Federal Workers Need Annual Approval to Telework Under GOP Bill

Federal office workers would need written permission each year to work from home part-time under a bill announced Tuesday by a key Senate Republican.

Employees would lose the option to work remotely part-time if their performance “falls below acceptable levels” or the needs of their agency change, according to the bill (S. 82) from Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.). Federal departments would need to calculate the potential costs and savings when employees work remotely.

More than one million federal employees—almost half of the civilian workforce—were eligible to work remotely at least part of the time as of May 2024, according to a Biden administration report. Around 10% of that workforce was entirely remote.

President-elect Donald Trump promised to fire federal workers who don’t report to the office after he takes power Jan. 20 and drastically reshape the civilian public workforce of 2 million people.

Another Lankford bill (S. 79) announced Tuesday would make it easier for federal contractors to hire employees that have the skills to perform a job but don’t have a college degree.

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who is leading a Senate caucus focused on eliminating government waste, introduced a bill in early January that would would require agencies to move part of their Washington, D.C.-based workforce outside the beltway. The Washington region is home to 282,000 federal employees, according a 2017 report from the Office of Personnel Management, with the vast majority of workers living elsewhere.