Today, the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held an oversight hearing on the impacts of the U.S. Department of the Interior's (DOI) remote and telework policies. Subcommittee Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) issued the following statement in response:

"With the pandemic over and the COVID national emergency declaration long past ended, it is time for federal employees to return to work. Returning to in-person work will allow for better collaboration, communication and productivity among the federal workforce. Further, it will demonstrate a commitment to public service and accountability, showing that the federal government is actively working to serve the taxpayers who pay their salary."

Background

Although telework policies are useful in certain circumstances, they should be limited across DOI agencies so that employees remain productive and present in the workplace. It is past time for all federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior (DOI), to return to appropriate, pre-pandemic levels of in-person work agency-wide. Currently, non-supervisory, telework-eligible employees across the DOI’s agencies are only required to be in the office two days every two weeks, and telework-eligible senior executives, supervisors and managers in the National Capital Region are only required to be in the office 50 percent of the time.

House Republicans have proposed a solution to the in-person absenteeism of federal employees, the Stoping Home Office Work's Unproductive Problems or the SHOW UP Act, which, among other directives, would return federal agencies to pre-pandemic levels of telework.