WASHINGTON—House Committee on Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer (R-Ky.) and Subcommittee on Government Operations Ranking Member Jody Hice (R-Ga.) today continued their probe into the Biden Administration’s failure to return federal employees to the workplace. In a letter to Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Director Kiran Ahuja and General Services Administration (GSA) Administrator Robin Carnahan, Comer and Hice seek documents and information related to federal employees returning to work in person and the current usage of federal office space.

“We are continuing our oversight of the Biden Administration’s return-to-work policies for the federal workforce,” wrote the Republican lawmakers. “We request documents and information about the Administration’s current plans to have the federal workforce return to the workplace as well as information related to capacity and usage of the federal real property portfolio.”

During his State of the Union Address earlier this month, President Biden declared that the vast majority of federal employees will return to work in person. However, according to OPM’s website, the federal government is transitioning to a hybrid work environment, meaning many employees will continue to work from home. OPM’s 2021 “Guide to Telework and Remote Work in the Federal Government” also points in the same direction, encouraging agencies to integrate telework, remote work and alternative work schedules.

“It is long overdue for the federal workforce to return to work at their duty stations. We have repeatedly urged the Administration to bring federal employees back as soon as possible. Every day Americans wait for that return is another day they suffer underperforming, inefficient services from federal workers not at their offices. It is also another day taxpayer funds are wasted on unoccupied federal office space. The high cost of excess federal real property holdings has been a long-standing problem. It can only have been exacerbated by the broad under-utilization of federal real property during the pandemic expansion of telework and remote work. It must be brought under control—not worsened by further delay in returning federal employees to in-person work,” continued the Republican lawmakers..

###