[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 139 Introduced in House (IH)]

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118th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 139

  To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study of the 
impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during 
    the COVID-19 pandemic and a plan for the agency's future use of 
           telework and remote work, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 9, 2023

    Mr. Comer (for himself, Mr. Donalds, Mr. Biggs, and Mr. Cloud) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
                      Oversight and Accountability

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study of the 
impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during 
    the COVID-19 pandemic and a plan for the agency's future use of 
           telework and remote work, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Home Office Work's 
Unproductive Problems Act of 2023'' or the ``SHOW UP Act of 2023''.

SEC. 2. REINSTATEMENT OF PRE-PANDEMIC TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND 
              LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE AGENCIES.

    Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
each agency shall reinstate and apply the telework policies, practices, 
and levels of the agency as in effect on December 31, 2019, and may not 
expand any such policy, practices, or levels until the date that an 
agency plan is submitted to Congress with a certification by the 
Director of the Office of Personnel Management under section 3.

SEC. 3. STUDY, PLAN, AND CERTIFICATION REGARDING EXECUTIVE AGENCY 
              TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE 
              AGENCIES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the head of each agency, in consultation with 
the Director, shall submit to Congress--
            (1) a study on the impacts on the agency and its mission of 
        expanding telework by its employees during the SARS-CoV-2 
        pandemic that commenced in 2019, including an analysis of--
                    (A) any adverse impacts of that expansion on the 
                agency's performance of its mission, including the 
                performance of customer service by the agency;
                    (B) any costs to the agency during that expansion 
                attributable to--
                            (i) owning, leasing, or maintaining under-
                        utilized real property; or
                            (ii) paying higher rates of locality pay to 
                        teleworking employees as a result of 
                        incorrectly classifying such employees as 
                        teleworkers rather than remote workers;
                    (C) any degree to which the agency failed during 
                that expansion to provide teleworking employees with 
                secure network capacity, communications tools, 
                necessary and secure access to appropriate agency data 
                assets and Federal records, and equipment sufficient to 
                enable each such employee to be fully productive;
                    (D) any degree to which that expansion facilitated 
                dispersal of the agency workforce around the Nation; 
                and
                    (E) any other impacts of that expansion that the 
                agency or the Director considers appropriate;
            (2) any agency plan to expand telework policies, practices, 
        or levels beyond those in place as a result of section 2; and
            (3) a certification by the Director that such plan will--
                    (A) have a substantial positive effect on--
                            (i) the performance of the agency's 
                        mission, including the performance of customer 
                        service;
                            (ii) increasing the level of dispersal of 
                        agency personnel throughout the Nation; and
                            (iii) the reversal of any adverse impact 
                        set forth pursuant to paragraph (1)(D);
                    (B) substantially lower the agency's costs of 
                owning, leasing, or maintaining real property;
                    (C) substantially lower the agency's costs 
                attributable to paying locality pay to agency personnel 
                working from locations outside the pay locality of 
                their position's official worksite; and
                    (D) ensure that teleworking employees will be 
                provided with secure network capacity, communications 
                tools, necessary and secure access to appropriate 
                agency data assets and Federal records, and equipment 
                sufficient to enable each such employee to be fully 
                productive, without substantially increasing the 
                agency's overall costs for secure network capacity, 
                communications tools, and equipment.
    (b) Limitation.--
            (1) In general.--An agency may not implement the plan 
        submitted under subsection (a)(2) unless a certification by the 
        Director was issued under subsection (a)(3).
            (2) Subsequent plans.--In the event an initial agency plan 
        submitted under subsection (a)(2) fails to receive such 
        certification, the agency may submit to the Director subsequent 
        plans until such certification is received, and submit such 
        plan and certification to Congress.
    (c) Definitions.--In this Act--
            (1) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given the term 
        ``Executive agency'' in section 105 of title 5, United States 
        Code;
            (2) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the Office 
        of Personnel Management;
            (3) the term ``locality pay'' means locality pay provided 
        for under section 5304 or 5304a of such title; and
            (4) the terms ``telework'' and ``teleworking'' have the 
        meaning given those terms in section 6501 of such title, and 
        include remote work.
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