WHERE’S WALDO? NEW REPORT SHOWS DC STILL A GHOST TOWN AFTER COVID. By OpenTheBooks (12/27/24)
Open the Books (OTB) worked with Senator Joni Ernst’s office to quantify the federal bureaucracy, asking questions such as:
How many bureaucrats are there?
What are they earning compared to the private sector? (Average for FY2021 $54,339 private vs. over $100K in 109 of 125 federal DC agencies)
Where are they located? How do they perform?
How much vacation do they enjoy on taxpayers’ dime? (44 days of paid time off after just 3 years)
When Congress asked in 2023 how many employees had returned to the office after COVID, Office of Personnel Management Director Kiran Ahuja had no idea. The Biden administrative has been increasingly secretive about who these workers were, what they were doing, and from where. So Senator Ernst and OTB decided to dig in.
Key Findings
Big Numbers: Among federal buildings in DC, just 12% are occupied.
Serious Side Effects: Absenteeism and lack of supervision mean less help for citizens with questions and problems.
They Break It, We Still Buy It: While offices sit relatively empty…
Taxpayers foot the bill for furniture buying sprees;
Empty offices have become breeding grounds for dangerous bacteria and other toxins like copper and lead as water sits stagnant in pipes and restrooms;
At critical agencies like the Federal Trade Commission and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, workers who intend to turn up in person are told to stay away.
A Call for R-T-O (Return To Office): Senator Ernst is introducing a bill — The REMOTE Act — which would “require agencies to use software to gather concrete data on the adverse impacts of telework in the federal government by monitoring bureaucrats’ computer use, requiring agency reports, and providing key information for individual performance reviews.”
Conclusion
What started with employees literally phoning it in has turned into a vicious circle with buildings in disrepair, backlogged tasks, and in the case of the National Science Foundation, they’re still blaming delayed open records requests on Covid social distancing!
Congress, and legislation like REMOTE Act, will be critical to informing DOGE as it seeks to find efficiencies in the federal bureaucracy. It’s urgent we create public accountability and force Washington to set priorities and make common sense budget decisions. In the private sector, companies can set whatever remote work policies they want but few private companies maintain both expansive office space and flexible remote work rules. It’s time for Washington to rejoin the real world of finite resources.
More information:
Out of Office — Bureaucrats on the beach and in bubble baths but not in office buildings: ernst.senate.gov/imo/me…