Yakima Times

This week, Representative Dan Newhouse introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act. The bill aims to reduce government spending and encourage federal employees to return to in-person work by addressing locality pay for teleworking employees. Currently, federal workers who telework from home receive annual locality bonuses even if they do not attend offices located in high-cost-of-living areas.

Newhouse highlighted the issue of underutilized office spaces due to remote work, stating, "The federal government pays for massive offices for agency employees in Washington, D.C., and we now know that 17 of the 24 federal agencies are using less than a quarter of their space because of work-from-home employees." He further commented on the financial implications: "If agencies wish to allow their employees to work from home, that is within their right to do so. But if they do, then the government should not be paying locality bonuses to those employees and they should be treated like any other work-from-home federal employee that doesn’t receive such a bonus."

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy echoed these concerns. "Federal employees get paid extra to work in higher-cost cities. But what if they don’t show up to work? Why should they get paid?" he asked.

A report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) revealed that at the beginning of 2023, 17 out of 24 federal agencies were using only 25% or less of their headquarters' capacity. The GAO identified six agencies with an average vacancy rate of 91%, while still providing a 16.44% locality bonus compared to other regions.

The proposed legislation would exclude certain teleworking federal employees from receiving raises and special locality bonuses if their office is located in a high-cost area but they are working remotely. According to the bill, a "covered employee" is defined as one who teleworks at least one day or follows an alternative schedule with at least 20% telework per week.

Certain exceptions apply; for example, disabled individuals receiving accommodations or members of specific services like Foreign Service and Armed Services are not considered "covered employees." Employees meeting this definition will not receive annual adjustments under section 5303 of title 5 but will be compensated based on the "Rest of U.S." pay scale.

For more details, the full text of the bill is available online.