Key telework supporter promises continued advocacy

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., one of the most stalwart advocates of telework in the federal government, says he will continue pushing the away-from-the-office work arrangement as long as he is a member of Congress.

In his position as chairman of the Science-State-Justice-Commerce appropriations subcommittee, Wolf has assured that the seven agencies under the subcommittee's jurisdiction are required to increase the number of employees working away from the office or risk losing $5 million from their budgets.

Wolf has also personally written to President Bush, asking him to include telework in his State of the Union address.

Term limits could force Wolf to chair a new subcommittee in 2007, but he said that won't deter him from preaching the telework message wherever he lands.

"I don't know what subcommittee I'll go to, but I'm going to push telework no matter what," Wolf said. "As long as I'm in Congress … I'm going to continue to push it."

Wolf's 10th Congressional District contains one of the wealthiest areas in the country -- Fairfax County -- which grew from 98,000 people in 1950 to more than 1 million in 2004. The district also has one of the fastest developing counties -- Loudoun -- which grew from 170,000 in 2000 to 239,000 in 2004.

Government agency workers and contractors predominate in the area, and traffic congestion concerns abound.

According to the Associated Press, Wolf on Jan. 27 will announce his intentions to seek a 14th term in Virginia's 10th Congressional District.

Some have speculated that Wolf will end up as the Foreign Operations subcommittee chairman, with its current chairman Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., facing term limits and retirement. Funding for the State Department is expected to be moved out of the Science-State-Justice-Commerce subcommittee's jurisdiction and into the Foreign Operations panel in the 110th Congress.

Wolf would not speculate on what his duties in Congress will be next year, but said he does believe substantial success has been made in increasing the number of teleworkers throughout the Washington, D.C. area.

He praised the Patent and Trademark Office's aggressive telework program and said the management at the Bureau of Prisons is beginning to buy into the policy.

"Gasoline has gone up, and [telework] is good for families," Wolf said. "The studies show that people who telework are very very productive. It's also a continuity of government thing."

William Mularie, chief executive officer of the federally sponsored Telework Consortium, a Herndon, Va.-based nonprofit that works to popularize the work arrangement, said that Wolf has been a "one-man gang," but he was not as optimistic as Wolf concerning the government's adoption of telework.

"He doesn't have a faint heart because there's been no support in the federal government for telework," Mularie said. "We're all frustrated in terms of the rate of progress."

Stephen O'Keeffe, executive director of the Alexandria, Va.-based Telework Exchange, said Wolf has demonstrated leadership and has taken advantage of his role on the appropriations subcommittee to make agencies take teleworking seriously.

"The entire federal workforce is watching intently to see the impact of the appropriations fines in 2006," O'Keeffe said. "The chairman will undoubtedly continue to hold new agencies accountable for telework, and the new appropriations leadership for Science-State-Justice-Commerce will undoubtedly continue to press the telework requirement."