House Oversight Panel Wants to Know Why Federal Workers Aren’t at Their Offices

According to James Comer, Chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Accountability (R.Ky.), only one third of federal employees show up to their offices to do their job despite President Joe Biden declaring the COVID-19 Pandemic over a year ago.

“Three years after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, most of America has returned to in-person work.

“The Capitol and Congressional offices buildings are now open to the public. However, large parts of federal government cannot.” Comer told a March 9 hearing of the panel focused on the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM).

OPM manages the federal government’s 2.1 million members of the civil service workforce.

Director Kiran Ahuja was appointed in 2021 by Biden.

“The president himself said during his 2022 State of the Union address—yes, last year—’It’s time for America to get back to work. It’s possible to feel safer at home and return to work.

“Clearly, the president has at least stated that this is a priority for the administration, and it is a priority of this committee as well.

“Yet, only 1 in 3 federal workers has been reported to have returned to work since the outbreak of the pandemic.” Comer continued.

A major result of the failure of most federal employees to return to work in their offices appears to be growing backlogs in processing benefit applications and significantly slower response to citizen inquiries by government departments and agencies, Comer said.

Negative Feedback Damaging

“Negative feedback can have a negative impact on a business’ image. This is why it is common for the private sector to implement drastic changes to address these issues.

“When customer service plummets in the federal agencies, where can the American people go for redress? That’s why we are holding this hearing today,” Comer explained.

Ahuja prepared testimony to the committee and stated that Teleworking has been allowed in the Federal Workforce for over a decade. It has proven beneficial in terms of productivity and morale.

She cited an U.S. Patent and Trademark Office evaluation that indicated this. “from 2008 to 2019, the overall attrition rate for full-time remote workers was an average of 1.5-percent lower than that of non-teleworkers.

“USPTO also noted improved productivity. They found that remote patent examiners were able to produce an average of 81.07 Patent Product Units (PPUs) compared with 76.28 for non-teleworking workers.” in 2019.

Ahuja was handicapped, however, in responding to specific concerns about federal workers not returning to their offices by Comer and other members of the oversight panel.

Requirements Changed

Ranking Member Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), whose district is home to more federal workers than any other in the country, told the OPM director that “As the president says the emergency is over I can assure my friends, who are likely to be joined by some on this side of it, that they will anticipate that workplace regulations will change with that statement.”

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), for example, declared “Federal government isn’t working and is not producing what we would expect. It is a catastrophe that you have to forget about going to the passport office.

“Try doing business with the State Department overseas, try doing business with the IRS, try doing business with day-to-day people who may be at the Small Business Administration.”

Sessions told Ahuja further that “more people are teleworking than are allowed” Current OPM Guidelines

“Let me say first of all that COVID-19 no longer dictates our workplace arrangements. Throughout the pandemic, more than 50 percent of the workforce showed up every day and continues to do so,” Ahuja spoke.

Teleworking ‘Improves’ Productivity

An OPM survey was also conducted, she said. “more than 60 percent reported ‘significant in-person time.’

The OPM director further said, “Teleworking has been shown to improve productivity and performance in many cases. The scores of teleworking are tied to higher employment engagement.”

But when Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.) asked Ahuja “What is the 52 percent figure?” on her 50+ percent estimate for how many federal workers are now working from their offices, Ahuja admitted, “It’s not something I can figure out, but I do know that it is more than fifty.”

Similarly, Ahuja hesitated when asked by Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) what would be an acceptable amount of time for teleworking federal workers to spend “Their own items” while teleworking, she was unable to do so.

Perry then pointed out that at the Department of Defense (DOD) “527,000 hours, the equivalent of 60 decades, were spent in [2019] Working on their own projects. Does that make sense?” The figure for the Department of Veterans Affairs was 500,000 hours.

Ahuja responded, “Senator, these data points are not my knowledge.” but she noted that much of the time Perry referred to was devoted to union representation activities governed by the collective bargaining agreements negotiated with federal agencies by federal employee unions.

The OPM director was also unable to say when asked by Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Az.) how many sex-change operations were paid for last year by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP), which her agency administers.

She also acknowledged that she was unaware of the ill health effects of some of the drugs used in such procedures.

Later in the hearing, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) described Gosar’s question as “This is an attack on trans families and kids.”

Another Arizona Republican, Rep. Andy Biggs, said he was told by one constituent who retired in 2021 from the federal workforce that he did not begin receiving retirement benefits for 13 months and another constituent told him the OPM telephone helpline is “A black box”