Earlier this spring, several House lawmakers introduced a new bill to address a burgeoning post-pandemic trend: the use of employee monitoring technologies.

The “Stop Spying Bosses Act” would create new rules around the use of worker surveillance technologies. It would also establish a new division at the Labor Department to regulate workplace surveillance.

The legislation comes in response to an explosion in the use of everything from video surveillance to keylogging software to keep tabs on employees. A 2023 survey of 1,000 companies with remote or hybrid workforces found the vast majority use some form of employee monitoring. There’s even a new term for tech that enables this kind of continuous activity tracking: “bossware.”

As the country’s largest employer, where does the federal government stand? To date, there’s little evidence that federal agencies and their managers are taking up the more intrusive employee monitoring practices being embraced in the private sector.

But the unions that represent feds are also guarding against the potential as the technology evolves. National Federation of Federal Employees Executive Director Steve Lenkart said the issue is intertwined with the evolution of telework.

“As our technology improves, and we have more capabilities for people not to be in a centralized place, we’re going to have to invest in technologies that make it easier for that employee to function,” Lenkart said in an interview. “And there’s always going to be questions of supervision. And then it leads to questions of surveillance.”

SSA watchdog monitors employee computers

There is at least one instance where federal employees working remotely have had their computers monitored for performance.

In 2021, employees at the Social Security Administration’s Office of the Inspector General were subject to a survey of computer logs and telephone records to measure time online. Some employees were subject to disciplinary action or terminated.

While the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) — which represents more than 90% of SSA OIG agents – pushed back on that practice, SSA Inspector General Gale Ennis argued it was necessary “as stewards of taxpayer dollars, to hold employees accountable, when appropriate.”

“Failing to do so would be detrimental to public service, the OIG mission, and the morale of the many employees who go above and beyond in their contributions every day,” Ennis wrote in a September 2021 letter to the union.

Later that month, the FLEOA took a vote in which 98% of responding employees said they had “no confidence” in Ennis’s leadership. The use of computer logs for employee monitoring was among the issues cited by the union in its statement on the vote.

More than two years later, an FLEOA spokeswoman said the issue around the computer monitoring has yet to be resolved. “To our knowledge, the data analytics from employee monitoring are not being used for disciplinary actions as they were before, but they could be using it for other reasons,” the spokeswoman told Federal News Network.

In a statement for this story, FLEOA President Mat Silverman said SSA OIG employees were terminated “based on computer logs often without any corroborating or mitigating evidence from an employee’s immediate supervisor, raising serious doubts about the legitimacy of the terminations.”

“As agencies become increasingly skeptical about the benefits of remote work, we do fear the trend of remote monitoring will continue; however, we hope the strong criticism, high attrition, and decreased morale SSA OIG experienced will send a strong message to other agencies that this is neither an effective nor appropriate workplace policy,” Silverman said. “Ultimately, a workplace is successful when there is mutual trust, transparency, and confidence between employees and their leadership. Conversely, remote monitoring is demeaning to employees and undermines these important workplace values.”

In response to questions about the use of computer monitoring, an SSA OIG spokeswoman said, “Social Security Administration Office of the Inspector General supervisors measure productivity and performance of their employees using performance plans.”

‘No rulebook’ on employee monitoring

As the telework era continues to evolve, Lenkart said it will take time to strike the balance between supervision and surveillance.

“I think there’s going to be a little bit of operational uncomfortableness,” he said. “If you don’t trust your employee enough where you have to watch them minute-by-minute, then that’s probably not a good candidate to be working home or the supervisor has trust issues that need to be addressed. There’s no rulebook written on this yet.”

While workplace collaboration technologies, like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, are key to remote work, some unions are keeping a close eye on how those technologies are used by management. The National Treasury Employees Union, for instance, said it “opposes the use of technology for anything other than its intended purpose.”

In a statement, NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said the union negotiates language in contracts that any “new or upgraded workplace technology cannot be used to track and monitor employees, measure productivity or replace existing official methods for tracking time and attendance.”

“For example, monitoring an employee’s colored-dot status on Microsoft Teams is not an indicator of productivity or attendance, and we would enforce our contracts to contest agency managers trying to use it as the basis of discipline or an adverse action against an employee,” Greenwald continued.

On its “Telework FAQ” page, the Office of Personnel Management encourages supervisors to focus on what an employee is accomplishing, rather than what it “looks like” an individual is doing.

“By focusing on the work product instead of the work activity, many supervisors find they are better able to communicate clear expectations to their employees,” OPM writes. “The resulting agreement on job expectations often leads to increases in employee productivity and job satisfaction.”

OPM did not respond to questions about the potential use of employee monitoring technology within the federal government.

In a 2021 blog, the Government Accountability Office underlined how first-line supervisors are key to reporting whether they think an employee is abusing time and attendance requirements. While agencies are increasingly using automated timekeeping systems and other internal controls to detect misconduct, managers are “still the most important internal control for managing time and attendance,” GAO wrote.

That’s a sentiment Lenkart reiterated in highlighting the disparate nature of many federal jobs and the difficulty of measuring performance from time spent on a computer.

“In the end, it’s always going to come back to the local supervisor to determine whether you have a good employee or not,” he said.

Nearly Useless Factoid

By: Derace Lauderdale

Close to 80% of employers use monitoring software to track employee performance and online activity.

Source: CNBC

The post With ‘spying bosses’ on the rise, where do federal agencies stand on employee monitoring? first appeared on Federal News Network.

Ahead of a September deadline for agencies and unions to finalize their plans for recreating labor-management forums, the Office of Personnel Management is offering guidance on how federal leaders can best meet the new expectations.

Alongside a push to improve apprenticeship opportunities, a March 6 executive order from President Joe Biden called on agencies and federal unions to recreate the relatively informal forums. If implemented effectively, labor-management forums can improve employee satisfaction, engagement and organizational performance, while also mitigating possible disputes between the two parties, OPM said in March 13 guidance.

“We’ve seen examples where labor-management forums have worked on improving safety policies particularly for employees that work in hazardous jobs. There are many opportunities for them to tackle some tough issues that happen every day in every workplace,” OPM Deputy Associate Director for Accountability and Workforce Relations Tim Curry said in an interview. “We think that agencies and unions should see this as an opportunity to improve how agency operations work.”

As part of the executive order earlier this month, agencies now have until Sept. 3 to create and submit implementation plans to OPM on how they’ll reestablish labor-management forums. They’re a way for representatives from both management and a union to collaborate on personnel matters. The forums, usually outside the scope collective bargaining agreements, are meant to provide opportunities to come to agreements on any concerns or questions before personnel issues escalate.

Under the new executive order, and the subsequent OPM guidance, agencies and unions will also have to show through metrics and data how the forums are impacting engagement, satisfaction and organizational performance.

Agencies and federal unions have used labor-management forums for years as a tool to address employee concerns and aim to improve the workplace. In many cases, they can lead to savings in both time and costs.

“They work together to identify issues in the workplace,” Curry said. “They propose ideas and solutions to address these issues in a way to better serve the public and actually accomplish the agency mission in a better way.”

Labor-management forums had been around for years, up until a 2017 executive order during the Trump administration disbanded them.

In 2021, under the Biden administration, OPM once again green-lit labor-management forums. But the use of the forums was not required until Biden signed the new executive order, officially rescinding the 2017 order from Trump in the process.

Now with the new executive order, “some agencies might already be ahead of the game, and others may have some catching up to do,” Curry said.

Of course, each agency will have a somewhat different approach the executive order’s requirements. Labor-management forums, OPM said, are not one-size-fits-all. But the guidance still offers some broad strategies agencies can consider, such as developing a shared vision for what the forum should aim to achieve, and what issues it will cover.

“We would recommend that they focus on addressing each other’s interests and working together on developing mutually agreeable solutions that address those interests,” Curry said. “But also, agency leadership needs to show support for the forums from the top down, as well as the union leadership. We would want them to model the behavior that they would like to see lower-level managers and union representatives show.”

In that work, Curry said agencies will also have to evaluate and address any remaining obstacles in labor-management relations that stem from a series of now-rescinded executive orders from the Trump administration, which previously limited the scope of collective bargaining.

“We want to confirm with agencies that there are no more outstanding issues, which might be obstacles to moving forward on other issues for the forums to address,” Curry said.

Trying to get plans set up by September could cause agencies or unions to run into a few trouble spots. For example, OPM said in its guidance that there may be some resistance from either party, or even agency employees themselves.

In those instances, Curry said it’s important to keep in mind how the forums are meant to be structured, and what their real purpose is.

“Forums are not co-management arrangements, as some may believe, and we advise forums to address this early on,” Curry said. “Management is encouraged to have discussions with unions about issues before they make a management decision, and on the other hand, unions aren’t waiving their collective bargaining rights on matters discussed in the forums.”

Federal Labor Relations Authority Chairman Susan Tsui Grundmann said although the work to reach agreements in labor-management may at times be challenging, the results can be tremendous.

“One recent example in the wake of all our budgetary issues and to avoid furloughing our own employees, we actually gave up a whole floor in our headquarters, consolidating two floors into one. And I told our union vice president that this just had the makings of a disaster,” Grundmann said during a March 27 FLRA town hall. “But his remark was, ‘it makes it a whole lot easier when you get along.’ So whatever the future holds, we commit to have our internal union beside us to guide us and to allow us to lead by example.”

Both leading up to the September deadline and after it passes, agencies can lean on resources from OPM to address any concerns or questions. The Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service also offers guidance and advice on setting up and using the forums.

“These forums provide frontline employees with a more meaningful voice in agency operations and foster discussions about improving the effectiveness of government services,” National Treasury Employees Union National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement earlier this month. “It is our experience that pre-decisional input inherent in conversations between labor and management is a productive means to give employees a say in agency decisions, solve problems in a non-adversarial way, address workplace issues that hinder efficiency and improve services to the American people.”

The post OPM outlines how agencies, unions can recreate labor-management forums first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Census Bureau is looking to roll out a remote work policy it drafted at the end of last year, but is rethinking how many employees can opt in, after Congress recently set minimum utilization rates for federal buildings.

The Census Bureau agreed to a remote work policy last December, and a working group is working on implementation details.

Census Bureau Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer Ron Jarmin told employees in an all-staff email last week that once an implementation plan is finalized in the coming weeks, employees will be approved for remote work “in special situations determined by the remote work implementation working group.”

“Our policy must follow departmental and administrative guidelines and will have limits which significantly impact the number of employees who will be approved for remote work across the Census Bureau,” Jarmin wrote.

Jarmin said the bureau strongly recommends employees do not move outside the commuting area of their official duty station until they receive remote work approval.

Meanwhile, the Census Bureau is reconfiguring its headquarters to bring more Commerce Department employees under one roof.

American Federation of Government Employees Council 241 President Johnny Zuagar said in an interview with Federal News Network that the Census Bureau headquarters is undergoing renovations and giving up 50% of its headquarters space to accommodate employees from the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The bureau’s headquarters, he added, will shift to a hoteling model following the renovations, meaning employees will have to reserve a desk for the days they plan to work in-person.

“We have done what they’re saying. We looked at our real estate, and we redid it. We have consolidated with other agencies, we are moving to smaller spaces that are at other locations. So we’re doing exactly what they’re asking,” Zuagar said. “We’re using the space efficiently and effectively. We are making adjustments. This is going to take a couple of years to know where the right balance is, but we’ll find that out.”

AFGE Council 241 Vice President Vickie Martin said Census Bureau employees who work outside the Suitland, Maryland headquarters are expected to work in the office a minimum of two days per pay period — although in-office expectations vary by position. Zuagar said some employees are working in-person every day.

Martin said the union initially expected more Census employees would be eligible to enroll in the remote work policy, but language in the fiscal 2024 spending deal set minimum occupancy requirements for federal buildings, and “handcuffed us a little bit” on the scope of remote work.

Lawmakers, in the spending deal for the rest of fiscal 2024, are requiring agencies with an office space utilization rate of less than 60% to report to Congress on their efforts to reduce their real estate footprint.

Agencies as part of the appropriations package will also have to provide information on the average number and percentage of employees working in the office during a typical two-week pay period, as well as their recent telework policies.

“We’re not going to give up on expanding that and getting further flexibilities for our people. But, we’re also not going to jeopardize what they’ve been able to gain, as far as flexibilities now,” Martin said.

A Census Bureau spokeswoman said in a statement that the bureau’s headquarters is under construction to modernize the building and bring Bureau of Labor Statistics employees into the building. During the renovations, the spokeswoman said “employees have been working under maximum telework.”

The bureau expects to reopen its headquarters building this summer.

“Employees have been notified that they will receive a 60-day notice before headquarters begins a phased reopening and will be required to comply with existing policies upon their return,” the spokeswoman said.

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Labor employees protest at their office for more telework riles up lawmakers 

The post Census Bureau rethinks scope of remote work policy, consolidates office space first appeared on Federal News Network.

Correction: An earlier version of this story said OMB had set a deadline for employees to return to the office at least half of the time by a certain date. The story has been updated to reflect that OMB has set no specific deadline. 

Spring has sprung, flowers are in bloom and federal employees at many agencies are feeling the effects of the return to the office bug.

From the Social Security Administration to the Interior Department to the Education Department, the return-to-the-office mandates are in full bloom.

Over the course of the last two-plus months, ever since White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients asked agency leaders on Jan. 19 to “double down” on their efforts to increase in-person work, the number of agencies pushing for more federal employees to return to the office by negotiating the new requirements with union representatives has accelerated.

The latest example is the Labor Department. Acting Secretary Julie Su told agency employees in a Feb. 9 email that she expects to provide an update no later than this Friday. This update comes after Labor delayed its plans to have non-management or bargaining unit employees back in the office more regularly in January.

“First, I want to acknowledge all of you who have sent me your thoughts, concerns, and personal stories about the upsides and downsides of increasing onsite work. While I can’t respond personally to them all, I’ve read your emails and correspondence and I hear you,” Su wrote in an email obtained by Federal News Network. “Your input on the impact this will have on your lives and the lives of your colleagues has been both informative and instructive as we support the administration’s efforts and as we work to ensure the long-term organizational health of the department.”

The push to have more employees in the office is difficult to understand for many employees.

On the FedNews channel on Reddit, anonymous posters who claim to be federal employees routinely highlight both the contradictory and frustrating policy changes that come from many agencies.

Many say the rationale for returning to the office remains unclear, and make the case that the work-life benefits continue to outweigh, in most cases, the in-person benefits.

Recent research by University of Pittsburgh professor Mark Ma and Yuye Ding, a Ph.D. student, seem to support that notion. The researchers found “RTO mandates hurt employee satisfaction but do not improve firm performance.” Ma and Ding analyzed Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 firms with RTO mandates.

“Instead of forcing everyone back to in-office work, high-performing employees who perform well at home should be allowed to continue at home. This would benefit the employee as well as the firm in the long-term through retention of high-performing employees, who can more easily find other jobs,” the researchers wrote.

Beyond maybe federal pay and benefits changes, few topics have elicited as much emotion and consternation as return-to-office mandates.

The following four stories are among the most recent examples of this ongoing debate happening across many agencies. It’s clear the RTO answer for many agencies isn’t as cut-and-dry as many would like it to be and like the initial months during COVID of working from home, the solution will come by trial, experience and through a little innovation by managers and employees.

Education’s return-to-office announcement ‘perplexing’ to union

Lawmakers call SBA’s return to office policy ‘extremely minimal’

Census Bureau reconsidering remote work policy

Labor employees protest at their office for more telework riles up lawmakers 

The post Return to office in 4 parts: Feds facing the pressure to reduce telework first appeared on Federal News Network.

Protesting at your office for the right to telework more captures those same vibes.

That is what happened in March when Labor Department employees in Boston went to their office to protest to retain their telework privileges.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) called that decision by employees “hypocritical.”

Ernst and Franklin wrote to Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su seeking more details about what the protest cost the department.

“Clearly, these employees know how much more effective they can be when they show up in person. We just wish they had the same level of dedication to serving Americans that they do to serving themselves,” the lawmakers wrote. “As White House Chief of Staff [Jeff] Zients said in January, agencies are still ‘not where they need to be’ on returning employees to the office. If your employees can show up to the office to protest, they can show up to the office to work.”

Ernst and Franklin want Su to respond to answers to three questions by April 10:

• How much taxpayer-funded union time did representatives of AFGE Local 948 log with the Department of Labor (DOL) in the four weeks preceding their rally on March 19, 2024?
• Were the DOL employees paid—either through taxpayer-funded union time reimbursements or otherwise—for their protest against returning to the office, which they staged at their office?
• If so, what is the cost to the DOL including but not limited to labor and resources—of this protest?

Emails seeking comments about the lawmaker’s criticisms to David Gonzalez, the AFGE District 2 national vice president, which includes federal employees in Massachusetts, were not answered.

A Labor Department spokesperson said in an email to Federal News Network, “The department continues to engage with our employee unions over the updated in-person work requirements with the goal of building a stronger sense of community in our department. We are committed to that process, and we support the First Amendment rights of all workers, including our own staff, to protest.”

Labor’s impending decision

Labor Department leadership and its union representatives have been in ongoing negotiations about return to the office plans since at least January. Labor initially wanted employees back in the office at least five days per two-week pay period starting Jan. 28. But Su delayed the implementation about a week before it was set to take effect citing ongoing labor-management discussions over the planned telework reduction.

For members of the Senior Executive Service (SES), Schedule C, managers and supervisors, they have been working in the office at least five days per pay period, since Oct. 23.

Su wrote to staff in a Feb. 9 email, which Federal News Network obtained, that the “department remains actively engaged in negotiations with our Unions. I will provide you with an update no later than April 5.”

This impending decision is likely why the employees in Boston held the protest.

Su wrote to employees in November, reminding them of their impending changes that will likely still apply later this month.

“For our employees impacted by this change, if you have a telework agreement that will need to be updated in TeleworkXpress to support the new in-person work requirement, please work with your supervisor to do so. If you don’t have a telework agreement on file, the expectation is that you are reporting in-person every workday unless you are on approved leave, official detail away from the agency worksite, or official travel. Keep in mind, management may recall DOL employees who participate in telework or remote work to work in-person on a temporary or permanent basis as needed to support mission and business needs,” she wrote on Nov. 28. “Further, all employees who participate in telework are expected to manage their work schedules to meet the in-person work requirement even if it means switching their in-person day(s) to a different day(s) during the pay period when they are approved to be on leave on what would have otherwise been an in-person day(s).”

Return to office in 4 parts: Fed facing the May 5 deadline

Education’s return-to-office announcement ‘perplexing’ to union

Lawmakers call SBA’s return to office policy ‘extremely minimal’

Census Bureau reconsidering remote work policy

The post Labor employees show up to protest for more telework first appeared on Federal News Network.

Education Secretary Miguel Cardona announced that all agency staff will have to work in person at least five days per pay period beginning May 20. That includes the 2,400 employees in the American Federation of Government Employees bargaining unit.

“Our return to greater in-person presence not only gives us more opportunity for collaboration, engagement and innovation, but it also brings us into alignment with other federal agencies across government that have been increasing their own in-person presence,” Cardona said in a March 28 all-staff email, obtained by Federal News Network.

Currently, most Education employees are either remote workers, or on a telework schedule that requires them to work in person just two days per pay period.

Sheria Smith, AFGE president for Local 252, which represents Education employees, called the return-to-office announcement “perplexing.” She said the union has not had the opportunity to negotiate or come to an agreement on the changes. Labor-management negotiations are opening in April for a few collective bargaining articles, but currently, telework is not on that list.

“We’re more productive in our work for citizens and it is more cost-effective for us to work at home,” Smith said in an interview. “What would they be sending us to the office for? And to do it … bypassing the union, without giving the union the opportunity to negotiate any change. They’re just sending it out as if it was already bargained and already settled.”

Considering the many return-to-office announcements from agencies, the union had expected to receive proposals on any telework changes when they were first outlining the parameters of the upcoming negotiations.

“For an issue that they know is important, that we’ve been unequivocal in representing how important that is to our colleagues, our coworkers [and] how people have made familial decisions — and for us to not even receive proposals on this before it was sent out to the bargaining unit employees is, in our view, outrageous,” Smith said.

Since Cardona’s email went out, AFGE has received at least 100 emails from employees concerned about the upcoming changes. The union has already notified a mediator at the Federal Labor Relations Authority regarding the return-to-office announcement.

Cardona, however, said in the email the changes would still be “subject to fulfilling bargaining obligations.” A department spokesperson added that the agency “looks forward to partnering with the union and engaging in productive bargaining discussions to support a smooth transition for covered employees.”

The return-to-office changes, as outlined in Cardona’s announcement, apply to those with telework agreements. They also apply to those who are considered telework-eligible, but who are currently working remotely. Any employees who live more than 50 miles from an agency facility and those who were hired with a fully remote job offer are exempt from the new policy.

In preparation for more time spent in the office, Cardona said the agency has adjusted office space arrangements, IT and other logistics. Moving forward, Cardona said all Education offices should also consider scheduling “core collaboration days,” or certain days when employees can coordinate to all work in person on the same day.

Education employees’ views of telework have hardly changed. During the Trump administration, the department previously cut back on telework. At the time, the vast majority of employees said the changes decreased productivity, required staff to use more sick leave and annual leave, and hurt agency morale to the point that many considered leaving the agency.

Since then, many employees were largely teleworking during the pandemic, and continued regularly working from home under an agreement established in 2021.

But now, “for whatever reason, they want us to have watercooler conversations that we, frankly, have been having over Teams,” Smith said. “But they want us in person.”

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Census Bureau reconsidering remote work policy

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The post Education’s return-to-office announcement ‘perplexing’ to union first appeared on Federal News Network.

House Small Business Committee Vice Chairman Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.) said in a March 20 oversight hearing that he was “extremely skeptical” of SBA’s request for a 20% budget increase in fiscal 2025, “as there is no evidence the agency is operating effectively or efficiently.”

Among his concerns, Luetkemeyer said SBA has “implemented an extremely minimal return to work policy.”

“This is a direct slap in the face to our entrepreneurs who don’t have the luxury of a day off or the ability to sit in their pajamas and work from home,” Luetkemeyer said.

SBA Administrator Isabella Guzman told lawmakers that employees are in the office at least five days a pay period, “complying with the standards” set governmentwide by White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients.

“We have 50% occupancy on any given day, at a minimum,” Guzman said. “The whole of SBA, across the country, has returned to work.”

Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said members of the committee toured SBA’s headquarters on Dec. 3, 2023, and saw “empty office spaces” throughout the building.

“If we’re not going to use these buildings, let’s shut them down. Let’s consolidate and save money for the American taxpayer,” Alford said.

“I’ve long been concerned with SBA’s lax work-from-home policy, and what that means for our nation’s 33 million small businesses, getting them the help they need, when they need it,” Alford said.

Guzman said SBA occupies two-thirds of its headquarters building, and that three other agencies occupy the rest of the space.

“We went to the floors that SB A fully occupies,” Guzman told lawmakers. “We are looking constantly at our space requirements, aligned with our facilities’ needs.”

Acting American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 228 President Niklas Gustafsson said bargaining unit employees are expected to work in the office a minimum of four days per pay period, “with additional days, depending on the position.”

“Managers have the discretion to have a higher amount, if there’s a particular need,” Gustafsson said. “For example, if you are a receptionist or work in the mail room. If you’re in a position that requires more in-office presence, that would then be required.”

SBA managers and members of the Senior Executive Service, he added, are expected to work in the office at least five days per pay period.

“Employees recognize that there are in-person, in-office functions that need to be accomplished, and SBA bargaining unit employees are professionals and don’t object to that,” Gustafsson said. “However, many employees are confused and do not understand what it is they are accomplishing in the office, when they are in the office, that is different from when they are teleworking.”

Gustafsson said that he and his coworkers are carrying out the same duties each day, whether or not they’re in the office. That means SBA employees sometimes spend their in-office days in videoconference meetings with colleagues located across the country.

“My in-office days look no different than a telework day, from a work process or productivity point of view, and I think that’s true for the vast majority of our bargaining unit,” he said.

Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas), Luetkemeyer, Alford and five other committee Republicans say SBA office space remains mostly underutilized and is wasting taxpayer dollars.

The lawmakers are asking SBA to clarify its return to office requirements, and are asking why the agency is asking for $42 million for its rent budget in it 2025 budget proposal — a 30% increase from 2023 levels — when it already has “rows and rows of empty desks.”

“Despite the Biden administration’s belated realization that work-from-home policies are counterproductive to servicing the American public, it appears that the SBA has failed to implement an effective strategy to return its employees. Nearly a year after the Biden Administration ended the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, the SBA is still not back to work,” lawmakers wrote in a March 27 letter to Guzman.

Congressional Republicans have repeatedly pointed to SBA as an agency with underutilized office space.

Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee Ranking Member Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) placed SBA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development on the top of her “naughty list” of agencies with underutilized offices last December.

Data from the Government Accountability Office shows HUD and SBA both had a 7% average utilization rate in early 2023 — the lowest rate of all other major agencies.

HUD and SBA officials told GAO their headquarters buildings were undergoing renovation during the data collection period, contributing to a decrease in attendance.

GAO, in a report this summer, found all 24 of the agency headquarters offices it reviewed had excess space, including 17 that had an average building capacity of just 25%.

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Return to office in 4 parts: Fed facing the May 5 deadline 

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Labor employees protest at their office for more telework riles up lawmakers 

The post GOP lawmakers pan SBA return-to-office plans as ‘extremely minimal’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

A Postal Service letter carrier is one of the most public-facing jobs in the federal government.

They deliver mail and packages to 163 million addresses across the U.S. at least six days a week. They’re a routine presence in their customers’ lives, which means they’re often the first to realize when something on their route isn’t quite right.

It turns out letter carriers are often first on the scene in the case of an emergency. Every year, USPS employees rescue people from house fires, car crashes and medical emergencies while on their routes.

Those letter carriers also see when customers are going through a hard time, and find ways to give back to the community.

The National Association of Letter Carriers tracks about 150 of these acts of heroism from its members every year. But each year, the union recognizes a select few for extraordinary acts of service.

Some of NALC’s Letter Carrier Heroes of the Year put their own safety on the line to help save lives. Others led toy drives in their community and held annual charity concerts to make the holiday season extra special for families in need.

NALC National President Brian Renfroe said letter carriers provide an essential service to their customers, and are the “eyes and ears of their communities.”

“No one knows our communities and our neighborhoods like letter carriers. We deliver on our routes six and even seven days a week. We get to know our customers. We get to know them better each and every day,” Renfroe said during an award ceremony last Wednesday.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said letter carriers are often called on to “go above and beyond the call of duty when something unpredictable happens.”

“Sometimes, it requires an incredible act of heroism. When our carrier happens to be in a life-altering, defining moment and follows his or her instinct to do the right thing above all else,” DeJoy said. “That carrier, despite the personal risk involved, acts selflessly and helps others, making that carrier a hero.”

Phillip Moon, a letter carrier who’s worked the same route for 27 years in Amarillo, Texas, received the National Hero of the Year award. Last October, he saved a woman from a pitbull who was attacking her and her two dogs.

“I noticed it was mauling her. It had her by the leg and was just doing this number on her. So I jumped out of my truck and went to help, and was able to get the dog off of her by beating on it with my hand on its head. And it turned her loose,” Moon said.

That gave Moon the moment he needed to pull the woman into his truck, away from the dog and start treating her wounds.

“I noticed she was bleeding very bad. It enabled me to get to my phone, and call 911. They told me that I needed to get a compress on this wound right away. And all I could think of was to use my shirt to make a compress. I took my shirt off and mashed it down real hard, kept the compress on it, talking to the 911 operator,” Moon said.

Moon says he’s honored to receive the award, but doesn’t think he’s a hero — just someone who did the right thing.

“I don’t consider myself a hero. I’m just very grateful and honored and thankful that I was in a place where I could be of some assistance to somebody in need,” he said.

Kyle Mailman (yes, that’s his actual name) received one of this year’s Vigilant Hero Awards for saving a woman from a natural gas leak in her home.

“I was getting ready to walk up and I can smell natural gas. So I go up to the door and I hit the floor. I started to choke a little bit, with how concentrated it was there in the entryway. And my first thought was, ‘If it’s coming from inside the house, this is really, really bad,'” Mailman said.

Mailman knocked on the door, and a resident answered. But he knew something wasn’t quite right.

“I’d had natural gas poisoning 20 years prior, so I knew a little bit about it. And we started going over the symptoms of it. She was irritable, she was fatigued. She was having trouble comprehending very basic things that normally she could. And I said, ‘Get out of the house, get everybody out.'”

Mailman’s suspicions were correct. When the gas company arrived on the scene, it turned out gophers had chewed through the gas line, creating a major gas leak in Mary’s fireplace.

These awards don’t just go to letter carriers who respond to an emergency. They also go to letter carriers who give back to their community, and keep doing so year after year.

NALC recognized four New York City letter carriers for launching a nonprofit that organizes holiday toy drives.

Earnest Twomley is one of the carriers who received the award. He said this all began a decade ago, with a chance encounter on the street.

“I was delivering my route. And I come across a family coming out of a cab in the middle of the street. A little girl was standing there screaming, crying. Having three kids of my own, I know what pain is, and I know what a tantrum was. I saw that she was in pain, walked over to her and said, ‘Have you ever been delivered to your apartment by a mailman?’ And she just looked up and smiled,” Twomley  said. “I picked her up, carried her a couple of fights. That stopped the little girl from crying. So when I came out of the building, one of the tenants says, ‘That was a nice thing you did … She just came back from Sloan Kettering [Cancer Center]. She has a brain tumor and she had a treatment.’ So that’s why she was in pain.”

This happened around Thanksgiving, so Twomley told the girl to write a letter to Santa.

USPS enables volunteers to “adopt” a child’s letter to Santa through its Operation Santa program and send a gift through the mail.  In this case, Twomley was the one checking everything off her list.

After that, Twomley said things just snowballed from there.

“We started one toy drive that led to another toy drive, that led to doing other stuff as well for the community,” he said.

Since then, Twomley and his fellow carriers created a nonprofit called Better Angels of Human Nature and donated hundreds of toys to children across the city.

Better Angels isn’t an official USPS program, but Twomley says he’s got big aspirations for his enterprise.

“We can take this on a national level,” he said. “Just think of the eyes of these kids. You would think it’s just a toy. But then again, we go far and beyond — and that’s us postal workers. We are on the frontline.”

Besides Twomley, NALC also recognized letter carriers David Correa, Heriberto Rodriguez and Daniel Weber for their contributions to the Better Angels program.

The post ‘We are on the front line:’ USPS letter carriers recognized for heroic acts first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Labor Department employees are facing criticism for protesting in front of their offices in Boston about the agency’s telework policy. Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Rep. Scott Franklin (R-Fla.) called the decision by AFGE employees to show up at their offices to seek more telework privileges "hypocritical." In a letter to acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, the lawmakers are seeking answers to three questions by April 10. Among the details Ernst and Franklin want to know is how much official time did employees log in the four weeks preceding the March 19 rally and what did the protest cost the Labor Department.
  (Lawmakers call Labor employees’ in-person protest for more telework hypocritical - Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa))
• Tensions over telework are affecting yet another area for the federal workforce. At least half of recent cases at the Federal Service Impasses Panel have to do with either return-to-office, or work-life balance. The panel, an independent branch of the Federal Labor Relations Authority, generally helps settle disputes between agencies and federal unions. Now, after agencies began returning employees to the office more often, the panel has found that issues like hoteling are commonly leading to impasses in collective bargaining.
  (Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining - Federal News Network)
• Federal agencies face new requirements to vet artificial intelligence tools before putting them to use. The Office of Management and Budget is requiring agencies to publicly report on how they are using AI, the risks involved, and how they are going to manage those risks. If agencies do not follow those steps for a particular use case, OMB said that in most cases, they will have to stop using those AI tools. Vice President Kamala Harris said the guidance ensures safe, secure and responsible use of AI across the federal government. "When government agencies use AI tools, we will now require them to verify that those tools do not endanger the rights and safety of the American people," Harris said.
  (OMB sets 'binding requirements' for agencies to vet AI tools before using them - Federal News Network)
• The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has released new and far-reaching regulations. CISA’s proposed cyber incident reporting rules will apply to about 316,000 organizations across 16 critical infrastructure sectors. CISA kept the definitions in the rules broad. The agency said it needs a lot of data to analyze cyber risks and share information quickly across sectors. The goal of the regulation is to prevent hacking campaigns and other incidents from spinning out of control. The new rules will not be finalized until the end of 2025. CISA is taking comments on the proposed rules through June 3.
  (CISA’s cyber incident reporting rules will apply to 316K entities - Federal News Network)
• Agencies will soon have more options to buy commercial products. The General Services Administration is expanding the number of providers under the Commercial Platform Initiative (CPI) from three to eight, including six new ones. Along with current platform providers, Amazon Business and Fisher Scientific, GSA awarded spots to a range of companies including Staples and Grainger and four small business e-commerce platform providers. The awards come as the use of e-commerce platforms by agencies has been growing. GSA said for 2023, 34 agencies spent $80 million through the three CPI platforms. That is double the amount of money spent in 2022.
  (GSA’s commercial platforms program to grow by five providers - Federal News Network)
• Blue Star Families want to hear from military and veteran families about issues affecting their lives. The largest annual military family lifestyle survey is now open and all active-duty service members, veterans and their spouses are encouraged to tell their stories. The survey is designed to understand issues affecting military families, including housing, employment, access to health care and food insecurity. It remains one of the most comprehensive data sets for lawmakers, the Pentagon leadership, and community partners. You can find the survey by googling "Blue Star Families."
  (Largest military family lifestyle survey is now open - Blue Star Families)
• The Pentagon’s policy that allows service members to be reimbursed for travel when seeking reproductive care out of state, was used 12 times from June through December of last year. The department spent around $44,000 on transportation and lodging expenses for service members seeking such procedures as an abortion, in vitro fertilization, and egg retrieval. The policy was the reason Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) put a hold on military promotions for nearly a year.
  (Pentagon’s reproductive care policy used 12 times from June to December - DoD)
• Republican lawmakers said teleworking employees at the Small Business Administration are not making full use of their office space. SBA said about half of its workforce is in the office on any given day. But House Small Business Committee Chairman Roger Williams (R-Texas) and seven of his colleagues, said the agency's buildings remain underutilized and are wasting taxpayer dollars. Lawmakers are asking SBA about its return-to-office plans and why the agency is asking for a 30% increase in its rent budget for 2025.
  (Eight committee Republicans pen letter to SBA over work from home policy - House Small Business Committee )
• The Treasury Department will work with the financial sector to make more fraud data available for training artificial intelligence models. A new report from Treasury on AI cyber risks, said a fraud data gap is one of the major challenges for the financial sector. The report also points to a lack of consensus across the sector on what exactly constitutes an AI system. Treasury said it will work with other agencies and industry partners to develop a common lexicon of AI terminologies most relevant to financial institutions.
  (Managing artificial intelligence-specific cybersecurity risks in the financial services sector - Treasury Department)
• Federal employees donated more than $68 million to this year’s Combined Federal Campaign. Each year, feds can contribute to the charitable donation program, which spans more than 5,000 different charities. The donations go toward programs that offer, among other things, housing, education, food supplies, and job training. The 2024 campaign wrapped up this week with an awards ceremony in the nation’s capital. Since its inception more than 60 years ago, the Combined Federal Campaign has raised over $8.6 billion. Next year’s campaign will begin this fall.
  (2024 finale and awards ceremony - Combined Federal Campaign)

The post Lawmakers call telework protest ‘hypocritical’ first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Federal Service Impasses Panel (FSIP), an independent entity within the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA), has found that many recent cases of collective bargaining impasses between agencies and unions derive from disagreements over not only federal telework policies, but work-life balance — the two of which often go hand-in-hand.

“These are some of the hardest issues to resolve through mediation,” FSIP Chairman Martin Malin said during an FLRA town hall Wednesday. “What we’re finding is that a lot of employees liked being 100% remote, and the agency wants them back working on-site.”

FSIP has a very narrow, defined role, Malin said,  but generally, the panel helps agencies and federal unions resolve disputes that may arise during negotiations.

Within impasses specifically involving federal telework and work-life balance, Malin said there are two main issues.

The first, perhaps unsurprisingly, deals with how many days per pay period agency employees are expected to report to work in person.

The second main issue, Malin said, deals with labor-management disagreements over hoteling, or the practice of sharing office workspaces that aren’t dedicated to a specific employee.

Often, the hoteling issue that comes up between agencies and unions is the threshold an employee would have to come to work in-person to continue having their own personal workstation, rather than resorting to a shared workspace.

Of the eight most recent cases FSIP has issued decisions on, four of them deal with a mix of telework, hoteling and work-life balance.

“I think that is a definite impact of the pandemic and reactions to the pandemic,” Malin said. “Work-life balance, generally, is front and center in federal sector negotiations.”

In one recent example, the National Treasury Employees Union and the Energy Department brought a case before FSIP regarding a proposed policy on hoteling. The dispute particularly related to the number of days employees would have to be in the office to be eligible for a dedicated workspace.

“The parties attempted to hammer out the threshold number of days an employee would have to be physically present within their office space in order to maintain a dedicated office,” FSIP said in its case decision. “This disagreement came to a head in February 2023 with the parties unable to make movement on this topic.”

Another case the panel recently oversaw dealt with the number of telework days for employees as part of a work pilot at the Federal Election Commission. The dispute between the agency and NTEU pertained not only to the number of telework days, but also the availability of remote work, office sharing and core days spent on-site.

Much of the current tension over federal telework stems from an April 2023 memo, when the Office of Management and Budget called on agencies to begin increasing in-person work, while maintaining a balance of telework and remote work options for federal employees where they make sense.

Since then, the White House has repeatedly urged agency officials to bump up in-person presence for the federal workforce to at least 50% of the time.

There are currently 10 appointees on the Federal Service Impasses Panel under the Biden administration. The members serve on a part-time basis and don’t require Senate confirmation.

Though there have been different ways of approaching the purpose of the panel throughout different administrations, Malin said he views the current panel as a continuation of the collective bargaining process between labor and management parties.

“We are another step and the final step in your bargaining process — and that affects how we handle the disputes,” Malin said. “We’ve been fortunate to have considerable success in helping you reach agreement a complete your collective bargaining.”

The current panel has resolved 81% of its impasse cases with an agreed-upon resolution between agencies and unions, rather than resorting to adjudication.

The post Federal telework, work-life balance often top issues in collective bargaining first appeared on Federal News Network.

The Office of Personnel Management should take the lead on implementing stricter guidelines around any potential agency relocations, according to a recent petition for proposed rulemaking from non-profit, non-partisan organization Democracy Forward.

The rulemaking petition specifically calls on OPM to establish a clear, standard process among agencies any time they may look to relocate or move a federal office. The proposed process would require agencies to consult employees, analyze costs and consider how the move would impact staffing and attrition, all before the agency announces a relocation.

The petition also calls for agencies to document evidence and data to back up the purpose of the relocation. And in cases where retention is a concern, agencies would have to consider offering flexibilities such as remote work where possible. Agencies would also have to have a clear human capital management plan related to the possible relocation, according to the petition.

Without more specific guidelines in place, Democracy Forward said in its petition that stability, expertise and institutional knowledge could suffer as a result of agency relocations, ultimately contributing to a decline in the public’s trust in government.

“The petition for rulemaking that we submitted to OPM would be another step in helping fortify that important element of our functioning government,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in an interview. “We believe this petition is a straightforward and basic step, but it’s a critical one to help prevent any future government from using poorly planned and executed office relocations as a way of stripping the work Americans rely on.”

The National Treasury Employees Union is now joining Democracy Forward’s calls in the petition, further urging action from OPM on potential future agency relocations. NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said the petition would establish important guardrails, notably with the proposed requirement for agencies to engage with their own employees before initiating a relocation.

“These protective measures would help ensure that any relocations are not taken for improper reasons, such as undermining our civil service,” Greenwald wrote in March 20 letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja. “Federal employees and the public deserve a stable, professional workforce.”

OPM did not immediately respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment on any plans to address the petition or possibly undertake a rulemaking change as a result.

Prior agency relocations led to attrition

The petition comes largely in response to 2019 relocations of the Bureau of Land Management’s headquarters office, as well as two components of the Department of Agriculture: The Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).

USDA’s decision during the Trump administration to relocate two research agencies to Kansas City, Missouri, resulted in major staff attrition, with 40% of ERS staff and 60% of NIFA staff leaving their jobs.

USDA largely recovered its staff numbers by September 2021, but the two agencies are still facing long-term consequences. Both workforces are now less diverse and less experienced, the Government Accountability Office found. The percentage of Black employees at NIFA, for instance, dropped from 47% to 19% after the relocation.

In 2022, GAO also reported that although USDA had outlined a plan for narrowing down its selection to Kansas City, the department ultimately strayed from its plan and didn’t follow its own criteria — notably by not accounting for staff attrition.

Additionally, USDA’s relocation of NIFA and ERS later revealed a violation the Antideficiency Act (ADA), as USDA failed to meet congressional notification requirements in its plans to relocate.

Aligning with efforts to ‘fortify’ civil service

The goals of the rulemaking petition more broadly align with other Biden administration efforts to prevent what Perryman said are “highly concerning” possible changes to the civil service in a future administration.

Most notably, OPM already has plans underway aiming to protect career federal employees against the effects of a possible Schedule F revival.

“We are encouraged by the steps that OPM has taken in order to help protect the civil service to try to prevent something like what the prior administration did — with respect to Schedule F — from going into effect again,” Perryman said. “We do see this petition as another positive step that could help fortify the independence of our civil service and the ability of our government to operate effectively.”

Concerns about agency relocations have gained more recent attention on Capitol Hill as well. A bicameral bill, called the Conducting Oversight to Secure Transparency (COST) of Relocations Act, would require agencies to conduct studies and create a detailed reports of the costs and benefits of relocating — prior to making the move.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) first introduced the bill in February 2023. So far, there has been no further action on the legislation, but a staff member for Wexton said the issue continues to be a priority.

“The COST of Relocations Act would shine a light on agency relocations,” Wexton said in a statement. “Requiring a comprehensive and public cost-benefit analysis of agency relocations prevents partisan efforts to undermine the mission of our federal agencies and ensures taxpayer dollars are spent appropriately.”

The post More guardrails needed for any potential agency relocations, federal advocates say first appeared on Federal News Network.

• A pair of Senate and House Democrats is calling for a more permanent path forward for better relationships between federal unions and management. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) introduced the Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Act Thursday. If enacted, the legislation would make labor-management forums a permanent staple for the federal workforce. The lawmakers said the forums can help resolve employee concerns before they escalate. The new bill comes after President Biden signed an executive order earlier this month to re-establish the forums, after they were temporarily revoked during the Trump administration.
  (Federal Labor-Management Partnerships Act - Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) )
• Congress is moving ahead with plans to cut the IRS’ modernization funding. Lawmakers, as part of a spending deal for the rest of fiscal 2024, are making good on a promise to cut $20 billion of funding the IRS received in order to rebuild its workforce and upgrade its IT systems. The agency still has roughly $60 billion of multi-year modernization funds left. The Biden administration agreed to these cuts last year, as part of a deal with congressional Republicans to lift the debt ceiling and avoid a default on government debts. The spending deal also locks in the IRS’ current budget for day-to-day spending.
  (Congress proceeds with $20B cut to IRS modernization fund in FY 2024 spending deal - Federal News Network)
• The Senate has brought the funding hammer down on centralized IT modernization accounts in 2024. Senate appropriators cut all three accounts that help fund governmentwide IT modernization efforts. In the final set of the 2024 spending bills, lawmakers not only zeroed out the Technology Modernization Fund account for this year, but rescinded $100 million from previous years' appropriations. The Senate also reduced the allocation for the Federal Citizen Services Fund by $15 million for this year, and the Office of Management and Budget's IT Oversight and Reform Fund saw a $6 million cut. The lawmakers were not done with the ITOR fund, as they also rescinded $10 million given to the U.S. Digital Service under the American Rescue Plan Act.
  (Senate to take $100M back from TMF, $10M from USDS - Federal News Network)
• Congress is looking for even more details from agencies on their telework policies. The government spending agreement this week lays out six new requirements for sharing data on returning federal employees to the office. Within 90 days, the Office of Management and Budget would have to turn over all agencies’ return-to-office “action plans,” lawmakers said. Agencies would also have to report to Congress on their use of office space, and employee productivity. An OMB memo, now almost a year old, told agencies to start mandating in-person work for feds at least 50% of the time.
  (Congress calls for more details on federal telework in 2024 spending package - Federal News Network)
• The Defense Innovation Unit could get a major funding boost. Congressional appropriators proposed an increase of $840 million for DIU in the 2024 budget. The compromise version of the defense spending bill also requires the agency to provide Congress with details on the infrastructure, staffing and authorities the agency will need in the future. DIU was created to bring innovative and promising technologies into the Pentagon faster.
  (Defense Innovation Unit might get major funding increase - U.S. House Docs)
• Congressional appropriators reduced the Space Force’s procurement account from $4.7 billion to $4 billion. They also reduced the service’s research and development account from $19 billion to $18.6 billion. The bill cuts funding from the IT, data analytics and digital solutions efforts. But the Tactically Responsive Space program got a boost in the 2024 budget. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the bill today.
  (Congress makes cuts to Space Force’s budget - U.S. House Docs)
• The White House kicked off a new effort to change the perception that agencies don't listen to public feedback and aren't transparent in their decisions. The Office of Management and Budget released a request for information to gather input on the experiences of individuals and organizations, including from underserved communities, in how they inform federal decision-making and participate in engagement activities. OMB will use this feedback to help develop a governmentwide framework, common guidelines and leading practices for public participation and community engagement. OMB will hold listening sessions with the public over the next month as part of how it will gather responses to the RFI, which are due by May 17.
  (OMB developing governmentwide framework for public engagement - Federal Register)
• Americans will be waiting another six years until the next Census, but the top Democrat on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is looking for a status update. Committee Chairman Gary Peters (D-Mich.) is asking the Government Accountability Office to review the Census Bureau’s preparations for the 2030 count in order to study potential risks, such as effectively hiring the large number of people needed to do the counting, managing IT and cybersecurity challenges, and following up with households that don’t respond.
  (Peters calls on GAO to conduct oversight of 2030 Census preparations - Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee)

The post New bill calls for permanent, renewed pipeline between federal unions, management first appeared on Federal News Network.

Congress is looking for details on federal telework as part of the latest government spending agreement — echoing months of return-to-office scrutiny from the House Oversight and Accountability committee.

Among its many provisions, the agreement congressional appropriators reached Thursday for the back half of fiscal 2024 government spending bills lays out six new requirements on federal telework and return-to-office for federal employees.

Within 90 days of the legislation’s enactment, the Office of Management and Budget will have to turn over all agencies’ return-to-office “action plans” outlined earlier this year, lawmakers said in an explanatory statement for the 2024 Financial Services and General Government bill.

The action plans, initially required as part of an OMB memo last April, detail agencies’ federal telework and in-office requirements, as well as measurements for workforce factors like productivity and employee engagement.

Now almost a year after OMB’s initial call for agencies to begin returning staff to the office at least 50% of the time, the White House has continued to press agencies who appear to be falling behind on the requirements.

As part of the appropriations package, agencies will also have to provide information on the average number and percentage of employees working in the office during a typical two-week pay period; their most recent policy on federal telework — including any agreements with unions; and how they measure productivity for teleworking employees.

In reaction to the new reporting requirements, the American Federation of Government Employees called on Congress to embrace federal telework and remote work as an important flexibility, which the union said improves morale, productivity, recruitment and retention.

“Language attempting to tie the hands of the administration when it comes to determining the correct balance of in-person and remote work at each of our federal workplaces is particularly frustrating,” AFGE National President Everett Kelley said in a statement.

The National Treasury Employees Union, however, approached the provision and upcoming requirements for further information with a more hopeful mindset.

“We support a data-driven, fair analysis of the telework programs now in place for eligible federal employees across government,” NTEU National President Doreen Greenwald said in a statement. “NTEU is confident that Congress will ultimately agree that telework is a benefit to federal employees, their agencies and the taxpayers they serve, and reject arbitrary caps and other measures that inhibit this proven workplace practice.”

Reporting requirements on federal office space

In the spending agreement, lawmakers are also setting requirements for agencies to provide more information to Congress about federal office space. The federal footprint has been steadily declining, but agencies still holding onto excess and underutilized office space is a main reason the Government Accountability Office has kept federal real property management on its High-Risk List for over 20 years.

Agencies that have an office space utilization rate of less than 60% will have to submit to Congress a description of their current efforts to reduce their physical footprint. Agencies will also have to detail the total office space costs, the average utilization rate and the estimated cost of underutilized space, the lawmakers said.

The federal telework and office space reporting requirements come after nearly a year of the Oversight committee calling for more information and better data on telework, remote work and in-office requirements, as well as impacts on productivity and services to the public.

Staff for Oversight committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) did not immediately respond to Federal News Network’s request for comment.

At the same time, the Office of Personnel Management has said telework supports federal recruitment and retention, and offers agencies opportunities for cost savings, according to OPM’s latest telework report to Congress.

The new requirements also aren’t limited to civilian agencies. The Defense Department 2024 spending bill directs GAO to submit a report on telework to the congressional defense committees within 180 days of the bill’s passage, lawmakers said. That report should detail DoD’s adherence to telework and remote work policies, as well as details on the number of DoD employees who telework.

Lawmakers said the report will also have to weigh the cost and efficacy of telework and how it compares with in-person work, especially considering impacts on training and development of employees, and organizational cohesion.

DoD recently updated its telework policy for the first time since 2012, creating a more flexible policy that now addresses both telework and remote work.

As the 2024 spending agreement nears the finish line, the Biden administration is also already looking ahead to funding levels for 2025. Part of the administration’s plans for the coming fiscal year outline further studies on federal telework and the government’s hybrid work posture.

“OPM is conducting and disseminating three research studies on the future of work, assessing the effect of telework, remote work and hybrid work on hiring, engagement and retention, as well as a project to improve accessibility of organizational health and organizational performance data for agency leaders through toolkits and dashboards,” OMB said in a 2025 budget request document.

Bureau of Prisons, other federal pay reforms

At the top line, the Financial Services and General Government bill provides $13.7 billion in appropriations, which is $1.1 billion, or 4%, below enacted 2023 funding levels — and $5.7 billion below the White House’s 2025 budget request.

The package gives OPM about $412 million for salaries and expenses, and another $36 million for OPM’s inspector general office. That’s 12% below the Biden administration’s request of $465.8 million in discretionary spending for OPM in 2025.

The spending agreement also aims to address major staffing challenges at the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Congress is calling on OPM to work with BOP and consider possibilities for reforming or modifying the General Schedule to address pay rates for federal correctional officers, who currently have a 40% staffing shortage nationwide.

Lawmakers are also telling OPM to create a direct hire authority for all BOP facilities, and report back to the appropriations committees on the efforts within 90 days of the legislation’s enactment.

Earlier in March, Congress agreed to the overall budget for BOP in its first spending minibus. While staffing levels and salaries for BOP remained the same, the agency’s facilities maintenance budget decreased by 38%, putting the agency $110 million below the 2023 enacted level.

“While we wish more funds were included to address staffing and safety issues across the Bureau of Prisons, we are pleased that Congress directed the administration to research ways to improve pay for correctional officers and staff,” AFGE’s Kelley said.

A couple long-standing provisions for federal pay will also remain intact under the new funding agreement. For one, prevailing rate employees paid through the Federal Wage System will continue to see limits on their pay raises, ensuring they don’t exceed the raises for feds on the General Schedule.

A pay freeze will also remain in effect for the vice president, ambassadors at large, non-career members of the Senior Executive Service (SES) and other senior political appointees positioned at or above level IV of the Executive Schedule.

Despite significant cuts for some agencies and federal programs, the White House is urging a quick passage of the appropriations package, according to a statement of Administration Policy from OMB.

The post Congress calls for more details on federal telework in 2024 spending package first appeared on Federal News Network.

• Union officials are urging Congress to provide more funding to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. BOP has spent years struggling with staff attrition, and safety and security issues. The American Federation of Government Employees said the fiscal 2024 budget for BOP, as part of the recent government funding deal, would only worsen the agency's current 40% staffing shortage. And AFGE warned that a 38% cut to funding for facility maintenance would make federal prisons more dangerous environments for both employees and inmates.
  (BOP needs more funding, not Less, to address security issues - American Federation of Government Employees)
• U.S. spy agencies are doubling down on efforts to harness open source intelligence. Intelligence agencies will explore new partnerships and reimagine relationships with industry to take better advantage of open source data. That is according to the intelligence community’s first-ever OSINT strategy released earlier this month. The effort is led by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Central Intelligence Agency. The strategy said intelligence agencies will coordinate their open source data collection and expand their data sharing.
  (The IC OSINT strategy 2024-2026 - CIA)
• The Postal Service’s rate hikes on mail are driving away more customers than expected, according to a new report. USPS raised mail prices five times since 2020. That is when its regulator granted new pricing flexibility. USPS last raised mail prices in January, bringing the price of a first class stamp up to 68 cents. It may soon ask that regulator for a sixth price increase. But an industry study found that USPS saw a drop in mail revenue last year that was about $2 billion greater than expected. USPS recently told Congress that mail volume fell by more than 40% between 2007 and 2020 and that this trend will continue.
  (USPS mail price hikes driving away more customers than predicted, study finds - Federal News Network)
• How can agencies chip away at the monumental task of reforming human capital? A group of workforce experts has a few ideas. Agencies should target areas like recruitment of early-career talent and veterans. They can also look into strategies for reskilling employees in cyber and rehiring retired feds. Those are a few recommendations from a recent report on civil service reform from non-partisan organization Convergence. The report offers a blueprint using ideas and lessons learned from some agencies that have already been successful. In some cases, agencies can consider restarting pilot programs that were first launched several years ago.
  (Workforce cohort outlines specific ‘blueprint’ for civil service reform - Federal News Network)
• The Army is bringing back its AI competition. The latest contest is an opportunity for small businesses to share their disruptive AI technologies with the Defense Department. The contest is centered on Project Linchpin, the Army’s effort to create a pipeline of artificial intelligence. Participants will also have an opportunity to submit proposals for a Phase I or Direct to Phase II Army Small Business Innovation Research contract. White papers are due by May 17. Finalists will conduct an in-person demonstration of their solution at the 2024 AUSA annual meeting in October.
  (xTechScalable AI 2 offers cash prizes - xTech)
• In an effort to recruit and retain more service women, the Navy is standing up a women’s initiative team that will identify and tackle potential barriers women face across the service. The Office of Women’s Policy will oversee the team, which will report to the Office of Navy Culture and Force Resilience and to the deputy chief of Naval Operations for personnel, manpower and training. Communities and commands will designate officer and enlisted leads. Both men and women can hold leadership roles and participate in the women’s initiative team efforts.
  (Navy stands up women’s initiative team - U.S. Navy)
• A free online tax preparation tool run by the IRS is gaining momentum. The Treasury Department said more than 50,000 taxpayers have started or filed a tax return using the IRS’ Direct File platform. Taxpayers living in 12 states are eligible to use the platform to file their federal tax returns this year. The IRS is testing out Direct File this year in order to decide whether it should offer the platform in more states. The pilot program was launched using funding from the Inflation Reduction Act.
  (Join the IRS Direct File pilot - IRS Direct File )
• There is a new governmentwide website for sharing software security forms. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s repository for software attestation and artifacts went live this week. Federal software vendors can use the website to upload their software attestation forms and other documents. CISA finalized the attestation form earlier this month. Agencies will need to collect the form for all third-party software they use within the next six months.
  (CISA publishes repository for software attestation and artifacts - Federal News Network)

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“When you carry cash on you, you always expect to be robbed,” Pierani, now a letter carrier in Cincinnati, Ohio, said in an interview Wednesday. “You have to be on high alert, and it happens here and there.”

But Pierani wasn’t on guard, when a young man approached his USPS-marked delivery van in January 2022. He was eating his lunch inside the van, when he heard a jiggling coming from the sliding side door.

“I looked in my mirror, I saw a kid. I didn’t think anything of it,” Pierani said. “Well, the guy came up my side, stuck a gun to my head, and that’s how it went.”

Some things have changed. Pierani said he now carries a canister of mace when making deliveries. But the shock of what happened more than two years ago stays with him — especially when he drives by the spot where he got robbed, every day, on his route.

“You’re going to think about it every time. Every day it goes through your head. And you just deal with it however you can deal with it. Being a letter carrier, you used to be able to walk down the toughest streets in America, not even a word,” Pierani said. “Nothing except, ‘Hello, Mr. Mailman.’ And now you can’t.”

Pierani’s account is one of 2,000 robberies or attempted robberies of letter carriers that have happened since 2020.

“You never, ever expect to be robbed, being a postal worker,” told the crowd at a rally on Capitol Hill, organized by the National Association of Letter Carriers.

NALC National President Brian Renfroe said 643 letter carriers were attacked on the job in 2023 — a 30% increase in incidents, compared to the year prior. A majority of these attacks involve a gun or some other type of weapon.

“This leaves our members shaken and fearful to do their job,” Renfroe said.

Renfroe said a letter carrier in Philadelphia was recently maced by an assailant, who then stole his keys from his mail satchel.

“That was the second time he’s been attacked,” Renfroe said. “Targeted robberies, assaults and even murder have become part of our job.”

In 2022, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a letter carrier named Aundre Cross was murdered by two assailants after he tried to run away from an attempted robbery.

“We can never let this type of violence happen again,” Renfroe said.

Criminals are robbing letter carriers for their arrow keys, which open blue collection boxes, to steal mail and packages, as well as commit financial crimes — including altering checks and committing check fraud.

Matt McBee, a letter carrier from Detroit, Michigan, said two young men in ski masks, one holding an AK-47, stole his arrow key in July 2023.

“They stuck it to my head. All they wanted was the key,” McBee said.

USPS, since May 2023, has installed more than 15,000 high-security blue collect boxes across the country, which are expected to be a harder target for criminals to exploit. It’s ordered an additional 8,500 “hardened” blue boxes.

The agency has also installed 28,000 electronic locks on blue collection boxes across the country — which require more than just an arrow key to open.

McBee, who’s experienced symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder since the armed robbery, said he hopes USPS will make these upgrades quickly, so that he and other letter carriers don’t have to carry around the keys that criminals keep targeting.

“It’s essentially like a piece of steak in our pocket in a lions’ den,” McBee said. “If that’s what everybody wants, we’ve got to get rid of that.”

NALC and the other postal unions are calling on Congress to pass the Protect Our Letter Carriers Act, a bill Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Greg Landsman (D-Ohio) introduced Wednesday.

The bill, if passed, would give USPS $1.4 billion annually from fiscal 2025 through 2029 to install more high-security blue collection boxes, and replace the universal mail key, also known as an “arrow key,” with electronic versions.

“We need them all over the country and the resources to make sure it happens quickly,” Landsman said.

Letter carriers “do so much for us,” he said. “The least we can do is make sure that every single one of them is safe.”

The bill would also require the Justice Department to designate an assistant U.S. attorney at all 93 U.S. Attorney’s offices across the country to supervise the investigation and prosecution of crimes committed against letter carriers.

The bill also amends federal sentencing guidelines to treat the assault of a postal worker with the same severity as assaulting a police officer.

“There are certain sentencing enhancements. If you’re in a position of public trust, that’s a bump up on the sentencing guidelines. If you commit a crime with a firearm, that’s a bump up. This is a sentencing enhancement, protecting this classification of workers, that requires a judge to enhance the sentence, beyond what the underlying statute says,” Fitzpatrick said.

Renfroe said NALC is “pushing for a sentence that is a strong enough service that would deter these crimes from happening.”

“We have, unfortunately, had instances of what I deem as absolutely absurd sentencing for violent crime,” Renfroe said.

Pierani, the letter carrier from Cincinnati, said he expects letter carriers will be safer on their routes, if Congress passes the bill.

“We just need everybody in the nation to rally behind that. If we can make that happen, then we’re good to go,” he said.

McBee, the carrier from Detroit, said the legislation would help “not only catch these criminals that are treating us like this, but prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law.”

“That’s why it keeps happening — because they know they’re not going to get caught,” McBee said. “I can emphasize enough, for all the politicians that are listening, how important it is to pass these laws. We’ve got to get stricter laws.”

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said he supports the bill.

“We’re going to end the workplace violence that you have been forced to endure and make it clear, once and for all, that enough is enough,” Jeffries said. “The assaults against letter carriers are unacceptable. The robberies directed at letter carriers are unacceptable. The level of violence that is directed at letter carriers … is unacceptable. And it’s time for Congress to act and to do something about it.”

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said criminals who target letter carriers “deserve the maximum penalty.”

“If you attack a widow’s ability to get a Social Security check, that’s an attack on America. If you attack somebody who’s getting their retirement check, that’s an attack on America,” Hoyer said. “If you attack them, you attack us as a country. That’s why that penalty ought to be greater.”

Fitzpatrick said he expects his bill to pass later this year — and that he anticipates getting the 290 cosponsors necessary to force a House floor vote, if necessary.

“This is a no-brainer. I can’t imagine anybody being opposed to it, which means that I fully expect this to come on the floor this year and pass with overwhelming support,” Fitzpatrick said.

Renfroe said prosecution rates have improved slightly, “and more frequently the people that commit these crimes are being held accountable.”

“Make no mistake, we have a long way to go,” Renfroe said.

AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Fred Redmond said the labor organization, which represents 60 national unions, supports the legislation.

“Every worker in this country has a right to go to work safely and return home to their families safely. That’s a fundamental union principle that we all stand for,” Redmond said. “This is an issue of common decency, to protect workers — and to those who assault those workers, make sure that they receive the maximum punishment,” Redmond said.

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