unions want the stay-at-home order intended to protect civil
servants from a once-in-a-century public health emergency to be the new norm.
In his 2022 State of the Union Address, President Biden pledged that “the vast majority of
federal workers will once again work in person.”222 Nearly three years later, the headquarters of
every major government department and agency in the Capital remain mostly empty.223
When the White House called on agencies “to substantially increase meaningful in-person work
at Federal offices” in April 2023,224 union bosses quickly dismissed the directive.
“The administration’s new guidance on agency work environments does not override collective
bargaining agreements in effect at the agencies where we represent frontline employees,” the
president of the National Treasury Employees Union President responded. “This means that for
the vast majority of our members, their access to telework — which varies among agencies and
types of jobs — will remain unchanged.”225
Apparently, the president of a public employees union, not the President of the United States, is
deciding personnel policy for the U.S government.
Fearing this balance could tip, the race is on across the federal government to ratify unions
and teleworking rights ahead of President-elect Trump’s inauguration. For the first time ever,
DOJ attorneys are organizing, not to defend taxpayers or victims of crime, but rather to fend
off calls to return-to-work on their behalf. “Civil rights and environmental lawyers are rushing
to certify first-ever union representation at the Justice Department just before another
Trump administration... in large part due to dissatisfaction with the department’s return-to-
office mandates.” According to the lawyers leading the effort, “an [Environment and Natural
Resources Division] attorney union will help ensure that our voices are heard on important
issues like return-to-office policies and the uncertain future of civil service protections.”226
The unions’ unrelenting demands to work when, where, and even if they want are draining
federal resources through prolonged and excessive legal processes.

34 Senator Joni Ernst

“I believe we are at the very infant stages of these lawsuits, and in the next two or three years,
we are going to see employees file these cases with increasing regularity in state and federal
courts across the United States,” predicts an attorney with a Washington, D.C., law firm. “The
sudden and pervasive manner in which the concept of remote work became a mainstay in the
employment relationship deprived employers of the opportunity to deliberately and prudently
institute remote-work policies in a systematic fashion. … As a practical matter, this makes for a
fertile environment for unlawful action and employee discontent.”227
That is exactly what is happening with unions filing lawsuits and grievances opposing efforts
increasing in-person office time.
Even under President Biden, agencies faced stiff union objections to bringing employees back to
the office for as few as just two days a week.228
When the Defense Logistics Agency required employees to show up three days a week, the
American Federation of Government Employees union filed two separate complaints alleging
unfair labor practices with the Federal Labor Relations Authority.229
The Treasury Department,230 HUD,231 the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),232 the
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,233 the National Weather Service,234 the U.S. Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission,235 and other agencies have all been hit with union
telework complaints.
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), a board that settles complaints and disputes
between federal employee unions and management of government agencies, has decided
over 35 cases involving telework disputes since 2020. This represents a significant portion of
its caseload.236 Likewise, telework-related issues have dominated the agenda of the Federal
Services Impasses Panel (FSIP), where unions and agencies go to resolve fundamental
disagreements when negotiating collective bargaining agreements.237
Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Julie Su, a strong proponent of forcing workers
to unionize against their wishes,238 hasn’t even been able to satisfy the demands of the stay-
at-home union members. After months of negotiations, the union refuses to accept DOL’s
requirements for employees to come to the office at least five out of every ten business days.239
Government Executive reports, “over the summer, the issue reached the Federal Service
Impasses Panel, but following a fruitless 11-hour mediation session, the department argued
that the union’s proposals improperly interfered with management’s rights to assign work and
direct employees and are therefore nonnegotiable.” The union is exploring next steps, which
could include an arbitrated grievance process or unfair labor practice complaint.240
While the department went back and forth with the union representatives over the past year
and a half, the union members staged multiple in-person protests at DOL offices demanding the
right to stay home.
While one group picketed at a DOL field office in Boston, Massachusetts,241 more than 30 other
union members showed up to stage an in-person protest outside DOL’s headquarters building in
Washington, D.C.242 The expansive building is capable of accommodating nearly 5,000 employ-
ees, yet fewer than 500 are showing up for work there on a daily basis.243 Taxpayers are being
charged more than $182,000 per employee a year to cover operating and maintenance expens-
es at the mostly empty DOL headquarters, according to the Public Buildings Reform Board.244

Out of Office 35
 Department of Labor employees show up at the office to protest the right to stay
home.258

36 Senator Joni Ernst

Other agencies are simply giving into the demands to avoid similar standoffs.
The Defense Health Agency (DHA) signed an agreement with its union representing 38,000
employees essentially permitting full-time “situational telework.” Employees may “determine
their own schedule within the limits set” and “all eligible employees may request a telework
arrangement and requests will not be unreasonably denied.”245 The national union president
says this “ensures basic union rights and protections for all DHA employees.”246
While the agreement directs the agency to verify the official duty station of an employee, there
is no requirement for employees to confirm the location from where they are teleworking,
or by what means the agency is supposed to verify what the employee says.247 This omission
compromises the agency’s ability to detect and prevent locality pay fraud, which we know is a
problem occurring in other government departments and offices.248
After negotiating for more than two years, the EPA gave in to union demands.249 A new
collective bargaining agreement allows more than 8,000 EPA employees—a plurality of its
workforce250 — to show up at work just one day a week. These terms could last until 2028.251
Employees who rarely come to the office are even filing grievances demanding their own
dedicated workspace so they don’t have to share when they do decide to grace the place with
their presence.252
One dispute relates to the number of days a Department of Energy (DOE) employee would
have to be physically present in the office to guarantee their own office.253 It’s a particularly
interesting squabble, since as few as eight employees are being counted as present on an
average day at DOE headquarters.254 Why settle for just an office when you could claim an entire
floor of the building as your own!
DOE calculates each dedicated workspace costs $100 per day, or about $25,000 per year, to
maintain. The union’s demands would require two to three times more total office seats than
the department’s plan, costing an extra $25,000 to $50,000 per year per seat despite lower total
office usage.255
Regardless of these costs, the FLRA sides with the unions demands.256
In a separate case, the FLRA sided again with unions, nullifying the Federal Election
Commission’s plan for shared workspace for employees who spent 40 percent or less of their
time in the office.257
Government employee unions are using every possible means to delay and prevent government
agencies from bringing employees back to the office on a more regular basis. And government
boards are siding with the unions. Rather than litigating over whether employees should be in
the office 10, 20, or 40 percent of the time, it’s easier for agencies to roll over and acquiesce to
unions’ demands.
Perhaps they need reminding public service is about just that—public service. Each of us who
work for the taxpayers ultimately must be accountable and transparent. The demands of the
government employee unions are intended to do just the opposite.
If members of government employee unions can show up to the office to protest for
themselves, they can show up to the office to work for taxpayers.

Out of Office 37
 Recommendations
Aa

Making Telework Work for Taxpayers

A highly talented, effective, and dedicated government workforce providing the level of public
service taxpayers deserve is essential to restore Americans’ confidence in Washington.
Many public sector jobs are stressful and demanding.
Telework offers opportunities to increase employee satisfaction, retain talent, reduce taxpayer
costs, and relocate much of the bureaucracy outside of the Washington Beltway permanently.
But telework must work for taxpayers, not just bureaucrats. The success of flexible work
arrangements requires transparency, real-time productivity assessments, and accountability for
those not meeting expectations.
It is not fair when slackers are allowed to tarnish the reputations of the hardworking public
servants who are showing up and answering the call of duty. It is also not fair for taxpayers to be
left on hold by bureaucrats who are phoning it in from bubble baths.
The dramatic decline in office attendance also demands downsizing government space. Wasting
billions of dollars heating, cooling, and maintaining largely empty buildings is unconscionable
when our national debt is nearing $36 trillion.
Based upon two years of investigations and ongoing oversight, I recommend the following
actions be taken immediately to begin meeting these goals:

1. Relocate Washington’s Workforce Across the Country

Bureaucrats do not want to be stuck in offices in Washington, D.C.
Traveling to the nation’s capital to meet face-to-face with regulators to discuss federal programs
or red tape isn’t convenient for most Americans.
There’s a simple arrangement to make it work for both: move those making the rules closer to
those who live under them. This will provide greater real-world perspective for government
agencies while improving opportunities for input from the people expected to comply with red
tape and regulations.
• More than 29,000 federal employees are relocated each year. Most government managers
say the reassignments achieve cost savings and are effective for skills development.259
• Congress should pass:
• The Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement (SWAMP) Act relocating
the headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies outside
Washington to areas with existing expertise for carrying out the mission and goals of
each.

38 Senator Joni Ernst

 • The Decentralizing and Reorganizing Agency Infrastructure Nation-wide To Harness
Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Management Practices (DRAIN THE
SWAMP) Act relocating at least 30 percent of the employees from the Washington, D.C.
headquarters of non-security-related government departments and agencies to field
offices in communities across the country.
• The White House and executive branch agencies could also relocate some staff without a
congressional directive to do so.

2. Sell Off Unnecessary and Unused Office Space

Congress set a goal for all agencies to achieve a 60 percent daily occupancy at their
headquarters.260 Not a single one is even at half capacity. There are thousands of other
government buildings around the country sitting totally vacant and unused. Much of this is
leased space.
There is a simple answer: Use it or lose it!
• The General Services Administration should auction off vacant, unneeded, and underutilized
buildings and property without unnecessary strings and conditions.
• Agencies should immediately cancel or allow to expire the $15 million worth of
underutilized leased office space and property.
• If departments and agencies are not utilizing at least 60 percent of their office space,
coworking arrangements should be made for consolidating and sharing space with other
agencies.
• Congress should pass:
• The bipartisan Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act (FASTA) Reform Act extending
the Public Buildings Reform Board’s mission identifying unused properties for the
government to sell.
• The Utilizing Space Efficiently and Improving Technologies (USE IT) Act requiring the
reduction and consolidation of unused space to ensure all buildings achieve a utilization
rate of 60 percent or more.
• The Government Accountability Office should examine the administrative office space of
courthouses across the country to identify opportunities for reducing space and saving
money. The judiciary occupies more than 500 buildings covering over 61 million square feet,
costing taxpayers over $500 million annually to operate and maintain.

3. Performance Must Determine Whether Employees May

Telework
Many federal employees say working from home improves both productivity and job
satisfaction as a result of fewer distractions, less time wasted commuting, and greater work/life
balance.

Out of Office 39
 But taxpayers are frustrated when they can’t get ahold of AWOL employees or when they’re left
waiting for service backlogs.
If, whether, and how often each employee is allowed to telework must be determined by that
employee’s individual performance. Effective management means ending blanket teleworking
determinations made without regard for the quality of each employee’s work.
Are there excessive backlogs and delays? Are goals and deadlines being met? Are employees
putting in the hours they are being paid? Are teleworkers coming to the office as frequently as
required?
You can’t measure something you aren’t tracking.
Taxpayers and federal employees must be aware of the government’s telework policies and how
they are affecting the delivery of services and accomplishing agencies’ missions. Likewise, heads
of agencies and managers need to know when, and if, employees are showing up to work or
working when they do show up.
The vast majority of private sector employers use some form of digital tracking—be it
keystroke, network traffic, or email volume—to ensure employees are on the job.261 While
knowing employees are working the hours they are being paid for, the true measure should be
performance and outcomes. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM) recently directed
agencies to collect, analyze, and summarize remote work data to “demonstrate links between
remote work and productivity and outcomes, including employee engagement,”262 however,
there is much more the federal government must be doing to measure telework.
• Agencies should track logins from computers and swipe-ins at offices. This information
should be used to track building utilization, ensure teleworkers are complying with
employment agreements, and verify employees are receiving the appropriate locality pay.
• Congress should pass:
• The Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act reinstating the
telework policies in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and requiring a substantial
positive effect on the agency’s mission and operational costs be demonstrated before
teleworking can be expanded.
• The bipartisan Telework Transparency Act263 establishing clear standardized data
collection requirements and metrics to grade agencies’ performance. The bill also
requires an annual report detailing how telework policies are impacting taxpayers’
experiences interacting with agencies, backlogs and wait times, and the disposal
of unneeded and underutilized property. Agencies would be measured on building
utilization, telework oversight, and quality control and the steps being taken to improve
performance for all three metrics.
• The Requiring Effective Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees (REMOTE)
Act measuring the impact of teleworking policies on productivity by requiring agencies
to compare employees’ work product done in-person and while teleworking.
• The inspectors general who haven’t yet conducted the reviews of telework policies I
requested in 2023 should do so.

40 Senator Joni Ernst

4. Stop Paycheck Padding
Some bureaucrats are padding their paychecks by claiming official worksites in areas with higher
pay rates while actually living elsewhere. My audits are finding as many as 23 to 68 percent
of teleworking employees for some agencies are boosting their salaries by receiving incorrect
locality pay.264
Digital records can identify the locations from where an employee is logging onto a computer or
swiping an access card to enter a building, which should make it relatively easy to determine the
primary location of any employee. Every federal employee’s official worksite should be accurate
at all times, with no exceptions.
• OPM must update and clarify the definition for “official worksite” to determine pay based
on where employees spend most of their time working rather than the location of an office
they may only visit a few times a pay period.
• Agencies should track logins from computers and swipe-ins at offices. This information
should be used to verify employees are receiving the appropriate locality pay.
• Overpayments made in error should be recouped through salary offsets, in which a certain
amount is deducted from future paychecks until paid off in full. The Department of Justice
should prosecute fraudulent overpayments and pursue restitution by making those found
guilty return the stolen money to taxpayers. Retirement from federal service should not be a
get-out-of-jail-free card.
• OPM must update the regulations currently allowing attendance requirements to be waived
for determining locality pay to set reasonable limits on what circumstances warrant an
attendance waiver.
• The two bills previously mentioned provide additional tools to stop paycheck padding. The
bipartisan Telework Transparency Act requires independent annual reviews of agencies’
efforts to verify teleworking employees are receiving the correct locality pay. The Requiring
Effective Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees (REMOTE) Act tracks the
location from where employees are working, providing the information necessary to make
these determinations.
• The inspectors general who haven’t yet conducted the reviews of locality pay abuses I
requested in 2023 should do so.

5. Know And Show Where Workers Are

The tone of every organization is set from the top. The public, the employees of an agency, and
especially the president of the United States should know where the head of every department
is and what they are doing.
The same is true for the government workforce. Hourly workers have been clocking in and
punching out of work for over 100 years.265 Federal employees generally don’t clock in, but
many government buildings and offices are equipped with swipe card access systems. Swiping in
and out with a badge allows entry and exit, but also creates an entry log of who is present and
when.

Out of Office 41
 Just five percent of the pre-pandemic federal workforce swiped in to a government-leased
office in the Washington, D.C. area on an average workday, according to data from the General
Services Administration (GSA) analyzed by the real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield.266 Swipe-
ins provide valuable information for understanding how many people are walking through
the doors. This can help determine the correct amount of office space an agency requires for
its workforce and provide a tool to ensure employees are fulfilling in-office requirements of
teleworking agreements and receiving proper locality pay. Swipe-in data collection also allows
agencies to hold accountable employees who are failing to meet in-office work requirements.
And there is no excuse for redacting the work locations of over 281,000 rank-and-file federal
employees.267
• Every Cabinet secretary and agency head should post their daily schedule online.
• All federal employees and contractors working out of federally owned or leased space
should be required to swipe in and out of the office.
• The official work locations, titles, and job descriptions of all non-security-related federal
employees should be made a-vailable on an annual basis.

Five Questions for Five Bills Congress

the Incoming Cabinet Must Pass
As part of the confirmation process for the Congress must pass the following five bills to
next administration in 2025, all nominees make telework transparent and accountable:
selected to head departments and agencies
must answer the following five questions: 1. The Telework Transparency Act
1. Will you share your daily schedule with 2. FASTA Reform Act
the public?
2. How will you achieve the 60 percent
3. The SHOW UP Act
utilization goal for your headquarters 4. SWAMP Act/REMOTE Act
building set by Congress?
3. How frequently will you require 5. USE IT Act
each employee of the agency, including
those covered by collective bargaining Aa
agreements, to show up to work and what
disciplinary measures are appropriate for
those who do not meet your requirement?
4. Will you disclose the locations, titles, and
job descriptions of all of your agency’s non-
security-related employees?
5. Will you provide no less than every six
months a summary of the backlogs on
services provided by your agency as well
as the waiting times for phone calls and
number of unanswered calls to the agency?

Aa

42 Senator Joni Ernst

 Works Cited
Aa

1
Memorandum for the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies (M-21-25), White House Office of Personnel
Management, June 10, 2021; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/M-21-25.pdf.
2
Drew Friedman, “Survey: Feds question the ‘why’ behind return-to-office push,” Federal News Network, April 22,
2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-report/2024/04/survey-feds-question-the-why-behind-return-to-
office-push/?readmore=1.
3
“532 Joe Biden vacation days prove the prez wrecked the country working part-time,” New York Post, September
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4
Lauren Egan, “Biden: Congress ‘may have to’ come back to approve disaster funding,” Politico, September 30,
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Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
6
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and Open the Books CEO and founder Adam Andrzejewski, “Where’s Waldo at Club Fed?,”
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117shrg48911/pdf/CHRG-117shrg48911.pdf.
8
Testimony of Commission of Food and Drugs Robert M. Califf, M.D. before the U.S. House of Representatives
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HHRG-117-IF02-20220525-SD003.pdf.
9
“The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on FDA’s Domestic Food Facility Inspections,” Department of Health and
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manufacturing-india-china-7b3a7e9b45bcc3aea86ce5bf781271f3.
10
“Botched FAFSA Rollout Leaves Uncertainty for Students Seeking Financial Aid for College,” Government
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11
“Streamlining and Coordinating Support for Rural Small Businesses” hearing held by the U.S. Senate Committee
on Small Business and Entrepreneurship on September 18, 2024.
12
Correspondence to Social Security Administrator Inspector General Gail S. Ennis from U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and
Congressman Randy Feenstra, March 29, 2024; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ernst_feenstra_ssa_
letter.pdf.
13
Katherine Landergan, “Atlanta VA reduces missed mental health calls amid hiring push,” The Atlanta Journal-
Constitution, August 8, 2023; https://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta-news/atlanta-va-reduces-missed-mental-health-
calls-amid-hiring-push/K5T3PQZCCVFUPBFUEOUGIKOVC4/.
14
Justin Gray, “Atlanta VA employee posts photo of him ‘working’ in a bubble bath, sparking outrage,” WSB-TV
Atlanta Channel 2 Action News, March 22, 2022; https://www.wsbtv.com/news/local/atlanta/atlanta-va-employee-
posts-photo-him-working-bubble-bath-sparking-outrage/ESKIQBN6MVCODHGANVBBZVPONY/.
15
Nearly 23 percent of Department of Commerce employees sampled by the department’s Inspector General were
receiving the incorrect locality pay and overpaid.
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.

Out of Office 43
 Eighty percent of teleworking employees for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) were found to have an incorrect
duty station and were, therefore, paid an incorrect locality pay, according to the AOC OIG.
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of Inspector General, March 13, 2024;
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16
“GSA accelerates efforts to right-size federal real estate with plans for 3.5 million square feet in reductions and $1
billion in cost avoidance,” U.S. General Services Administration, November 8, 2023; https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/
newsroom/news-releases/gsa-accelerates-efforts-to-rightsize-federal-real-estate-with-plans-for-35-million-square-
feet-in-reductions-and-1-billion-in-cost-avoidance-11082023#:~:text=GSA%20accelerates%20efforts%20to%20
right,%241%20billion%20in%20cost%20avoidance.
17
“Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Ensure Water Quality in GSA-Controlled Facilities,”
General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 22, 2024; https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/
files/audit-reports/A201018-7%20Final%20Report.pdf.
Rachel Kahn and Eliza Fawcett, “Legionnaires’ Disease Reported at Manhattan Federal Building,” The City/
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federal-building/.
18
“GSA Did Not Respond to Water Contamination at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in a Timely Manner,
Placing Building Occupants at Risk,” General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 30, 2024;
https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/files/audit-reports/A240049%20-%20Final%20Memorandum.pdf.
“Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Ensure Water Quality in GSA-Controlled Facilities,”
General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 22, 2024; https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/default/
files/audit-reports/A201018-7%20Final%20Report.pdf.
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Controlled Buildings, General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, September 20, 2023; https://
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Stephen Lee, “Legionella Found in Water Supply of EPA’s D.C. Headquarters,” Bloomberg Law, August 30, 2024;
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/legionella-found-in-water-supply-of-epa-washington-
headquarters.
Rachel Kahn and Eliza Fawcett, “Legionnaires’ Disease Reported at Manhattan Federal Building,” The City/
Healthbeat, September 27, 2024; https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/09/27/legionnaires-disease-water-manhattan-
federal-building/.
Jenna Portnoy, “Legionella found at FTC; employees can work at home as precaution,” Washington Post, August 14,
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duty station and were, therefore, paid an incorrect locality pay, according to the AOC OIG.
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of Inspector General, March 13, 2024;

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 https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
121
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.
122
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.
123
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.
124
“USAID Office of Inspector General Investigative Summary: Finding of Improper Locality Pay, Violations of the
Telework Policy, and Lack of Candor,” U.S. Agency for International Assistance Office of Inspector General, April 30,
2024; https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6787.
125
“USAID Office of Inspector General Investigative Summary: Finding of Improper Locality Pay, Violations of the
Telework Policy, and Lack of Candor,” U.S. Agency for International Assistance Office of Inspector General, April 30,
2024; https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6787.
126
“USAID Office of Inspector General Investigative Summary: Finding of Improper Locality Pay, Violations of the
Telework Policy, and Lack of Candor,” U.S. Agency for International Assistance Office of Inspector General, April 30,
2024; https://oig.usaid.gov/node/6787.
127
Meeting between staffs of U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Human Capital and Talent
Management and Senator Joni Ernst, July 22, 2024.
128
Email from U.S. Agency for International Development to the office of Senator Joni Ernst, August 8, 2024.
129
Meeting between staffs of U.S. Agency for International Development Office of Human Capital and Talent
Management and Senator Joni Ernst, July 22, 2024.
130
“USAID Office of Inspector General Investigative Summary: OIG Investigation Finds USAID Overpaid Employee
Who Worked In North Carolina While Receiving DC-Area Locality Pay,” U.S. Agency for International Assistance
Office of Inspector General, September 3, 2024; https://oig.usaid.gov/node/7079.
131
“FRA Employee Convicted and Sentenced for Theft of Government Funds,” U.S. Department of Transportation
Office of Inspector General, April 23, 2024; https://www.oig.dot.gov/library-item/46261.
132
“Alleged Improper Locality Pay for Teleworking Employee,” Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector
General, February 18, 2020; https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/VAOIG-18-03251-88.pdf.
133
“The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Use and Oversight of Telework and Remote Work,”
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General, October 4, 2024; https://www.
hudoig.gov/reports-publications/report/us-department-housing-and-urban-developments-use-and-oversight-
telework.
134
“The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Use and Oversight of Telework and Remote Work,”
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Inspector General, October 4, 2024; https://www.
hudoig.gov/reports-publications/report/us-department-housing-and-urban-developments-use-and-oversight-
telework
135
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Work Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of the Inspector General, March
13, 2024; https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
136
According to the data provided by the AOC OIG, 17 of the 25 employees (68 percent) receiving incorrect locality
pay were overpaid.
Stephen Dinan, “‘Taxpayer theft’: Federal agencies overpay teleworkers who moved out of Washington,”
Washington Times, June 13, 2024; https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2024/jun/13/taxpayer-theft-federal-
agencies-overpay-teleworker/.
137
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Work Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of the Inspector General, March
13, 2024; https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
138
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Work Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of the Inspector General, March
13, 2024; https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
139
Michele Lerner, “Study: D.C. is among the places with the highest taxes,” The Washington Post, February 2, 2021;
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/02/02/study-dc-is-among-places-with-highest-taxes/.
140
“Florida Tax Guide,” State of Florida website, accessed October 5, 2024; https://www.stateofflorida.com/taxes/.
141
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gov/retirement-center/fers-information/computation/.
142
Jessica Howington, “The New Nomads: Insights From FlexJobs’ 2024 Work-From-Anywhere Survey,” FlexJobs,
2024; https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/flexjobs-work-from-anywhere-survey/.

50 Senator Joni Ernst

143
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_
federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.
144
The total annual cost of the owned and leased office portfolio is $8.086 billion.
“OMB Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization,” White House Office of Management and
Budget, August 2024; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OMB-Report-to-Congress-on-
Telework-and-Real-Property.pdf.
145
In total, the federal government’s energy bill for all facilities combined in Fiscal Year 2023 was $7,695,736,812,
according to data provided by the Department of Energy to the Office of Senator Joni Ernst on October 29, 2024.
146
Adam Andrzejeski, “Substack: Feds spent $3.3 billion on Furniture during Pandemic Years,” Open the Books,
October 3, 2023; https://www.openthebooks.com/substack-feds-spent-33-billion-on-furniture-during-pandemic-
years/.
147
“FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY: Preliminary Results Show Federal Buildings Remain Underutilized Due to
Longstanding Challenges and Increased Telework,” Government Accountability Office testimony before the House
of Representatives Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Economic Development,
Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, July 13, 2023; https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106200.pdf.
148
Garrett Hatch, “The Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act: Background and Implementation,” Congressional
Research Service, November 16, 2022; https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47308#:~:text=The%20
board%20identified%20several%20issues,General%20Services%20Administration%20(GSA).
149
“OMB Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization,” White House Office of Management and
Budget, August 2024; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OMB-Report-to-Congress-on-
Telework-and-Real-Property.pdf.
150
“OMB Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization,” White House Office of Management and
Budget, August 2024; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OMB-Report-to-Congress-on-
Telework-and-Real-Property.pdf.
151
“OMB Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization,” White House Office of Management and
Budget, August 2024; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OMB-Report-to-Congress-on-
Telework-and-Real-Property.pdf.
152
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
153
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_
federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.
154
E-mail response from the Public Buildings Reform Board to the office of Senator Joni Ernst, October 7, 2024.
155
Correspondence from Department of Energy Office of Management Director Ingrid Kolb to U.S. Senator Joni
Ernst, July 18, 2024.
156
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
157
Correspondence from U.S. Senator Joni Ernst to the Inspector General of U.S. Small Business Administration,
April 11 2024; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/ernst_letter_to_sba_oig.pdf.
158
Email from Small Business Administration to the staff of Senator Joni Ernst, August 8, 2024.
159
“Oversight of the U.S. Small Business Administration and Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget
Proposal,” U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, March 20, 2024; https://www.sbc.
senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=5ECDC72C-235F-40BE-B8D9-AA157033EA5D.
160
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Proposal,” U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, March 20, 2024; https://www.sbc.
senate.gov/public/index.cfm/hearings?ID=5ECDC72C-235F-40BE-B8D9-AA157033EA5D.
161
Memorandum of Understanding between the U.S. Small Business Administration and the American Federation
of Government Employees Local 228, “SBA Workplace Safety Plan & Workplace Reentry Plan.”
162
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_
federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.

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 163
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_
federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.
164
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, Senator Ernst Calls on Federal Employees to return to work, February 28, 2024; https://
youtu.be/nPCaCnEfA7k.
165
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
166
Kevin Bogardus, “EPA considers scrapping buildings amid low worker turnout,” E&E News Greenwire, July 12,
2024 ; https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-considers-scrapping-buildings-amid-low-worker-turnout/.
E-mail message from EPA Deputy Assistant Administration for Infrastructure and Extramural Resources to EPA
headquarters employees, https://subscriber.politicopro.com/eenews/f/eenews/?id=00000190-a372-da7b-a393-
a3738ff70000.

167
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_
federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.
168
Tom Temin, “How EPA is dealing with its telework-induced high-vacancy offices,” Federal News Network, May 17,
2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2024/05/how-epa-is-dealing-with-its-telework-induced-high-
vacancy-offices/.
169
“FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY: Preliminary Results Show Federal Buildings Remain Underutilized Due to
Longstanding Challenges and Increased Telework,” Government Accountability Office, July 13, 2023; https://www.
gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106200.pdf.
170
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
171
David Greenberg, Christine C Chiou, Ronald Famigilleti, Tzielan C Lee, Victor L Yu, “Problem pathogens: paediatric
legionellosis—implications for improved diagnosis,” pubmed.ncbi.nih.gov, August 6, 2006; https://pubmed.ncbi.
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172
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detail/legionellosis.
173
“Routine Legionella Testing in Buildings Without Cases,” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, March
15, 2024; https://www.cdc.gov/control-legionella/about/routine-legionella-testing-in-buildings-without-cases.
html#:~:text=There’s%20no%20known%20safe%20level,people%20will%20get%20Legionnaires’%20disease.
174
Stephen Lee, “Legionella Found in Water Supply of EPA’s D.C. Headquarters,” Bloomberg Law, August 30, 2024;
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/legionella-found-in-water-supply-of-epa-washington-

52 Senator Joni Ernst

headquarters.
Internal EPA email, “FYSA – GSA Water Testing Results for WJC North and South Buildings,” August 30, 2024;
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175
Miranda Willson and Kevin Bogardus, “More EPA buildings face bacteria outbreak,” September 3, 2024; E&E
News Greenwire, https://www.eenews.net/articles/more-epa-buildings-face-bacteria-outbreak-emails-show/.
176
Brett Chase, “Chicago EPA employees seek protection from contaminated water at their own office,”
Chicago Sun-Times, October 3, 2024; https://chicago.suntimes.com/the-watchdogs/2024/10/03/chicago-epa-
contaminated-water-legionnaires-dirksen-metcalfe-legionella-federal-court.
177
Molly Weisner, “Legionella found during water test at Social Security Administration,” Federal Times, July 10,
2024; https://www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/2024/07/10/legionella-found-during-water-test-at-social-
security-administration/#:~:text=Last%20year%2C%20GSA%20sent%20out,tested%20positive%20for%20the%20b-
acteria.
178
Joshua Peguero, “Bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ detected at Las Vegas federal courthouse,” CBS KLAS-TV
8 News Now, June 17, 2024; https://www.8newsnow.com/news/local-news/bacteria-that-causes-legionnaires-
detected-at-las-vegas-federal-courthouse/.
179
“Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Ensure Water Quality in GSA-Controlled
Facilities,” General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 22, 2024; https://www.gsaig.gov/
content/audit-gsas-response-covid-19-pbs-faces-challenges-ensure-water-quality-gsa-controlled.
180
“Audit of GSA’s Response to COVID-19: PBS Faces Challenges to Ensure Water Quality in GSA-Controlled
Facilities,” General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 22, 2024; https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/
default/files/audit-reports/A201018-7%20Final%20Report.pdf.
181
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Facilities,” General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 22, 2024; https://www.gsaig.gov/sites/
default/files/audit-reports/A201018-7%20Final%20Report.pdf.
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federal-building/.
182
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183
Jason Miller, “Legionella bacteria in your office’s water? Don’t be alarmed,” Federal News Network, August 12,
2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-report/2024/08/legionella-bacteria-in-your-offices-water-dont-be-
alarmed/
184
Ash-har Quraishi and Cassandra Gauthier, “The EPA says lead in Flint’s water is at acceptable levels. Residents
still have concerns about its safety.,” CBS News, April 25, 2024; https://www.cbsnews.com/news/flint-water-crisis-
10-years/.
185
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Out of Office 53
 186
“GSA Did Not Respond to Water Contamination at the Patrick V. McNamara Federal Building in a Timely Manner,
Placing Building Occupants at Risk,” General Services Administration Office of Inspector General, July 30, 2024;
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187
Jenna Portnoy, “Legionella found at FTC; employees can work at home as precaution,” Washington Post, August
14, 2024; https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/14/legionella-bacteria-ftc-headquarters/.
188
Jenna Portnoy, “Legionella found at FTC; employees can work at home as precaution,” Washington Post, August
14, 2024; https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2024/08/14/legionella-bacteria-ftc-headquarters/.
189
Barry Simms, “Social Security, Medicare\Medicaid employees concerned over bacteria found in water at
their offices,” WBAL-TV 11 News, July 26, 2024; https://www.wbaltv.com/article/bacteria-water-social-security-
medicare-medicaid-woodlawn/61712471.
190
Dan Diamond, “Medicare shutters headquarters after Legionella bacteria detected,” Washington Post, June 13,
2024; https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2024/06/13/cms-headquarters-legionnaires-bacteria/.
191
Adam Andrzejeski, “Substack: Feds spent $3.3 billion on Furniture during Pandemic Years,” Open the Books,
October 3, 2023; https://www.openthebooks.com/substack-feds-spent-33-billion-on-furniture-during-pandemic-
years/.
192
The joint explanatory statement accompanying H.R.2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024
(Public Law 118-47), Division B - Financial Services and General, https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240318/
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193
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194
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195
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Administration, April 29, 2024; https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/newsroom/news-releases/gsa-announces-plans-to-
dispose-of-the-liberty-loan-building-in-washington-dc-04292024.
196
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197
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$1 billion in cost avoidance,” General Services Administration, November 8, 2023; https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/
newsroom/news-releases/gsa-accelerates-efforts-to-rightsize-federal-real-estate-with-plans-for-35-million-square-
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198
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199
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200
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201
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202
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203
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headquarters%20expires%20in%202028.
204
Pete McGinnis, “NASA Finally Comes to Grips with Telework Tumbleweeds,” Real Clear Policy, October

54 Senator Joni Ernst

22, 2024;https://www.realclearpolicy.com/blog/2024/10/22/nasa_finally_comes_to_grips_with_telework_
tumbleweeds_1066875.html#:~:text=The%20National%20Aeronautics%20and%20Space,NASA’s%20
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208
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209
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210
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211
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212
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214
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215
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216
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217
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Government Accountability Office, October 2023; https://www.gao.gov/assets/d24107006.pdf.
218
“FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY: Preliminary Results Show Federal Buildings Remain Underutilized Due to
Longstanding Challenges and Increased Telework,” Government Accountability Office, July 13, 2023; https://www.
gao.gov/assets/gao-23-106200.pdf.
219
“OMB Report to Congress on Telework and Real Property Utilization,” White House Office of Management and
Budget, August 2024; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/OMB-Report-to-Congress-on-
Telework-and-Real-Property.pdf.
220
“FEDERAL REAL PROPERTY: Agencies Need New Benchmarks to Measure and Shed Underutilized Space,”
Government Accountability Office, October 2023; https://www.gao.gov/assets/d24107006.pdf.
221
Hannah Loss, “Federal workers rally in Boston to protect telework flexibility,” GBH Boston Public Radio, March
19, 2024; https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-03-19/federal-workers-rally-in-boston-to-protect-telework-
flexibility.
222
“Remarks of President Joe Biden – State of the Union Address As Prepared for Delivery,” March 1, 2022;
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2022/03/01/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-
of-the-union-address-as-delivered/.
223
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
“Federal Space Utilization: Agency Headquarters Three-Month Average Space Utilization Statistics,” Government
Accountability Office, 2023; https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/fy23_all_staff-1150574-v1-qfr__pdf_

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 federal_space_utilization_fouo.pdf.
224
“MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES,” White House Office of
Management and Budget, April 13, 2023; https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/M-23-15.
pdf.
225
Drew Friedman, “After OMB’s updated telework guidance, federal unions emphasize role of collective
bargaining,” Federal News Network, May 9, 2023; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2023/05/after-ombs-
updated-telework-guidance-federal-unions-emphasize-role-of-collective-bargaining/.
226
Ben Penn, “Talks Advance to Form First Attorney Union at Justice Department,” Bloomberg Law, June 17, 2024;
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/talks-advance-to-form-first-attorney-union-at-justice-department.
227
Leah Shepherd, “EPA Faces Lawsuit over Remote-Work Policy,” SHRM, November 7, 2022; https://www.shrm.
org/topics-tools/employment-law-compliance/epa-faces-lawsuit-remote-work-policy.
228
Federal News Network staff, “A running list of agencies’ return-to-office plans,” Federal News Network,
December 19, 2023; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2023/12/heres-what-we-know-so-far-about-
agencies-return-to-office-plans/.
229
Jared Serbu, “Upset at DLA over unusually restrictive telework policy,” Federal News Network, June 3, 2024;
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/defense-main/2024/06/dla-and-its-workforce-at-odds-over-rigid-new-telework-
policy/.
230
Molly Weisner, “Union files grievance against US Treasury bureau after talks on remote work stopped,” Federal
Times, July 11, 2022; https://www.federaltimes.com/management/2022/07/11/union-files-grievance-against-us-
treasury-bureau-after-talks-on-remote-work-stopped/.
231
Drew Friedman, “AFGE advances grievance, claiming HUD preemptively denied remote work applications,”
Federal News Network, August 24, 2022; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2022/08/afge-advances-
grievance-claiming-hud-preemptively-denied-remote-work-applications/.
232
Michael Gennaro, “Environmental Protection Agency Workers File Suit Over Remote Work Policies,” Government
Executive, October 28, 2022; https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/10/environmental-protection-agency-
epa-workers-file-suit-over-remote-work-policies/378905/.
233
Molly Weisner, “CMS to scale back remote work, drawing union ire,” Federal Times, June 28, 2023; https://www.
federaltimes.com/management/career/2023/06/28/cms-to-scale-back-remote-work-drawing-union-ire/.
234
Erich Wagner, “No Telework Cuts for Weather Service Employees, Under Union Settlement,” Government
Executive, June 13, 2023; https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2023/06/no-telework-cuts-weather-service-
employees-under-union-settlement/387483/.
235
Erich Wagner, “The Federal Labor Authority Has Substantiated Union Accusations against EEOC Over Reentry,”
Government Executive, August 4, 2024; https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2022/08/flra-has-substantiated-
union-accusations-against-eeoc-over-reentry/375417/
236
Information provided to the Office of Senator Joni Ernst by the Federal Labor Relations Authority, 2023- 2024.
237
Drew Friedman, “Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining,” Federal News
Network, March 27, 2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2024/03/federal-telework-work-life-balance-
often-top-issues-in-collective-bargaining/.
238
Michael Watson, “Meet Julie Su, the Would-be Secretary of Forced Social Justice Unionism,” Washington
Examiner, April, 20, 2023; https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/beltway-confidential/2740885/meet-
julie-su-the-would-be-secretary-of-forced-social-justice-unionism/
239
Erich Wagner, “Labor Dept. to require workers to spend half of work time in-person, angering union,”
Government Executive, October 16, 2024; https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2024/10/labor-dept-require-
workers-spend-half-work-time-person-angering-union/400326/.
240
Erich Wagner, “Labor Dept. to require workers to spend half of work time in-person, angering union,”
Government Executive, October 16, 2024; https://www.govexec.com/workforce/2024/10/labor-dept-require-
workers-spend-half-work-time-person-angering-union/400326/.
241
Hannah Loss, “Federal workers rally in Boston to protect telework flexibility,” GBH Boston Public Radio, March
19, 2024; https://www.wgbh.org/news/local/2024-03-19/federal-workers-rally-in-boston-to-protect-telework-
flexibility.
242
AFGE Pushes Back on Agency Efforts to Restrict Telework, American Federation of Government Employees,
March 1, 2024; https://www.afge.org/media-center/publications/the-government-standard/government-standard-
marapr-2024-afge-members-rising-up-in-2024-to-win-on-key-worker-priorities/afge-pushes-back-on-agency-
efforts-to-restrict-telework/.

56 Senator Joni Ernst

243
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
244
Public Buildings Reform Board Interim Report to Congress, Public Buildings Reform Board, March 21, 2024;
https://www.pbrb.gov/files/2024/03/3.21.24-FINAL-PBRB-Interim-Report.pdf.
245
“Interim Master Labor Agreement between The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFL-CIO
& Defense Health Agency (DHA),” approved by the Department of Defense on April 5, 2024; https://www.afge.org/
globalassets/documents/generalreports/2024/interimconsolidatedmasteragreement_4-19-24.pdf.
246
“AFGE, DHA Reach Interim Master Agreement,” American Federation of Government Employees, April 15, 2024;
https://www.afge.org/article/afge-dha-reach-interim-master-agreement/.
247
“Interim Master Labor Agreement between The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), AFL-CIO
& Defense Health Agency (DHA),” approved by the Department of Defense on April 5, 2024; https://www.afge.org/
globalassets/documents/generalreports/2024/interimconsolidatedmasteragreement_4-19-24.pdf.
248
Nearly 23 percent of Department of Commerce employees sampled by the department’s Inspector General were
receiving the incorrect locality pay and overpaid.
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.
Eighty percent of teleworking employees for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) were found to have an incorrect
duty station and were, therefore, paid an incorrect locality pay, according to the AOC OIG.
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of Inspector General, March 13, 2024;
https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
249
Drew Friedman, “EPA Finalizes Union Contract, but AFGE Wary of Telework’s Future,” Federal News Network,
June 3, 2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2024/05/epa-finalizes-union-contract-but-afge-wary-of-
teleworks-future/.
250
“Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),” Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, accessed August 23,
2024; https://www.eeoc.gov/federal-sector/environmental-protection-agency-epa-0.
251
Drew Friedman, “EPA Finalizes Union Contract, but AFGE Wary of Telework’s Future,” Federal News Network,
June 3, 2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2024/05/epa-finalizes-union-contract-but-afge-wary-of-
teleworks-future/.
252
Drew Friedman, “Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining,” Federal News
Network, March 27, 2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2024/03/federal-telework-work-life-balance-
often-top-issues-in-collective-bargaining/.
253
Drew Friedman, “Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining,” Federal News
Network, March 27, 2024; https://federalnewsnetwork.com/unions/2024/03/federal-telework-work-life-balance-
often-top-issues-in-collective-bargaining/.
254
E-mail response from the Public Buildings Reform Board to the office of Senator Joni Ernst, October 7, 2024.
255
“In the Matter of NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION CHAPTERS 213 AND 228 And U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
ENERGY ARBITRATOR’S OPINION AND DECISION,” Federal Service Impasses Panel, October 19, 2023; https://www.
flra.gov/node/79537#_ftn3.
256
“In the Matter of NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION CHAPTERS 213 AND 228 And U.S. DEPARTMENT OF
ENERGY ARBITRATOR’S OPINION AND DECISION,” Federal Service Impasses Panel, October 19, 2023; https://www.
flra.gov/node/79537#_ftn3.
257
“In the Matter of NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION and FEDERAL ELECTION COMISSION,” Federal
Service Impasses Panel, October 18, 2023; https://www.flra.gov/node/79533.
258
“AFGE leaders call on Congress for help after DOL negotiators abruptly end negotiations by withdrawing all
proposals and implementing a new telework policy,” American Federation of Government Employees’ National
Council of Field Labor Locals, October 17, 2024; https://www.afge.org/publication/largest-federal-employee-union-
calls-on-labor-department-to-stop-costly-delay-tactics-and-negotiate-in-good-faith/.
259
Nicole Ogrysko, “After pandemic telework, are agency relocations dead?,” Federal News Network, June 21, 2021;
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/federal-report/2021/06/after-pandemic-telework-are-agency-relocations-dead/.
260
The joint explanatory statement accompanying H.R.2882, Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024
(Public Law 118-47), Division B - Financial Services and General, https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20240318/
Division%20B%20FSGG.pdf.
261
Goh Chiew Tong, “Employee Surveillance Is on the Rise - and That Could Backfire on Employers,” CNBC, April 26,
2023; https://www.cnbc.com/2023/04/24/employee-surveillance-is-on-the-rise-that-could-backfire-on-employers.

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 html#:~:text=A%20report%20from%20ExpressVPN%20found,to%20evaluate%20their%20employees’%20
performance.
262
Robert H Shiver III, “Memorandum for Heads of Executive Departments, Independent Agencies, Inspector
Generals, and the Council of the Inspector General on Integrity and Efficiency,” United States Office of Personnel
Management, August 7, 2024; https://chcoc.gov/sites/default/files/Director%20Memo%20to%20Agency%20
Heads%20-%20Guiding%20Factors%20for%20Determining%20Remote%20Work.pdf.
263
Text of S.4043, the Telework Transparency Act of 2024, introduced in the 118th Congress (2023-2024), authored
by Senators Gary Peters and Joni Ernst, March 21, 2024; https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-
bill/4043/text.
264
Nearly 23 percent of Department of Commerce employees sampled by the department’s Inspector General were
receiving the incorrect locality pay and overpaid.
“The Department Can Improve Processes to Ensure Locality Pay Is Accurate,” Department of Commerce Office of
Inspector General, June 3, 2024; https://www.oig.doc.gov/OIGPublications/OIG-24-025-A.pdf.
Eighty percent of teleworking employees for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC) were found to have an incorrect
duty station and were, therefore, paid an incorrect locality pay, according to the AOC OIG.
“AOC Locality Pay for Remote Employees,” Architect of the Capitol Office of Inspector General, March 13, 2024;
https://www.oversight.gov/sites/default/files/oig-reports/AOC/AOC-Locality-Pay-Remote-Employees.pdf.
265
Ellen Terrell, “Clocking In, Clocking Out,” Library of Congress Blogs, June 14, 2024; https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_
adams/2024/06/clocking-in-clocking-out/.
266
Mike Dorning, “Washington Suffers as Federal Employees Work From Home,” Bloomberg News, March 9, 2023;
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-03-09/wfh-federal-employees-have-republicans-some-dems-
demanding-return-to-office.
267
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and Open the Books CEO and founder Adam Andrzejewski, “Where’s Waldo at Club Fed?,”
Newsweek, March 30, 2023; https://www.newsweek.com/wheres-waldo-club-fed-opinion-1791205.

58 Senator Joni Ernst

260 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
(202) 224-3254
ernst.senate.gov