Today, Education and Workforce Committee Chairman Tim Walberg (R-MI) sent a letter to Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Vince Micone urging DOL to return to in-person work.
In the letter, Chairman Walberg writes: “The Committee on Education and Workforce (Committee) applauds President Trump’s January 20, 2025, memorandum on returning federal employees to in-person work. This important memorandum sets the stage for the Department of Labor (DOL) to fulfill a request that Committee Republicans have been making consistently for more than three years. On behalf of the Committee, I request you take immediate action to implement the President’s memorandum.”
The letter continues: “Nearly five years ago, DOL ceased its regular operations to protect its staff from the unknown threats of COVID-19. Since that time, the Biden-Harris administration has slow-walked returning federal agencies to regular operations, and federal employees’ unions have attempted to impede all efforts to return to the office. Meanwhile, federal agencies are not fulfilling their responsibilities to the American people. For example, in Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, DOL’s Wage and Hour Division (WHD) concluded the least amount of compliance actions, recovered the fewest back wages, and had the fewest number of employees receiving back wages since FY 2013, which was the last year of recorded statistics on DOL’s website.”
BACKGROUND: On January 20, 2025, President Trump signed an executive order requiring heads of all federal agencies and departments to terminate remote work and require employees to return to in-person work.
