Nothing better than paying federal employees to sit around at home and “work” rather than having them come back to the office and be supervised to sort of work, right?
205 Democrats vote against bill forcing federal workers to return to the office as COVID winds down
Nearly every House Democrat on Wednesday voted against a Republican bill requiring federal agencies to end their COVID-era telework policies and force federal workers to return to their offices.
Two hundred five Democrats voted against the Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act, or the SHOW UP Act, and just three Democrats voted for it. The bill, which passed 221-206, would require federal agencies to return to the telework policies that were in place before the pandemic hit, and also require them to conduct an assessment of how nearly three years of telework affected the government’s productivity.
House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said the legislation is needed because the liberal telework policy that has existed for nearly three years has eroded government service.
“Federal agencies are falling short of their missions,” Comer said on the House floor. “They are not carrying out their duties. They are failing the American people.”
“They have waited for months for their tax returns from the IRS,” he added. “They have waited for months for the Social Security administration to answer their questions and provide their benefits. Our veterans have even waited for months to get their medical records from the National Archives.”
You know the federal unions are fighting to keep their workers from coming back in, so, Democrats will back those unions.
Democrats rejected that argument and said telework has made the federal government more efficient.
“We strongly oppose this bill, which is an assault on all the progress we have made over the last several years in telework policy,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., the top Democrat on the Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Most private companies returned to the office long ago. It’s high time that federal workers do so. The question now, can Republicans get a few Democrats to flip over and vote for the bill in the Senate?
Read: Democrats Vote Against Federal Employees Returning To Work »