In a statement to the Washington Examiner, Ernst expressed her optimism in the report helping the work of DOGE.

“Things are so upside down in the federal government that it is more common for employees to be overpaid than to work in the office five days a week,” Ernst said. “We need to flip Washington on its head, make bureaucrats show up to work like the rest of us, and evaluate individual performance in the same way every business in America does. I am excited to work with DOGE and the Trump administration to disrupt the bureaucrat class and bring common sense to the capital.”

The report outlined the costs associated with federal workers working from home. Three percent of the federal workforce teleworked daily before COVID-19, according to the report. Now, only 6% of workers report in-person full time, with a third entirely remote. Ernst’s report warned that telework led to slacking, with workers reportedly caught in leisurely activities while working.

“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,” the report read.

It claimed that due to telework, services were suffering.

“Service backlogs and delays, unanswered phone calls and emails, and no-show appointments are harming the health, lives, and aspirations of Americans,” it added, as bureaucrats are “phoning it in.”

On the other hand, the report argued that if teleworking is to be continued, many government buildings should no longer be maintained.

“Not a single headquarters of a major agency or department in the nation’s capital is even half full,” it read. “Government buildings average an occupancy rate of 12%.”

The report said $8 billion is spent yearly maintaining and leasing government office buildings and $7.7 billion on the energy to keep them running. The government owns 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 partially empty buildings.

It concluded by recommending a “use it or lose it” policy toward federal real estate, moving federal employees closer to their place of work, ending blanket telework and instead going on a case-by-case basis, and tracking employees.

“If bureaucrats don’t want to return to work, make their wish come true,” the report read.

Ernst has been a leading congressional support of the DOGE, having made much of her career about cuts to government waste. She recently hand-delivered a report to DOGE heads Vivek Ramaswamy and Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump, outlining a plan to cut over $2 trillion in waste.