House panel again tells agencies: Increase telework or lose funds

Congressional appropriators are intensifying efforts to allow federal employees the opportunity to work away from their offices.

Language in a spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee this week requires five agencies to prove that the number of teleworkers in their agency is increasing or give up $5 million in funding. The measure is sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., and according to his office, the measure will go to the full House on Tuesday.

Wolf said in a statement that he regrets "having to be so heavy handed" by threatening to withhold funding, but he believes that it is necessary in order to increase the number of federal employees allowed to telework.

"The federal government should be leading the way when it comes to teleworking, instead of being pushed into it," Wolf said. "There simply is just no magic in strapping ourselves in a metal box every day and driving ourselves to the office only to sit behind a computer or talk on the phone for eight hours."

The effort to allow more federal workers to work away from their main offices has picked up a number of supporters, including key members of Congress, but agency managers have been slower to back the idea. The General Service Administration funds and sponsors 14 telework centers in the Washington metro area. The centers are furnished with computers, high-speed Internet access, phone service, printers, faxes, copiers, conference rooms and break areas.

Supporters cite studies that show that the option to telework makes for happier and more productive employees, while cutting down on traffic and benefiting the environment. Telework also is mentioned as a means for continuing the government's work in the event of an emergency.

Last year, an omnibus spending bill required the departments of Commerce, Justice and State, the Small Business Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission to make telework available to all eligible workers. Agencies also were required to designate a telework coordinator.

But the bill did not define which employees were eligible for telework, and it placed no requirements on how often employees certified to telework would be allowed to work away from the office.

According to Wolf spokesman Daniel Scandling, the numbers that some agencies have reported back to Congress on teleworking have been questionable. He said the Government Accountability Office has been asked to check the agencies' numbers report on how they were determined. Scandling said the agencies' telework numbers would not be released until they are certified by GAO.

Once agencies meet the certification requirements, they must show an increase in the amount of teleworking within the agency, according to the bill. An increase in teleworking is not defined by the measure.

Because NASA and the National Science Foundation are now under the jurisdiction of the Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee, they also will be required to certify that eligible workers are allowed to telework or stand to lose $5 million in funding.