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Sarbanes, Connolly Introduce Bill to Protect Successful Federal Telework Program

July 26, 2018

Legislation Would Halt the Trump Administration’s Misguided and Indiscriminate Rollback of Federal Telework

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressmen John Sarbanes (D-Md.) and Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) today introduced the Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act, a bill to prohibit the kind of indiscriminate anti-telework policies the Trump Administration has announced for the Department of Education and U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"Federal government telework programs not only improve productivity, but also save taxpayer money by increasing efficiency, strengthening employee retention and reducing costs for federal office space, as numerous studies have demonstrated," said Congressman Sarbanes, author of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. "We must push back against the Trump Administration's repeated attacks on federal telework programs, which make our government work better for the American people."

"Instead of instituting mindless, sweeping bans on telework participation, agencies should be expanding teleworking options. Telework is supposed to be a tool for promoting government efficiency, performance, and emergency preparedness," Connolly said.

Specifically, the Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act make five key reforms, including:

  1. Strengthening agency efforts to establish and achieve goals for telework participation;
  2. Improving the achievement, tracking, and reporting of telework cost savings;
  3. Preventing changes to telework policies that reduce agency telework participation;
  4. Keeping the government-wide telework participation rate at 22 percent; and
  5. Clarifying the definition of telework to include full-time telework.

The Telework Metrics and Cost Savings Act has been endorsed by the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association (NARFE), the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the National Federation of Federal Employees (NFFE), and the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

See here for text of the legislation.

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