(Matt Lamb, Headline USA) A new Senate report revealed that millions of federal workers—including those who handle sensitive information, such as Social Security payments and tax returns—are working from home more than two years since the widely accepted end of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, the founder of the new Senate DOGE Caucus, released the report, titled “Out of Office.”
Proud to be the top watchDOGE in the Senate. 🫡
It’s a bad time to be waste, fraud, or abuse in Washington! #MakeEmSqueal https://t.co/p6WQbA79Y2
— Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) November 22, 2024
In total, 94% of federal workers clock in remotely at least some of the time, Ernst announced, while 33% never come into the office.
Even when workers are offered higher “locality pay,” ostensibly to attract them to an area with a high cost of living, many continue to collect it without living there. Ernst’s office reported some teleworkers “live more than 2,000 miles away from their office.”
Meanwhile, billions of dollars are wasted on unused offices that must be heated and maintained, despite a 12% occupancy rate. The maintenance of all offices costs the federal government “more than $8 billion every year,” according to the Iowa senator’s office.
This has caused health problems too, as the few remaining workers in offices are subjected to the harms of “stagnant water,” as disease builds up, threatening the health of employees, Ernst previously found.
Her office announced she had provided a “roadmap” to Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, identifying “$2 trillion in waste” that the two billionaire entrepreneurs can consider in their recommendations to President-elect Donald Trump as the heads of the Department of Government Efficiency, a semi-official advisory panel tasked with helping scale down the federal bureaucracy.
“For years, I have been tracking down bureaucrats relaxing in bubble baths, playing golf, getting arrested, and doing just about everything besides their job,” Ernst stated in a press release.
“It would almost be funny if it wasn’t happening on the taxpayers’ dime and at the expense of veterans, seniors, small business owners, and Americans in need of competent service from government agencies,” she added.
She threatened to get federal workers fired if they won’t come back to the office, saying, “if they don’t want to, I will make their wish come true.”
Some entities do not plan to change anytime soon.
President Joe Biden’s administration just signed a deal with the American Federation of Government Employees to allow 42,000 Social Security workers to stay remote until 2029, according to Bloomberg.
Ernst’s office flagged Social Security as one problematic agency.
“Folks in Iowa caring for the disadvantaged contacted me frustrated by the lack of responsiveness from the local Social Security Administration office where employees telework several days a week,” Ernst said in the report. “Months passed before receiving replies to simple questions, causing significant delays serving the elderly and disabled.”
The relaxed attitude toward showing up and performing a job in office also creates national security risks, Ernst, a veteran, said.
Late last year into January of this year, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin decided to take a few days off for a surgery without following standard protocol and informing the president and others he would be unavailable in case of a major national security issue.
