Just 6% of federal employees work in the office full time, while about one-third are fully remote, according to a new report from Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa. The investigation discovered that remote work has resulted in American taxpayers receiving inadequate services including backlogs, delays, unanswered phone calls and emails, and no-show appointments.
Ernst highlighted one significant consequence: calls from veterans for mental health services going unanswered.
Ernst also said remote work partially contributed to the infant formula shortage of 2022. A whistleblower informed the Food and Drug Administration about unsanitary conditions at the formula plant in October 2021, but partially due to remote work, the FDA’s senior leadership was not informed for more than 100 days. The FDA’s reduction of food facility inspections during the pandemic was also a factor.
Perhaps nothing sums up remote work better than an infamous selfie of a federal employee jumping on a call in a bubble bath. The employee was a manager at the Department of Veterans Affairs who posted the picture on social media with the caption, “My office for the next hour.”
Empty offices are also costing taxpayers money.
There isn’t a single agency headquarters in Washington that is half-full. Rather, the average occupancy is 12%. The report states the government also owns 7,697 vacant buildings and another 2,265 that are partially empty. Maintenance, leases and energy on these buildings cost more than $15 billion a year.
Ernst suggests monitoring employees’ locations and productivity using virtual private networks (VPNs), having a use-it-or-lose-it policy for government real estate and making remote work policies performance-based.
“If bureaucrats don’t want to return to work, make their wish come true,” the report states.
Some of these changes could be implemented through the new Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Ernst heads the DOGE Caucus which will work with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to reduce government waste.
Republicans met with the duo on Capitol Hill the afternoon of Thursday, Dec. 5.
“The taxpayers deserve better,” House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters. “They deserve a more responsive government, a more efficient government, one that is leaner, more focused on its primary objectives.”
.@SpeakerJohnson speaks to media before Elon Musk & Vivek Ramaswamy meet with lawmakers on government efficiency: "We need to make government more efficient." pic.twitter.com/e7VYsoPvF3
— CSPAN (@cspan) December 5, 2024
Making cuts to the government will need to be a closely aligned effort between the department and Congress, because only lawmakers on Capitol Hill have the power to alter the budget.