WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent letters to Department of Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Julie Su raising concerns about the agencies’ extremely low utilization of in-person office space and failure to return to pre-pandemic attendance levels.
In the letter to Cardona, Foxx writes:“The Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the Department of Education (ED) was using only about 16 percent of its headquarters’ space on average. … As the GAO data clearly demonstrate, the repeated calls of the White House and OMB for a return to in-person work have largely gone unheeded. While return to in-person work was advocated as ‘a priority of the President,’ the lack of any significant progress in this area demonstrates that the White House is unable to exercise the most basic management functions over federal agencies. In turn, this appears to be evidence of the failure of Cabinet officials to hold agency employees accountable.”
Foxx requests the Department of Education produce:
An Excel spreadsheet with the daily entry and exit data (e.g., raw numbers only) for the Lyndon Baines Johnson Building (LBJ), 400 Maryland Avenue, S.W., Washington, D.C. 20202 from January 21, 2021, through January 31, 2024;
An Excel spreadsheet with the daily entry and exit data (e.g., raw numbers only) for LBJ for calendar year 2019;
Materials sufficient to show the current utilization of space within LBJ;
The number of employees who currently report to work at LBJ as an in-person duty location;
The White House has directed agencies to have a system for monitoring the progress of returning to the office “fully in place.” If ED has implemented a “system,” provide all records maintained for monitoring the progress of the return-to-office of ED employees and contractors. If ED does not have this system or it is not “fully in place,” provide an explanation of why ED has failed to monitor its progress;
An explanation of whether and how ED has ensured all employees are paid in accordance with the locality in which they reside and from which they work, instead of where their duty station is; and
All documents and communications between ED and the American Federation of Government Employees related to the development and implementation of all ED post-pandemic return-to-office action plans.
In the letter to Su, Foxx writes: “On September 18, 2022, President Biden declared that ‘the pandemic is over.’ However, many agencies across the federal government have retained remote work policies instituted during the pandemic. When the Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently analyzed the utilization of space at federal headquarters buildings, DOL and five other agencies were estimated to be using only 23 percent of their headquarters space on average. … The Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey for 2022 shows that a significant number of DOL’s employees are teleworking. … Moreover, 31 percent said they telework every day, and 40 percent said they telework three or four times a week. This is unacceptable. Pandemic-style remote work policies do not reflect post-pandemic realities.”
Foxx requests the Department of Labor produce:
The daily entry and exit data (raw numbers only) for the Francis L. Perkins Building and the Postal Square Building from January 21, 2021, through January 31, 2024;
The daily entry and exit data (raw numbers only) for the Francis L. Perkins Building and the Postal Square Building for calendar year 2019;
Materials sufficient to show the current utilization of space within the Francis L. Perkins Building;
The number of employees who currently report to the Francis L. Perkins Building and the Postal Square Building as an in-person duty location;
The White House has directed agencies to have a system for monitoring the progress of returning to the office “fully in place.” If DOL has implemented this system, provide all records maintained for monitoring the progress of DOL’s return-to-office. If DOL does not have this system, provide an explanation about why DOL has failed to monitor its progress;
An explanation of whether DOL has ensured all employees are being paid in accordance with the locality in which they reside and from which they work instead of where their duty station is; and
All documents and communications exchanged between DOL and the American Federation of Government Employees union related to the development and implementation of the return-to-office action plan that DOL provided to the White House.
To read the full letter to Cardona, click here.
To read the full letter to Su, click here.
