Ernst targets D.C.-area federal workers with trio of bills
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, proposed legislation this week that would force agencies to move 30% of their D.C.-based workforce out of the region, mandate telework tracking, and push agencies to move their headquarters out of the nation’s capital.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, this week proposed a trio of bills targeting Washington, D.C.,-area federal employees that would mandate agencies move staff—or their entire headquarters—out of the region, as well as more closely track teleworkers’ activities.
The Decentralizing and Reorganizing Agency Infrastructure Nation-wide to Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration and Management Practices—or DRAIN THE SWAMP—Act (S. 23) would require all non-national security agencies to relocate 30% of their headquarters staff outside of the D.C. area within one year of the measure’s enactment.
Employees who are relocated would not be eligible for remote work, and agencies would be barred from offering relocation incentives to the workers they direct to leave the nation’s capital. Agencies then would be required to reduce their physical footprint in Washington by 30%.
The Requiring Effective Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees Act (S. 21) would require agencies to measure the login data and network traffic—that is, the amount and rate of data flow—from teleworking federal workers’ computers to ensure that they are doing their jobs while outside of traditional work sites.
And the Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement Act (S. 22), would bar agencies from undertaking renovations or renewing the leases of their D.C.-area headquarters, and instead require them to solicit bids from other cities to relocate outside of the national capital region. It is worth noting that 85% of the federal workforce already lives and works outside of the D.C. area.
In a press release Tuesday, Ernst’s office justified the bills by citing low occupancy rates at agencies’ D.C. headquarters, as well as her own inaccurate report on federal telework.
“It is week one of Republican control in Congress, and I am already working hard on my top priorities—to drain the swamp, save tax dollars and get federal employees back to serving the American people,” Ernst said in a statement. “While [Elon Musk’s planned Department of Government Efficiency] stands ready to clean house, I will be leading the fight in the Senate to disrupt the business-as-usual bureaucrats who spent the last four years out of office. The federal workforce has shown they clearly don’t want to work in D.C., and I am going to make their dreams come true.”
Despite Ernst and other Republicans’ insistence that the vast majority of federal workers use—or abuse—telework, 2024 data from the Office of Management and Budget indicates that roughly half of the federal workforce is ineligible for the workplace flexibility due to the non-portability of their work, and that those who do telework still spend 60% of their work hours in-person at federal facilities. And federal HR leaders have testified before Congress that they already have systems in place to track teleworking federal workers’ attendance and productivity.