The House Oversight Committee report reveals that telework is costing taxpayers billions of dollars before the first hearing.

The House Oversight Committee has reported that extended telework during the pandemic has negatively impacted government agencies and new employee training. The committee has proposed recommendations for the Trump administration to return federal workers to unused and vacant federal office buildings.

The House Oversight Committee's report on the Biden-Harris administration's policy of keeping federal workers in a telework, work-from-home format, even after COVID restrictions were lifted across the country and private-sector workers returned to in-person work settings was obtained by Planet Chronicle Digital.

The report, titled "The lights are on, but everyone is at home: Why the new administration will enter largely vacant federal agency offices," was prepared by Republicans on the committee and is 41 pages long.

In the previous Congress, the committee examined the federal telework and remote work practices, the level of supervision, and its effects on mission results. The committee discovered that American taxpayers have been losing "billions of dollars by paying for unused and leased federal office space."

The report suggests that the Biden Administration's self-reported telework data overestimates in-office attendance based on both physical and anecdotal evidence.

"Despite the self-reported data, a significant number of federal civilian employees are not required to report to the office. In fact, approximately 228,000 employees are never required to show up, while nearly all of the other 1.1 million employees are technically eligible for telework but not engaged in it. Moreover, telework-eligible employees at several agencies spend less than half their work hours in the office, which is below the Administration's own RTO target."

Despite maintaining massive telework levels, the Biden-Harris Administration did little to reduce the federal footprint, as American taxpayers continue to waste billions on owned and leased federal office space that remains largely vacant.

The committee discovered that the Biden-Harris administration collaborated with federal labor unions and their supporters to maintain "unjustifiable high telework levels," which investigators claim hampers the incoming Trump administration's efforts to decrease them.

"According to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., the Biden-Harris Administration has given too much power to federal union bosses, resulting in a preference for working from home over fulfilling agencies' missions and serving the American people."

President Trump was elected in a landslide to bring accountability to Washington, as Comer stated to Planet Chronicle Digital.

"Our report not only highlights the numerous issues with federal telework but also presents recommendations to bring federal employees back to their offices, dispose of unused and vacant federal property, and prioritize the needs of the American people over the desires of federal bureaucrats, Comer stated. "We eagerly anticipate collaborating with President Trump and his administration to ensure the federal bureaucracy is held accountable to the American people.""

The Trump administration should base telework and remote work policies on achieving mission outcomes rather than employee preferences or union demands, according to Comer and committee investigators.

The recommendation was made to set up automated systems for tracking telework usage and to establish "clear, measurable metrics to evaluate its costs and benefits."

Trump administration officials should impose "more frequent and timely reporting requirements on agency-level telework" to better inform executive branch officials and members of Congress, as recommended by Comer.

Comer advises the White House and central management agencies to adopt an enterprise-wide approach to telework that prioritizes the public interest. He suggests that the administration should prevent a telework competition among agencies to attract federal workers who transfer between them based on which allows them to work from home the most.

The House Oversight Committee will hold its first hearing of the new Congress shortly after releasing its report.

The "Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Administration Legacy" hearing is set for 10 a.m.

The Social Security Administration Commissioner Martin O’Malley, Federal City Council Board of Directors President Tom Davis, and Rachel Greszler of the Economic Policy Innovation Center are scheduled to appear.

Before the end of his tenure, O'Malley agreed to telework arrangements for 42,000 Social Security employees until 2029.

"The House Oversight Committee is committed to ensuring federal employees return to in-person work, as Comer stated on Planet Chronicle Digital last week."

The Senate report by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, reveals that the federal government owns over 7,000 vacant buildings and approximately 2,500 partially empty ones.

The report indicates that the average occupancy rate of government buildings is 12%.

The committee intends to scrutinize the Biden-Harris administration's failure to return federal employees to the office and how it may hinder the incoming Trump administration's ability to bring them back due to long-term telework agreements with federal employee unions.