Flu plan requires rewriting of federal telework guidance

The White House plan released Wednesday for responding to a possible influenza pandemic requires the Office of Personnel Management to update its telework guidance to provide instructions for alternative workplace options during an outbreak.

Specifically, the plan calls for an OPM telework guide and two courses, one for managers and the other for employees, to be updated within three months. Within the same time frame, the personnel agency would need to provide guidance on continuity of operations planning and human capital management.

The 234-page "National Strategy for Pandemic Influenza Implementation Plan," which focuses on urging state and local government entities to make preparations, also requires the Homeland Security Department to provide within six months guidance on pandemic influenza continuity of operations planning.

In a statement, OPM Director Linda Springer said her agency already has established an internal pandemic working group that will partner with chief human capital officers to develop a guidance intended to prevent a government shutdown.

"We are evaluating issues for which guidance exists, needs revision or should be developed and are identifying communication vehicles for getting information out to federal employees," Springer said. "I am confident we will meet the timeline specified in the president's implementation plan."

William Mularie, a longtime advocate for telework and chief executive officer of the federally sponsored Telework Consortium, said the pandemic plan and requirements are timely and well thought out. He said the recently announced General Services Administration guidance establishing governmentwide rules for working away from the office is a good place for OPM to start.

But the White House plan fails to address the need for a communications infrastructure large enough to support the considerable increase in telecommuting anticipated in a pandemic, Mularie said.

"What is imbedded in all of these activities is the ability to cooperate and communicate," he said. "We are concerned about … the communication infrastructure."

Paul Kurtz, executive director of the Cyber Security Industry Alliance, echoed Mularie's concerns, stating the plan fails to address the stability of the nation's information infrastructure.

"Everything we do associated with a pandemic is going to require that the communication infrastructure is up and running," Kurtz said.

While he said he does not expect a presidential report to delve into the details of policy, he noted that it devotes an entire chapter to transportation infrastructure and borders. Similar attention should have been paid to communication networks, he said.

In a letter to Frances Townsend, assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism and the point person behind the report, Kurtz and Mularie requested that the president's National Security and Telecommunications Advisory Committee and the National Information Advisory Council jointly review plans for preventing the Internet's infrastructure from being overwhelmed in the event of a pandemic.

Kurtz also criticized the Homeland Security Department for failing to fill the position of assistant secretary for cybersecurity and telecommunications announced in the July 2005 departmentwide reorganization.

"Having a person in that spot will be critical in coordinating a national pandemic response," Kurtz said.

DHS did not respond to a request for comment on this matter.