[Senate Hearing 116-402]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 116-402
MODERNIZING FEDERAL TELEWORK: MOVING
FORWARD USING THE LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC
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HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND FEDERAL MANAGEMENT
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON
HOMELAND SECURITY AND
GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
NOVEMBER 18, 2020
__________
Available via http://www.govinfo.gov
Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
42-886PDF WASHINGTON : 2021
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COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio GARY C. PETERS, Michigan
RAND PAUL, Kentucky THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire
MITT ROMNEY, Utah KAMALA D. HARRIS, California
RICK SCOTT, Florida KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri
Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Staff Director
David M. Weinberg, Minority Staff Director
Zachary I. Schram, Minority Chief Counsel
Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk
Thomas J. Spino, Hearing Clerk
SUBCOMMITTEE ON REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND FEDERAL MANAGEMENT
JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma, Chairman
ROB PORTMAN, Ohio KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
MITT ROMNEY, Utah THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware
RICK SCOTT, Florida JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
James D. Mann, Staff Director
Eric A. Bursch, Minority Staff Director
Mallory B. Nersesian, Subcommittee and Document Clerk
C O N T E N T S
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Opening statement:
Page
Senator Lankford............................................. 1
Senator Sinema............................................... 2
Senator Carper............................................... 10
Senator Rosen................................................ 24
Prepared statement:
Senator Lankford............................................. 31
Senator Sinema............................................... 37
WITNESSES
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
Michelle Rosenberg, Acting Director, Strategic Issue Team,
Government Accountability Office............................... 5
Keith Washington, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration,
U.S. Department of Transportation.............................. 6
Sydney T. Rose, Chief Human Capital Officer, Office of Human
Resources, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration
and Management, U.S. Department of Labor....................... 8
Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Systems and Deputy
Chief Information Officer for IT Operations, Social Security
Administration................................................. 9
Alphabetical List of Witnesses
Borland, Jim:
Testimony.................................................... 9
Prepared statement........................................... 61
Rose, Sydney T.:
Testimony.................................................... 8
Prepared statement........................................... 57
Rosenberg, Michelle:
Testimony.................................................... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 39
Washington, Keith:
Testimony.................................................... 6
Prepared statement........................................... 52
APPENDIX
Statement of the American Federation of Government Employees,
AFL-CIO........................................................ 66
Responses to post-hearing questions for the Record:
Mr. Washington............................................... 75
Mr. Borland.................................................. 78
MODERNIZING FEDERAL TELEWORK
MOVING FORWARD USING LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
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WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee on Regulatory,
Affairs and Federal Management,
of the Committee on Homeland Security
and Governmental Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:11 p.m., via
Webex and in room 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon.
James Lankford, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Lankford, Scott, Sinema, Carper, and
Rosen.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LANKFORD\1\
Senator Lankford. Welcome, everybody. Thanks for being
here. This is a hearing for the Regulatory Affairs and Federal
Management Subcommittee (RAFM) titled ``Modernizing Federal
Telework: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned during the
Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.'' We should at
least have something good come out of this pandemic.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Senator Lankford appears in the
Appendix on page 31.
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This hearing is really focused on what we can gain, what
has already been learned, what gaps are still there, and what
we can do to better improve the process. It has been a decade
since the last significant piece of Federal telework
legislation, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. It set the
baseline standard for Federal agencies to follow for telework.
Over the last 10 years, we have seen great advances in
technology, workforce expectations, and an increase in
cybersecurity threats. So many changes in the world, it makes
sense to take a close look at the current telework policies and
strategies in the Federal workforce. The current pandemic has
acted as a magnifying glass for telework policy improvement.
This Committee held a hearing in July with a panel of
private industry witnesses. During that hearing, we were able
to gather valuable information concerning what private
employers have done to support their remote workforce. We were
also able to draw on some lessons learned that could help the
Federal workforce recalibrate its telework strategies and
policies.
During that hearing, we also gained some insight into what
the current private workforce is demanding. This, coupled with
all the environmental challenges we now face, may help us
create remote work policies that keep the Federal Government
competitive in the hiring of highly qualified individuals.
Since early March, Federal agencies have been forced to
deal with complex problems like cybersecurity, remote
performance management, and employee engagement on a massive
scale. The pandemic has been extremely disruptive to all of our
lives, and I am hopeful we can use these challenging times to
shine a light on telework processes and find long-term
solutions that provide real value for Federal agencies and
their employees.
As I stated in the first hearing, there are some very
important telework questions that I believe need clarity on in
order for us to chart a clear path forward for the Federal
workforce. For example, how do we best prepare employees so
that during a future disaster or pandemic they can seamlessly
transition into a Federal workforce policy? How do we
effectively train managers to stay engaged and to monitor
performance of remote workers? What tasks could be permanently
teleworked, which would open up opportunities to hire anyone,
anywhere in the country?
I want to make sure that cybersecurity threats and
information technology (IT) infrastructure improvements are at
the forefront of future telework legislation conversations.
Today, I look forward to hearing from the front line. We
have heard anecdotal evidence of agencies overcoming the
challenges of a mostly remote workforce, but today we have the
opportunity to hear from the source. I hope that we can take
what we learn in today's hearing, use it to create a more
efficient, flexible, and competitive Federal workforce.
I do want to thank this panel for taking the time away from
their very busy schedules. You have all done written statements
in advance and you have been a part of this for your oral
testimony as well. We really appreciate the opportunity to be
able to pick your brain, be able to hear about what the
agencies have done, what experience that you have gained in the
process.
For everyone watching this hearing, this is what we are
affectionately calling a hybrid hearing. We have some
individuals that are here in the room, though it is very few.
Four of our witnesses that will testify in this hearing, two of
them are live, two of them are remote. Most of the individuals
that are here will be remote for this hearing, and everyone is
very well spaced during this hearing as well, to be able to
make sure that we maintain social distancing in the time
period. So we are being attendant to all of those basic
elements through this. But I do want us to be able to get this
information out. It is important that we get it on the record
as well.
With that I would like to recognize Ranking Member Sinema
for her opening remarks, and she is joining us remotely.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SINEMA\1\
Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for
holding this important hearing, and as this is likely our last
Subcommittee hearing of the year I want to thank you for your
leadership throughout this Congress. It has been an absolute
pleasure to work with you.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Senator Sinema appears in the
Appendix on page 37.
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I do want to submit a statement for the record from the
American Federation of Government Employees.\1\
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\1\ The statement submitted by Senator Sinema appear in the
Appendix on page 66.
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I appreciate all of our witnesses joining us today. I had
hoped that all of our witnesses would agree to join the hearing
remotely, because I think that would be a great message to show
our Committee and the country as our COVID numbers are
increasing across the country, and demonstrate our ability to
work remotely and to adapt to this changing world.
Our hearing today is important for a number of reasons, but
a key one is to dispel the myth that telework automatically
means decreased productivity. My office has been working
completely virtual since March, and there has been no
disruption in our work. Every day our team is working to help
Arizonans, and, in fact, we have found that telework can
increase productivity, improve employee morale, and allow
workers the flexibility they need to care for their kids and
their loved ones.
So the key is to develop an effective telework strategy so
that workers have the tools they need and that everyone in the
organization understands the policies and goals.
I look forward to our conversation today on those topics,
learning more about the problems and challenges you all have
overcome, and what operational challenges remain. It is also
important to note the risks of returning our Federal workforce
to their offices too soon. According to a recent Government
Executive article, more than 100,000 Federal employees
nationwide have tested positive for COVID. Many States have
seen alarming rises in COVID cases recently. This week in
Arizona, the percent of positive COVID tests has reached its
highest level in 3 months, and the number of Arizonans
hospitalized for COVID at the beginning of this week was 70
percent higher than it was just on November 1.
While most Federal employees continue to work from home,
there are certainly some positions, such as our agents and
officers at the border, our postal workers, and Veterans
Affairs (VA) staff who cannot do so. So to protect those
individuals, it is critical that we allow maximum telework to
minimize the number of people in Federal buildings.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back, and I look forward
to hearing from our witnesses today.
Senator Lankford. Thank you.
At this time I want to be able to proceed with testimony
from our witnesses. Let me do a quick introduction of the four
of them.
Joining us remotely is Michelle Rosenberg. She is the
Acting Director of U.S. Government Accountability Office
(GAO's) Strategic Issues Team, where she oversees the agency's
work on Federal human capital issues. Prior to joining the
Strategic Issues Team she served for over 20 years on GAO's
Health Care Team. Throughout her tenure in GAO, Ms. Rosenberg
has been recognized with numerous GAO-wide and Health Care Team
awards, including two Meritorious Service Awards and a
Distinguished Service Award. She will be testifying first and
will be joining us remotely.
Keith Washington is here. He is the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of
Transportation (DOT). He has been with the Department since
1991. In his current position, he provides leadership and
oversight in the areas of human resources (HR), security, audit
relations, acquisitions and grants, transportation and
facilities, and space management. Maybe you could lead National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for us next, since
we need a new director for NASA, since you are good at space
management. What do you think? We will talk about that.
Prior to this role, he was the Director in the departmental
Office of Human Resource Management.
Sydney Rose is also here. She is the Chief Human Capital
Officer (CHCO), at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). She has
over 40 years of Federal service, all of which have been spent
in human resources-related occupations. Ms. Rose is responsible
for all the Department's human capital policies and programs
and is key advisor to departmental leadership on employee
engagement efforts.
Ms. Rose joined the U.S. Department of Labor in 2011, and
has previously served at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS),
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM). Thank you for being here.
Also joining us remotely is Jim Borland. He is the
Assistant Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Chief Information
Officer (CIO) for IT Operations at the Social Security
Administration (SSA). He leads the day-to-day management of the
agency's computing infrastructure. He previously served as the
Acting Deputy Commissioner for Communications and the Assistant
Deputy Commissioner for Social Security's Office of Disability
Adjudication and Review.
Prior to joining Social Security Administration, he served
in various analytical, technical, and leadership positions over
15 years with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education
here in Washington, DC.
I want to thank all four of you for your preparation for
being here.
It is the custom of this Subcommittee to swear in all
witnesses that appear before us. So if I would ask you all to
please stand and raise your right hand. Yes, even remotely.
Sorry about that.
Do you swear that the testimony you will give before this
Subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth, so help you, God?
Ms. Rosenberg. I do.
Mr. Washington. I do.
Ms. Rose. I do.
Mr. Borland. I do.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. Let the record reflect that
all witnesses answered in the affirmative.
We are using a timing system, with even the folks that are
joining us remotely should be able to see the timer as well, as
you go through the process. We will try to stick fairly close
to that, to be able to make sure we give as much time as
possible for questions and for conversations as we go through
this in the process.
So with that I would recognize Ms. Rosenberg for your
opening statement.
TESTIMONY OF MICHELLE ROSENBERG,\1\ ACTING DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC
ISSUES TEAM, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE
Ms. Rosenberg. Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema,
and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today
to discuss Federal telework.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Rosenberg appears in the appendix
on page 39.
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Telework offers benefits to both Federal agencies and the
Federal workforce. It can help with recruitment and retention
of employees, reduce the need for costly office space, and as
the Ranking Member mentioned, provide an opportunity to better
balance work and family demands. Telework is also a tool that
agencies can and have used to accomplish their mission during
periods of disruption. As you know, during the current COVID-19
pandemic, use of telework has allowed Federal employees to work
remotely in order to sustain agency operations and serve the
American public.
GAO previously identified key practices in telework-related
literature and guidelines that Federal agencies should
implement as part of a successful telework program. Regular
attention to the key practices can help to foster program
growth and remove barriers to telework participation.
My written statement lists all of the key practices we
identified. This afternoon I will highlight three.
First, telework agreements. To facilitate telework,
agencies should have telework agreements that outline the
agreed-upon work arrangements between agency managers and
teleworking employees. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010
requires agencies to have such written agreements. However, in
2017, we reported that selected agencies did not require
regular reviews, or document the reviews of telework
agreements.
Given the likelihood of changes in work responsibility and
employee schedules over time, it is important for agencies to
regularly review their telework agreements to ensure that they
reflect and support their current business needs. In addition,
if telework agreements are not up to date, agencies may be
using inaccurate telework data when making decisions such as
space planning and technology investments.
The second key practice I will highlight is training,
something Senator Lankford mentioned. Telework involves a
different way of working as well as supervising employees. As
such, agencies are required to provide training to eligible
employees and to managers of teleworkers. Such training should
cover agencies' telework policies and provide an orientation to
telework, and focus on telework program activities, including
the IT applications used while teleworking and performance
management.
Our 2017 review of selected agencies' telework programs
found that managers were generally not required to complete
telework training before approving staff's telework agreements.
As a result, managers may have been approving or denying
requests to telework before they fully understood the agency's
telework policies and goals.
The third key practice I will mention is program
evaluation. It is important for agencies to develop program
evaluation tools. This should include a tracking system that
can help to accurately determine the status of telework
implementation at the agencies. Agencies should use the
evaluation tools to identify problems or issues with the
program, and their progress in achieving program goals.
Agencies should then develop an action plan to guide any needed
changes.
Assessments of the costs and benefits, including cost
savings, of agencies' telework programs can help decisionmakers
in determining the overall effects and value of telework.
However, our past work found that selected agencies have little
data to support the benefits or costs associated with their
telework programs. OPM has indicated that agencies have
improved in their ability to track cost savings, but not all
agencies are reporting cost savings information in response to
OPM's annual telework data call.
In conclusion, the telework key practices GAO has
identified, several of which are required by statute, provide a
roadmap for Federal agencies to successfully implement their
telework programs. However, we have previously found that
agencies face challenges related to implementing telework
programs that align with the key practices. The challenges
agencies face provide a valuable learning opportunity as we
look to expand and modify Federal telework programs. Improving
the mechanics of telework programs can yield benefits to
agencies, Federal employees, and the public.
This concludes my prepared remarks. I am happy to answer
any questions you may have.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. Mr. Washington.
TESTIMONY OF KEITH WASHINGTON,\1\ DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
Mr. Washington Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema,
and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity
to discuss Federal telework during the COVID-19 public health
emergency on behalf of the U.S. Department of Transportation. I
am Keith Washington, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for
Administration, and I have been with the Department for 29
years.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Washington appears in the
Appendix on page 52.
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The Department's longstanding support for and encouragement
of telework across our widespread operations proved its value
and stability when we quickly and seamlessly converted
headquarters and field operations in mid-March to maximum
telework to meet the COVID-19 public health emergency. Telework
has been a critical flexibility that enables DOT employees to
ensure America has the safest, most efficient and modern
transportation system in the world. It boosts our economic
productivity and global competitiveness and enhances the
quality of life in both rural and urban communities.
Telework allows the Department to achieve important
performance goals and improve the Department's capability to
support homeland and national security requirements, all while
supporting employees' work-life balance outcomes.
In 2013, well before the onset of COVID-19, DOT implemented
an agency-wide policy in accordance with the Telework
Enhancement Act of 2010. The policy encourages the use of
telework and includes notifying 100 percent of our employees of
their individual telework eligibility status. That policy
remains in effect today.
DOT leaders encourage the use of telework to the maximum
extent possible while maintaining office coverage and
consistent operations. To ensure the vitality of DOT's telework
program, DOT conducts telework exercises to give employees and
managers opportunities to practice working remotely and to test
the information technology capacity to support telework. Those
efforts resulted in additional investments in emerging
technologies and innovation, including secure virtual private
networks and virtual desktop infrastructure.
DOT's transition to maximum telework was virtually seamless
following the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Because of advanced preparations across DOT, monthly Federal
employee teleworkers increased from about 14,000 in February to
30,000 in March, without disruption to the agency's mission or
network.
Under normal circumstances, typically just under half of
the DOT total workforce is telework eligible, and about a
quarter of total employees telework monthly, on average. Since
the onset of the COVID-19 health emergency, upwards of 60
percent of the total workforce teleworks monthly. The remaining
positions are in positions that require their physical presence
to perform their core responsibilities, such as air traffic
controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), line
handlers in the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation,
and merchant mariners in the Maritime Administration.
Perhaps one of the most viable lessons learned was to use a
considerable degree of flexibility when leveraging the telework
policy, work scheduling procedures, and human resources
flexibilities and authorities. As a result, some offices are
reviewing plans to reduce their office footprint by eliminating
leased space and maximizing work and telework once the COVID-19
public health emergency ends.
The maximum telework environment has provided DOT with an
opportunity to test and implement relatively new and various
methods of communicating with both large and small groups.
Maximum telework also presented some ongoing challenges,
including adjusting to new team dynamics and synergy virtually,
limited access to office supplies and equipment, and
connectivity issues for some.
Several months into this new reality, thousands of our
employees are now teleworking full-time, and managers are
experiencing how their organizations can function successfully
under these conditions, providing vital information on future
decisions about our operations.
The Department has been successful at implementing maximum
telework. DOT has a wide array of workforce missions and has
maintained a consistent level of operations and productivity
during the health emergency.
Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you
today to discuss Federal telework during the COVID-19 public
health emergency, on behalf of the Department of
Transportation. I am happy to answer any questions that you may
have.
Senator Lankford. Thank you, Mr. Washington. Ms. Rose.
TESTIMONY OF SYDNEY T. ROSE,\1\ CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICER,
OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY
FOR ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Ms. Rose. Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, and
Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to
testify today.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Rose appears in the Appendix on
page 57.
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On March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus disease, was
declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). On
March 13, 2020, the United States declared the COVID-19
outbreak a national emergency, and by mid-March 2020, the U.S.
Department of Labor entered a maximum telework posture due to
the COVID-19 global pandemic health emergency.
As it became clear to us that COVID-19's impact would
require significant modifications to the Department's
operations, the Office of Human Resources had the tools
available to support the Department in moving to a maximum
telework posture, modifying internal guidance as necessary. DOL
issued HR guidance, increased technical assistance to employees
and managers, and responded to hundreds of inquiries from
managers and employees on a full range of human resources
issues that included pay, leave, benefits, staffing, telework,
work schedules, and other workplace flexibilities.
Additionally, DOL rapidly developed guidance related to
emergency paid sick leave, offered under the Families First
Coronavirus Response Act, to ensure that our employees who were
unable to work or telework due to qualifying COVID-19 related
reasons, as outlined in the regulations, are aware of their
entitlements under the law.
In accordance with OPM pandemic guidance, the Department
allowed telework-eligible employees to telework to the maximum
extent possible in order to maintain operations as close to
normal as possible, while ensuring our employees' safety.
Prior to and during the pandemic, telework eligibility at
the Department requires that an employee's duties be suitable,
in whole or in part, for performance at a telework site and
that individual employees meet the additional criteria required
by the Telework Enhancement Act, departmental policy, and our
applicable collective bargaining agreements. Further,
individual employee participation in telework is subject to
supervisory approval, based on factors such as the business
needs of the office, the cost of an arrangement, and the
availability of technology and equipment required to support
the duties of the position.
DOL's recent implementation of enterprise-wide shared
services for human resources and information technology
supported and facilitated the Department's ability to quickly
adapt to a posture of more remote work in response to the
pandemic. More centralized HR allowed DOL to decisively expand
the use of telework during the declared pandemic and implement
any necessary HR policy changes to support those shifts in work
arrangements.
Similarly, DOL's implementation of a more centralized IT
service delivery model allowed the Department to make the
necessary policy changes and resource investments to ensure
that DOL was able to adequately support the shift to more
remote work.
Telework participation at DOL requires completion of
interactive telework training, available through the
Department's internal learning development system.
Additionally, the Department provides employees with
supplemental telework resources, available on our intranet, as
part of a helpful repository of coronavirus guidance and
resources. The department is presently continuing to use
telework to ensure its continuity of essential functions and to
perform the bulk of its day-to-day operations.
DOL is very proud of its work to implement a robust
telework policy in response to the pandemic. We believe our
efforts have helped the Federal workforce to achieve and
maintain productivity and to serve the Department's mission and
the American public.
Thank you again for the opportunity to address the
Subcommittee about the Department's work, and I look forward to
answering your questions.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. Mr. Borland.
TESTIMONY OF JIM BORLAND,\1\ ASSISTANT DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR
SYSTEMS AND DEPUTY CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER FOR IT OPERATIONS,
SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Mr. Borland. Thank you. Good afternoon. Chairman Lankford,
Ranking Member Sinema, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you
for inviting me to discuss telework at the Social Security
Administration. I am Jim Borland, the Assistant Deputy
Commissioner for Systems and the Deputy Chief Information
Officer for IT Operations.
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\1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Borland appears in the Appendix
on page 61.
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Social Security first began to offer remote work options
around 20 years ago, when technology was much different and the
solutions we had today were not widely available. Our online
services were limited and our work was heavily paper-based.
Since then, we have made significant progress in
modernizing our workloads and IT infrastructure. We have
implemented technology solutions that allowed us to be more
agile, by replacing desktop computers with laptops, and
building a virtual private network to improve our business
continuity. We have also expanded our online presence to make
it easier for our customers to do business with us without
having to come into our offices. For our employees, we
implemented electronic solutions that facilitate virtual and
telework service environments. For example, technology allows
employees to answer their office phones through their laptops.
These decisions were practical, budget conscious, and made
business sense from a customer service standpoint. When the
unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, those
decisions supported our ability to keep service going remotely.
While we closed our offices to the public, we never stopped
providing service, with over 90 percent of our employees able
to telework. This maximal telework not only protects our
employees but also the public we serve, many of whom, by
definition of the work we do, meet the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC's) high-risk categories.
Still, we know we can do better. Our goal is to serve the
public at least as well as we serve them in person, and right
now that is not possible because not all of our work is
portable. For example, we need employees onsite to handle
certain sensitive workloads that require face-to-face
interviews, and to open mail and scan mailed documents into our
systems so that teleworking technicians can process them.
We have been able to find workarounds for some of our in-
person services which has allowed us to address some of the
challenges of serving the public remotely. We have also been
flexible with policy. For example, in some cases, we are
allowing telephone attestation as an alternative way to sign
documents.
At SSA, telework is not one size fits all. Some work does
not inherently lend itself to telework. In non-emergency times,
different jobs may warrant different amounts of telework, or in
some cases no telework at all. We also have confirmed that a
successful continuity of operations plan requires a robust
telework program built on modernized IT infrastructure, and we
have been reminded that we have more work to do to establish a
fully robust telework program based on accountability and
objective measures. This makes sense for the public we serve
and our employees.
The pandemic has delivered a real-time pressure test of our
capability and it is helping us focus on where we can improve.
I would like to thank the public, our employees, and you for
being patient and supportive of us in this national emergency.
I look forward to answering any questions you may have.
Thank you.
Senator Lankford. Jim, thank you very much.
Senator Sinema and I have a habit in our hearings that we
hold our questions to the end and we defer to the other Members
to be able to add questions in. This will be an interesting
dynamic just for the four witnesses to be able to participate
in this. You will, at times, some Senators that will call you
by name or title and will ask you a specific question, and they
will sometimes be open to anyone who wants to answer it. I
would encourage those who are joining us remotely to just
unmute and just jump in if you want to be able to answer a
question and feel like you are in the room with us as well, to
be able to participate.
With that I would recognize Senator Carper for his
questions.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER
Senator Carper. Can you recognize me with my mask on?
Senator Lankford. I can.
Senator Carper. Good. Here we go. Everybody, thanks so much
for joining us today.
I wanted to start off with a question of Mr. Borland, and
this is actually a question, Mr. Borland, that was suggested to
us by a member of our constituent services team back in
Delaware. It goes something like this.
As you know, the Social Security Administration requires
physical inspection of original personal identification
documents, such as birth certificates, in order to process
certain kinds of requests to come in. Due to the pandemic, the
Social Security Administration is currently asking people to
send these original documents by mail, so they can undergo
physical inspection.
I have heard from a number of our constituents in Delaware
that are concerned about mailing their original documents,
specifically about the security of those documents and the
timeliness for which they are returned.
Mr. Borland, here is my question. Can you share with us how
the Social Security Administration is working to address
concerns of this nature? Thank you.
Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator Carper. Let me first say
that we recognize that the pandemic has produced service
challenges for us. You are correct. One of the requirements of
our regulations is that for a new social security card or a
social security card that reflects changes--name, for
instance--we do require original documentation and the
inspection of original documentation.
We take protecting the integrity of the social security
card and number very seriously. We do have, in some cases,
limited ability to set appointments for individuals. Those
opportunities are limited. We are forced, on a public health
direction, to limit the number of employees that we have in our
offices and to limit the numbers of the public that we provide
in-person service to. Appointments are available for what we
call the priority cases, and we are fulfilling that
requirement.
As I mentioned in my testimony, we do not have a workaround
for all of our in-person services, and unfortunately the social
security card is one of those. I also want to say that most
Americans who need a replacement card can use our My Social
Security service. They can go online at socialsecurity.gov, set
up a My Social Security account, and request a no-change
replacement card fully online.
Senator Carper. Thank you, Jim.
Mr. Washington, how many years have you worked at DOT?
Mr. Washington. Senator, I have worked at the Department of
Transportation for 29 years.
Senator Carper. OK. Have you testified before at hearings
where I was privileged to be in attendance?
Mr. Washington. Sir, this is my first opportunity to
testify.
Senator Carper. How is it going?
Mr. Washington. So far, so good.
Senator Carper. When I was Governor, I used to love
testifying before House and Senate hearings. I hope you enjoy
this one as much as I did when I was sitting in your seat.
I was encouraged to learn that the Department of
Transportation has successfully moved its in-person onboarding
program to a fully virtual format and that the flexibility of
virtual onboarding allows more senior leaders to participate in
the program.
As you know, in the next couple of months we will have a
new administration with thousands of new employees serving in
the Federal Government. Could you take just a moment to explain
how the Department of Transportation ensures that new employees
have the resources and support they need to be successful
during this time? The second half of my question is, do you
have any recommendations for other agencies across the
government with regard to newly onboarded employees? It is a
two-part question, please. Thank you.
Mr. Washington. Thank you, Senator, for that question. So
at the onset of the pandemic, we reached out right away, our
Human Capital Office, to our stakeholders and information
technology, and we came up with a virtual onboarding
experience. And as you stated, that really has allowed very
senior levels of the Department to participate. In fact, we
have successfully onboarded over 500 new Department of
Transportation employees across the country, and they have been
able to hear from the chief of staff. He actually personally
participates in that virtual onboarding experience every other
Monday. So that has worked very well.
Another thing that we have done, recognizing the need that
many of our employees are working in a remote environment, we
have assigned a sponsor for all of our new employees so that
they could really feel part of the team and that they can get
best practices from, long-serving employees.
So I think the collaboration between, human capital, our
stakeholders, and the information technology organization has
been really integral to rolling out that successful onboarding
process so our employees across the country are getting that
experience. So that would be my recommendation for other
Federal agencies, that collaboration and partnership with the
various elements of the organization.
Senator Carper. I agree. Thank you. One last question if I
can to Ms. Rose, Mr. Washington, and Mr. Borland, that deals
with agency coordination with the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) over at the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS). Over the years, a number of my
colleagues and I worked to give the Department of Homeland
Security the resources necessary to carry out its cyber mission
[inaudible]. One agency that I am most proud of with their
mission, capabilities, and leadership is the Cybersecurity and
Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland
Security.
I often say if you want to go fast, go alone, and if you
want to go far, go together. As I went through each of your
testimonies I did not see much at all on interagency
coordination with CISA, which I would presume would be
incredibly valuable as they provide the cybersecurity tools,
incident response services, and assessment capabilities to
safeguard the [inaudible] networks.
And I ask each of you, starting with Ms. Rose, to describe
your relationship with CISA, and tell us if more needs to be
done to improve interagency partnership in the cybersecurity
space. Let's just start with Ms. Rose, and then Mr. Borland and
Mr. Washington. Thank you. And if we run out of time, I always
do. Just be brief.
Ms. Rose. Oh, I am sorry, Senator. You wanted to start with
me?
Senator Carper. Ms. Rose.
Ms. Rose. Yes. Information technology is not in my
portfolio. However, I do work very closely with our chief
information officer to make sure that as we onboard new
employees and as we equip employees to move into a telework
environment we are meeting all Federal cybersecurity
requirements.
Senator Carper. All right. Let us turn to Mr. Washington.
Same question. Please describe your relationship with CISA. Is
there more that needs to be done to improve interagency
partnership in the cybersecurity space?
Mr. Washington. Thank you, Senator, for that question. At
the Department of Transportation we take cybersecurity very
seriously, and we believe a lot of the investments and the
coordination and centralization of a lot of our commodity IT,
sort of centralizing and getting rid of duplicative systems,
has really put us in a better posture, from a cyber
perspective. We have promoted annual security awareness
training, and we give weekly messages, just reminders of
employees how to operate from a cybersecurity perspective in a
remote environment.
We also have issued laptops, DOT-issued laptops, to all of
our remote employees, and they have security-monitoring
software on them that alerts the user and DOT cyber officials
if a threat is detected. We really have not noticed an increase
in attacks during the pandemic.
Senator Carper. All right. Thank you. I think my time has
expired. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for letting me go over
time. Thank you. Mr. Borland, to be continued. Thank you.
Senator Lankford. Thank you, Senator Carper. I am going to
go next to Senator Sinema for questions.
Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. First I
just want to thank our panelists again for their presentations
today.
I did note, Mr. Washington and Ms. Rose, in your testimony
you highlighted a number of successes that your agencies have
had in expanding telework during the pandemic, which I very
much appreciated hearing about. I do find it slightly strange,
though, that your agencies then insisted on you appearing
before the Committee in person, which I am not sure is quite
the message we want to send during this time of rising COVID
cases. So just a thought for you to have as we move forward.
My first question is for Mr. Borland. Before the pandemic,
your agency reported it was moving away from telework because
it could not evaluate the impact of telework on public services
and did not have the metrics in place to ensure accountability.
Today your agency is working to put these controls and metrics
in place, and there are media reports that SSA employees are
successfully decreasing the backlog of claims while in this
maximum telework situation.
So could you tell me, what has SSA learned about telework
in recent months to cause it to change directions dramatically,
and how do these learnings inform your decisions moving
forward?
Mr. Borland. Thank you for that question, Senator Sinema.
So as I mentioned in my testimony, at SSA telework is not
one size fits all. We obviously have a core public service
function, but that manifests itself in many different kinds of
work. Prior to the pandemic, we did re-evaluate our telework
program to focus on accountability and to ensure that we could
address our public service challenges. I think that we all
recognize that the Social Security Administration is serving
the 10,000 Baby Boomers that retire every day. So that is
claims for Medicare, claims for retirement benefits.
And public service has always been so very fundamental to
our mission. So in the re-evaluation of our telework program,
because we did not have historically adequate metrics, and as
my colleague from GAO said, an adequate program evaluation,
each subcomponent of the agency determined telework eligibility
based on public service needs, the availability of portable
work, and the ability to ensure accountability.
Senator Sinema. Thank you. I have a follow-up question for
you as well. One of the challenges of this pandemic has been
recognizing that some jobs cannot be done fully or even
partially through telework. Early in the pandemic, my Arizona
casework team was fielding calls from constituents who were
having a hard time getting social security cards replaced at
their local field offices. Access to online-only services can
be particularly difficult in rural areas or areas where access
to a computer is limited.
So how are you collecting and considering feedback from
beneficiaries as you review the shift to maximum telework and
assess these practices moving forward?
Mr. Borland. Thank you. It is a perfect question to pose to
me because I am a technology guy, and we are looking at new
ways to use technology. I mentioned our nonportable work. Our
nonportable work is not portable because there is not
technology, or we have not laid in technology to support that.
It is really one of the lessons learned from trying to serve
the American public remotely.
Specifically with regard to social security cards, we are
looking at the use of technology, at video technology, and the
ability to rather than inspect physically, for example,
driver's license, to confirm a driver's license features
through a data exchange, real time, so that we could use a
combination of data exchange and video technology to handle
social security card workloads. The technology is there, but
until the pandemic, we were not looking at it. We are looking
at it now very seriously.
Senator Sinema. Thank you. I appreciate that.
My next question is for Mrs. Rose. Mine Safety and Health
Administration inspectors have to be onsite to perform
inspections, but some portion of their jobs can be done
remotely. Employees have shared with our Committee that they
are not being granted permission for partial telework, and even
more concerning, some employees are not asking their
supervisors for telework over fears of retaliation.
So how is DOL working to overcome longstanding prejudice
against telework so that all employees who are eligible and
able to perform telework can do so for at least a portion of
their job, and what mechanisms is DOL using to allow employees
to request telework and then report concerns about denial of
telework without fear of retaliation?
Ms. Rose. Senator Sinema, thank you so much for that
question. I am very happy to report that 99 percent of DOL
employees at this time are eligible for telework, and up to 98
percent of our employees are teleworking almost every day. And
that does include our mine safety inspectors and our other
employees who work in the field, performing enforcement and
inspection duties.
We have encouraged our mine safety inspectors and our other
field employees to telework to the maximum extent feasible.
There are portions of their job that easily translate to a
remote telework site or to a home site, and other portions of
their job do require them to continue to remain in the field.
We make sure that they have personal protective equipment (PPE)
and they are properly equipped and trained when they have to go
into public areas to perform inspection and enforcement duties,
but we are also working very hard to make sure that those
portions of their job that do not require them to be onsite are
being done remotely, safely, and with social distancing.
We meet on a regular, recurring basis with their union
representatives to discuss their concerns and issues. Our
Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management is
meeting on a weekly basis with leadership and representatives
of our three bargaining units to address the kinds of concerns
that you are sharing today and to make sure that we have
solutions and we work collaboratively with the union to craft
those solutions.
Senator Sinema. I appreciate that, and we may follow up
with some of the concerns we have heard from employees as well.
Ms. Rose. Thank you.
Senator Sinema. My time is soon to expire but I have one
last question for Mr. Washington. In May, Transportation's
chief information officer was quoted in a Federal Times article
that noted your agency as, ``absolutely seeing an increase in
productivity,'' across the workforce. So how are you measuring
these increases in productivity and to what do you attribute
those increases to?
Mr. Washington. So thank you so much for that question,
Senator. We do believe that productivity has increased at the
Department of Transportation under the remote environment, and
we are very proud that the Department of Transportation
employees have risen to the occasion.
One example, we wanted really metrics for assessing
productivity, so we did do a survey--to survey our managers,
and we are proud to report that 55 percent of them felt that
their work unit was even more effective during the COVID-19
pandemic. So that is one metric that we used, the survey.
But also I know when Congress approved the Coronavirus Aid,
Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Federal Transit
Administration (FTA), they were able to obligate all of the
funding to the stakeholders, over $24 billion, ahead of the
statutory deadline. So there are numerous examples of the
productivity enhancements as a result of the remote environment
at the Department of Transportation. So we are continuing to
assess that.
Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Washington.
Mr. Chairman, I have slightly exceeded my time. I apologize
and I yield back.
Senator Lankford. That is not a problem. If you want to do
a second round as well, Senator Sinema?
Senator Sinema. Yes, I will. Thank you.
Senator Lankford. OK. Great. We will make sure that we
reserve that as well. I know that we have--Senator Rosen is
joining us in just a moment. Let me ask a few questions until
Senator Rosen is able to be able to join us remotely as well.
Ms. Rosenberg, you have been left out in this conversation.
I do not want you to feel left out on it, but I do want to be
able to zero in on some of the things that GAO has established.
Obviously, GAO has looked at this issue of telework for a long
time. You have submitted to us some of the things that you have
done in the study, but there is one statement that stuck out to
me on it. In the statement from GAO, you said this about
performance management: ``Agencies should also establish
guidelines to minimize adverse impacts that telework can have
on non-teleworkers.''
So provide some clarity for us on agencies should establish
guidelines to minimize adverse impacts that telework can have
on non-teleworkers. What did you mean by that?
Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator. We do not want to create
disagreements between those who can telework and those who
cannot, for example, by forcing those who are in the office to
take up responsibilities of those that are teleworking, whether
that means physically moving documents or doing work that
cannot be done remotely. And so you want to make sure that if
there are times that someone who is not teleworking needs to
stand in for someone who is, that there is equity in that, so
that responsibilities are shared across both those who telework
and those who do not.
Senator Lankford. So let me provide a little color to this
in how I ask you this question. Several years ago, I was
visiting one of our agencies, and I will leave the agency out
as I do this. But I was visiting one of our agencies, and it
happened to be on a Friday, just walking around through the
cubicle farm in that particular entity and just talking to
different employees there--How is it going? How is the morale?
Anything I need to be able to learn and to be able to help
with?
In the dialog I heard repetitively, ``It is Friday, so half
of our people are not here. They are quote/unquote teleworking
today but I know they are just not working today,'' and they
were angry. Just about every cubicle I went to, ``I am working
hard. They took the day off but they say they are quote/unquote
teleworking.''
When I read that statement from you from GAO I thought I
personally heard that, where individuals felt like they were
carrying the burden. Now in the last several months just about
everybody across the Federal workforce has been teleworking.
There has not been an option here, back and forth. But in the
days ahead we all look forward to the time we have a vaccine
and we do have that option again. What would you recommend
here? Because what I was picking up from people that were not
teleworking was a sense that the people that were teleworking
were not being held to account, that the same metrics were not
being used for them for productivity as it was for those who
were actually in the office, for productivity.
Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you for that. One of the key practices
that we emphasize is that the performance appraisal system and
performance management needs to treat teleworkers and non-
teleworkers the same. They need to be rated on the same
competencies and judged accordingly.
I think one of the issues is that telework requires a
different way of managing staff. As opposed to managing by
observation, you need to manage by results. We would also
suggest that someone that you have a performance issue with,
you are likely to have that performance issue with them
regardless of whether they are teleworking or in the office.
And finally, if there are concerns that someone that you
cannot observe is not working, I would argue that that is not a
telework issue but that is a trust issue. And again, that goes
back to holding staff accountable for the results and the
timeframe and the work product that they are supposed to
produce, regardless of where they are working.
Senator Lankford. OK. Thank you. Ms. Rose, I am going to
ask you a similar question on that. At the Department of Labor,
are your managers able to hold teleworkers to account, to be
able to check in on them, evaluate, to be able to have metrics
performances? This is not new to the Department of Labor. You
have done telework for a very long time and you have a lot of
workers that telework some days are in-office some days.
What authorities does your management have, or I should say
the opposite, what boundaries do they have in their management
capabilities in the office versus in telework situations?
Ms. Rose. Thank you, Senator Lankford. We have worked very
hard with our managers and supervisors to make sure they feel
equipped and supported to manage in a virtual environment. As
you have acknowledged, it is different to supervise someone
remotely than it is someone that you can see physically
throughout the work day and check in on periodically.
We have been able to leverage technology to replicate as
much of a real-life experience as possible, just as we are
doing today with a partially virtual hearing. We find that
works very well. Our performance management system for years at
DOL has been metrics based, and we really work hard to make
sure that all employees' performance plans are linked to
departmental and agency operating plans and contain
quantifiable measures. I am delighted to report that we just
completed our 2020 performance year and have noticed no
appreciable decrease in productivity or achievement against
those operating plan metrics, the whole time we have been
teleworking.
It also is interesting to note--and I think this goes back
a little bit to perception versus reality--not a day goes by
that I do not have managers and supervisors tell me how amazed
and delighted they are at how well 99 percent telework is
working. I always ask, ``What did you expect?'' and they stop
and say, ``Well gee, I don't know, but I am just really
surprised and happy that it is going so well.''
So the training, the support, and the performance elements
that we are holding employees to seem to be working.
Senator Lankford. OK. Mr. Borland, I want to bring you into
this conversation with Ms. Rose as well. Both of you deal with
a lot of private information, more so than many other entities
do. Obviously, every agency does some, but you deal with a lot,
for both of your entities, not only from your employees dealing
with that on a laptop that is now in a home environment rather
than in a more controlled office environment. There are
personal identifiable information (PII) issues that are there.
But there is also, as we have mentioned already, which
Senator Carper and Senator Sinema brought up, there are
individuals trying to get access to you. I will tell you, Mr.
Borland, I had the same calls in to my constituent services and
caseworkers. Those calls have come in saying, ``I am trying to
get a social security card replaced and I cannot get anyone
there.'' We have an extra hurdle in Oklahoma that we are still
trying to be able to get all of our Real ID stuff all worked
out, and it has made it much more complicated, and physically
putting documents in the mail and mailing them to you has been
a challenge. For Department of Labor, I have had individuals
that have contacted me that said, ``We love the flexibility
that we have, because we have employees that we have hired
remotely and we are not having to physically handle their
documents this year. We are given authority to be able to
virtually look at their license, virtually look at their birth
certificate for an I-9.'' And their statement is, ``How do we
keep that?''
So there are really two sides of this--the dialogue both
for the customer, for our taxpayers, to say how can they
continue to get that kind of flexibility, and for the agency,
how can they continue to be able to maintain private
information as private and secure?
So, Mr. Borland, you are the IT genius in this conversation
and so I am going to let you take off on this first.
Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. Certainly we do hold as
custodians some very private information of the American public
and very valuable information. While telework is not new for
us, technology does give us opportunities to ensure the
continued protection of that information.
First, I think we were one of the first agencies to
implement a two-factor authentication for our employees and our
contractors. So we have logical and physical access through our
personal identity verification cards. Our network monitoring is
similar to, but not the same as, pre-pandemic. And when I say
that, when you take a workforce that is connected to the wall
and immediately swing it to connect it to the Internet, there
are some specific challenges there. We were able to pivot and
change the way we do things like scanning for vulnerabilities
and remediating them.
We also look at, from a program integrity standpoint, we
have a longstanding process for monitoring transactions that
take place within our systems to make sure that no one,
employees or the public, are misusing the access to the systems
that they have. Our employees, again, our information security
policy is very clear. We do not allow bring your own device.
Employees are not allowed to print at home. We have done
extensive telework training and cybersecurity training for our
remote workforce, and we think that has probably improved our
security posture, although we do certainly have some unique
challenges in being remote.
Senator Lankford. Any thoughts that you have for the end
user, for the taxpayer themselves, and their use of digital
items to be able to submit. Are there statutory limitations of
that or is it just technology limitations?
Mr. Borland. There are some limitations, some regulatory,
but technology can overcome some of those challenges. As I
mentioned in my response to Senator Sinema's question, we are
looking at how we can use data exchanges to verify identity
documents so that they do not have to be physically produced.
Senator Lankford. Ms. Rose, do you want to make a comment
on this, as far as protecting private information, and then
also giving the flexibility to individuals to be able to submit
their information?
Ms. Rose. Yes. Thank you, Senator Lankford. We have
implemented many of these same security protocols that the
Social Security Administration has in place. We are using
personal information verification (PIV) for multi-factor
authentication. We do not permit sensitive data to be accessed
on anything but government-provided DOL computers, and people
must use RSA tokens to log into our network. So we feel that we
have an environment, and we work closely with our colleagues in
the Information Technology Office to make sure that environment
stays safe and secure.
We have onboarded over 1,000 people now virtually since the
pandemic started, and we have gotten extremely positive
feedback from all of the users, the people who are being
onboarded, the supervisors and managers who are welcoming new
employees in. A lot of people have commented on the facility
and ease of the application and onboarding process, because we
have converted all of those paper-based forms and processes to
the computer. And we have done away with wet signature
everywhere we can. We are using digital signatures now. We
provide the oath of office virtually. We will probably continue
that process, with lessons learned, beyond the pandemic. It has
been so successful and it has made face-to-face contact with
people who are remotely duty-stationed much more effective and
vibrant.
Senator Lankford. OK. We are going to come back to that as
well. I want to recognize Senator Sinema for a second round of
questions.
Senator Sinema. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Ms. Rosenberg, one thing I have noticed regarding Federal
telework policies is that they vary based across agencies, and
even sometimes within offices inside agencies. So it makes it
pretty confusing for Federal employees and challenging for
Congress to track.
Are there recommendations that you would make to Congress
to better standardize agency policies and the tracking of those
policies as we look at telework in a post-pandemic world?
Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator. That is a very good
question.
So one of our key practices is that eligibility be based
on--approved on--an equitable basis, and that the criteria be
things such as the suitability of tasks to the remote
environment and employee performance. So I think the key is to
ensure that agencies have concrete eligibility criteria that
are based on those types of things and that are applied
consistently across the agency.
I would say that it would make sense that there would be
some variation among agencies since their missions differ and
the type of work differs, and, of course, some positions are
less suitable for remote or telework than others.
Senator Sinema. Thank you. Ms. Rose, given the broad
success of telework during the pandemic, how are you
approaching plans to move employees back onsite once this
public health emergency is over, and what data are you
examining to ensure that onsite work is safe and essential?
Ms. Rose. We have worked very hard and long, Senator
Sinema, on our reconstitution plans, our reopening plans, as it
were. We will take a phased approach. We will follow State and
local guidelines in doing that and follow the government-
prescribed gating criteria to bring people back.
We have already put safety procedures and protocols in
place in all of our government office space, things that
include the wearing of masks in public and common spaces. We
have put in Plexiglas barriers and shields so that people who
face the public in the office are protected, and the public is
protected. We have set up seating schematics so that people in
cubicle farms are not working on top of each other or directly
next to each other. So we will continue to leverage telework
with an onsite presence in order to maximize social distancing
in what traditionally have been fairly close working spaces,
with cubicles, and the movement away from traditional four-wall
offices.
So we have gotten a lot of information about safety and
security out to our workforce already. Everything is posted on
our Intranet. We will continue to work with our labor unions
and our employees as we move back into a more traditional work
posture, to make sure people feel safe, secure, and protected,
and, in fact, are safe, secure, and protected.
Senator Sinema. Thank you. Another question for you. Your
agency is unique in that not only were you transitioning your
own employees to maximum telework but you were also releasing
guidance to the nation's broader labor force about telework
policies and best practices. I realize that private sector
guidance is not your area of expertise, but I would like to
follow up with your agency on this topic.
Ms. Rose. Yes. Guidance on telework external to the Federal
Government has been provided, it is my understanding, by our
Wage and Hour Division, and we would be happy to get you that
information.
Senator Sinema. I appreciate that. Now focusing on the
Department of Labor's workforce, can you share any instances
where work you initially thought had to be done in an office
space ended up being compatible with telework? Are any of these
instances relative to changing Labor's view of determining
telework eligibility?
Ms. Rose. We had a higher percentage of the people whose
jobs were not considered telework eligible under the Telework
Enhancement Act prior to the pandemic, and our managers and
supervisors have worked to see how those positions can be
reformatted, how duties and responsibilities can be
reallocated, and how technology can be leveraged, for example,
using data on forms that used to be paper that have now been
converted to digital so that we could send more of our
employees home to work during the pandemic.
We have very few jobs that require an in-office, onsite
presence, jobs like receptionist, jobs like mail clerk, jobs
like building engineer. And even with those positions we have
tried to find duties and responsibilities that are discrete and
unique and compatible to moving into a remote work environment,
even if it is part-time.
Senator Sinema. Thank you.
Mr. Washington, in your testimony you noted that your
agency was considering a new remote work policy before the
pandemic. Looking ahead, I think as we all are, to a non-
pandemic situation, what advantages will a robust remote work
policy bring to your agency, and what barriers do you foresee
in implementing such a policy?
Mr. Washington. So thank you, Senator, for that question.
We were considering, even prior to the pandemic, a remote
policy, and we are continuing to assess that. But one of the
rationales for it was to help us with the ability to recruit
and retain talent. And what we found, particularly in the
national capital area where we compete for HR specialists and
acquisition specialists among each other--I see my colleague at
Labor nodding her head--that has been a challenge. So we are
hoping that if we can broaden the applicant pool nationwide
that we can really recruit and retain employees at a better
rate, so that it will really improve our attrition.
So that is our rationale. We are continuing to assess that.
We have learned a lot over the last few months. So we tried to
make that business case before going forward with our remote
policy. We are benchmarking with the private sector and our
stakeholders and counterparts at other Federal agencies as
well.
Senator Sinema. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my
round of questioning, and thank you for holding this hearing
again. I have learned so much.
Senator Lankford. Thank you. Thanks for your participation
in the hearing as well and your engagement on this.
Mr. Washington, I want to continue to press this, and
actually I want to talk to all four of you on this one issue,
and it is about hiring. It is a shift in perspective, because
many of the telework individuals are really people that are
connected to the office and they telework 1 day a week, 2 days
a week, 3 days a week, but they are in the office, or maybe
they are in the office once a month or whatever it may be. But
there is a physical connection here.
There is a paradigm shift in the conversation to say we
have now learned that we cannot only telework 5 days a week but
we can do that month after month after month, and it begs the
basic question, why couldn't you hire someone in Oklahoma to be
able to do a task for an agency that is based in Washington,
DC.? What is the difference between Washington, DC, Northern
Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona for actually bringing people on
board? And the practical answer is there is not one.
It also brings up a significant job opportunity to, let's
say, spouses of our military, which often are working in very
remote areas. By definition a base or post is very far from
another area and there are very few jobs available. But they
could work at Department of Transportation in a telework
situation even if they are in beautiful, fabulous Altus,
Oklahoma, where there are not as many jobs available in that
area, because it is a remote training area.
So that is whether you are Border Patrol and you are
assigned to the Northern Border in North Dakota, in a remote
area, and you are a spouse and you do not have any options, or
whether you are a military spouse or whatever it may be. This
opens up a lot of options for those spouses, to be able to help
those other Federal families, not to mention a lot of other
people that want to work in other areas.
So I want to drill down, and be as specific as you can.
What would prohibit you, either in the regulatory space or the
statutory requirements, or just in practical engagement, from
not hiring people that you literally never plan to meet, or if
you do plan to meet it may be an annual meeting at some point
in the future. But you are talking about onboarding,
supervising, working at a distance, with no intention that they
will drive in once a week, to be able to ever connect with the
office on that. What would prohibit that?
So Mr. Washington, you are first.
Mr. Washington. Thank you so much for your comments, and
that is so interesting that you mention military spouses
because I just had that conversation with a colleagues a couple
of weeks ago. Because, with a lot of military spouses you bring
the person on board, you train them, they are an excellent
employee, and then the veteran is deployed somewhere, and you
do not want to lose your investment.
So we have been flexible, even pre-pandemic, at the
Department of Transportation, with allowing employees to
transition and work remotely. We are hoping, as a result of a
lot of our lessons learned from the health emergency that
managers would be more receptive.
I think it is more of a culture change, and we are
compiling a lot of the data, assessing metrics, to build that
business case to have a more rigorous remote work policy. But I
think a lot of it is culture change.
Senator Lankford. So there is not anything regulatory or
statutory right now that you could not do that today. Or let's
say we are post pandemic, that you could not do that in just a
decision you want to make?
Mr. Washington. I am not aware of regulatory or statutory
barriers. In fact, there could be cost savings. I mean, if the
employee is working in Oklahoma or a rural area where the cost
of living and the locality pay is cheaper, there could actually
be cost savings associated with that.
Senator Lankford. That is correct. I would think the exact
same thing. I am grateful to say that Oklahoma has a much lower
cost of living than Northern Virginia, so hiring people out of
Northern Virginia rather than hiring people out of Oklahoma or
so many other great States around the country, there is a cost
savings there, and plus there is a ready workforce that may be
interested in being able to take that on and another group of
people you could recruit from.
Ms. Rose, talk about this on the hiring side of this. Why
wouldn't that work and what are the barriers that you see?
Ms. Rose. It absolutely would work, and it does work. We
had already started making that shift at the Labor Department
just as the Transportation Department has. It was a paradigm
shift for some of our managers and supervisors who now had
their eureka moment, like, this is working really well and now,
suddenly, I have an applicant pool that is the entire United
States, not just the Washington, DC. metro area.
We are routinely announcing jobs at this time for all
locations, no longer just a Washington, DC. duty station or a
Chicago, Illinois duty station, but considering everyone in the
country. In the Office of Human Resources itself, about a third
of my staff is 100 percent remote telework, and that will
continue permanently beyond the pandemic, because of where they
are located and where they are working.
I just had an employee in my office whose husband was
posted to Germany, and she was going to accompany him to
Frankfurt, obviously. She is still working for us, I am happy
to report, and will continue to work for me full-time for his
entire 3-year assignment in Germany.
It is the best, and we have found that employees outside
the Washington, DC. area stay longer. They are happy to stay
working with the agency that recruited them and hired them.
Employment in the government in Washington tends to be a
revolving door, and we just steal people from each other, and
it goes around and around and around. I am delighted that we
can now access a much bigger applicant pool of very qualified
people.
Senator Lankford. OK. Thank you. Mr. Borland?
Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. I think looking across
government we know that the Patent and Trademark Office has
been doing this for years, and so I do not believe there are
any regulatory or statutory barriers to permanently out-
stationing or having kind of work-from-anywhere situation.
I think that we have learned, at Social Security, that
whether it be provisioning security credentials, laptops or
cellphones, providing training, that work can be done remotely.
The workforce can be remote. We have been addressing
challenges, public service challenges on our 800 number, and we
have new 800 number agents that received all of their
equipment, their security credentials, their onboarding, their
orientation, and their training remotely, and they are working
from home.
Senator Lankford. Ms. Rosenberg, let me refine this
question, not only just for your agency as well, but
Washington, DC. is one of the most expensive real estate areas
in the country. Is there a potential that this could be a cost-
savings issue that agencies could, if they worked through the
process, determine I do not need as big of a footprint here in
Washington, DC. to be able to hire on people, knowing I am
going to assume I am going to add 25 percent or 20 percent or
40 percent, whatever the number is, agency to agency, that
could be hired anywhere in the world, at this point from any
American citizens? Is that something that you would see that
would be a change and shift here in D.C. as well, in how we
actually manage things? I know that is much a General Services
Administration (GSA) question, but I have GAO in front of me
rather than GSA right now, so I am asking you first.
Ms. Rosenberg. I think there is certainly the potential for
cost savings, I think in two ways. One is that individual
salaries are based on their official duty station, and if their
official duty station is their home or a telework location that
is in a less-expensive area, then salaries could be reduced.
And it also could mean savings for agencies in terms of space.
I know when GAO moved to expanded telework it enabled us to
reduce our footprints, both in our regional offices and reduced
the amount of leased space, as well as in our headquarters
building. It enabled us to rent out parts of our headquarters
building to other agencies since we had less people who needed
physical space in the building.
Senator Lankford. Senator Rosen, I see that you are there
now as well. I would love for you to be able to join in the
conversation, and let me open this up to you for questions.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROSEN
Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Lankford. I am really
happy that you have held the second hearing on telework because
really our Federal workforce, particularly how they are coping
with the stresses of the pandemic, but they still have to
deliver the services that everyone needs, and deliver them out
to the American people in the way that is best. So I am really
glad we are coming together in a bipartisan way to figure out
how we do this.
I want to talk a little bit about cybersecurity, because
with millions of Federal and private sector workers navigating
the transition from an office environment to their home,
obviously because of COVID-19, maintaining cybersecurity while
teleworking, it is imperative for our national security,
really. Small organizations, in particular, face challenges
like resource constraints and protecting themselves from
increasingly sophisticated cyber threats like ransomware. We
know how destructive that can be and how frightening that is
for companies when that happens, or agencies.
So to address this vulnerability, just this very afternoon
I introduced bipartisan legislation, along with Senator Moran,
that requires CISA, in coordination with the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC), to publish a network of telework-related
cybersecurity best practices for small organizations, including
small businesses, nonprofits, and small governmental
jurisdictions. Those could be our school districts, and we have
had issues with ransomware attacks on school districts, of
course, in my State, and I know across the country.
However, even large Federal agencies are facing
unprecedented cybersecurity challenges now that, like you say,
the majority of your workforces are working virtually. Ms.
Rosenberg, can you tell us what you assess to be the most
significant and most prevalent challenges Federal agencies may
be facing when they are implementing telework-related
cybersecurity practices? And you know that National Institute
of Standards and Technology (NIST) and CISA, we have put out
guidelines and done a lot of work on that. How can we assure
that those best practices are reaching particularly our Federal
workforce?
Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator Rosen. What I could say
to you is that we have ongoing work. Our information technology
and cybersecurity team has initiated work that is looking at
what selective Federal agencies experiences have been in
implement IT telework solutions in response to the pandemic,
and to what extent the selected agencies addressed Federal
information security guidance when implementing those
solutions. That work is still in its initial phases, but the
team expects to issue something this summer.
Senator Rosen. Thank you. Anyone else want to talk about
the cybersecurity practices and the challenges you have had, or
how we can help best respond and overcome those cybersecurity
challenges, as you are protecting, obviously, personal
information, particularly our Social Security Administration.
Mr. Borland. Senator Rosen, if I may, I am Jim Borland from
the Social Security Administration. Thank you for that
question. I want to emphasize, and getting back to something
that Senator Carper said earlier, that our agency has a very
close and productive working relationship with CISA. Obviously,
cybersecurity is of critical importance to the American public
when it comes to protecting their personal information, and
Social Security has one of the largest repositories of that
information in government.
We have found the concept of having CISA to be so
incredibly helpful, because they have the ability to do threat
assessment and intelligence gathering, that even as a large
Federal agency, would take many resources and would be
duplicative. So when we get a binding operational directive
from CISA, we know that it has been thoroughly researched, it
is a real threat. They give us advice as to what to do, and our
role is just to get it done. And so in that regard the advice,
the direction that we get from CISA really has a major role to
play in improving and sustaining strong cybersecurity posture.
Senator Rosen. That is fantastic. I cannot see everyone
there, if there is anyone else that wants to respond to that.
Otherwise I do have one other question in my remaining time. Of
course, as we know, the general public, they are depending on
our Federal agencies for our vital services, our social
security checks, like you say, our VA benefits, so many things
that they are going to benefit all of us in the long run, and
maintenance of our public lands even.
So particularly at the time when reliable information about
public health and safety is so important, we have to have the
public trust our Federal agencies to offer fast services and
accurate responses. So anyone who would like to address this,
can you talk about how you have met the pandemic's challenges
in terms of providing public services, customer service,
especially that aspect of your agency's mission, as you are
missing out on some of the face-to-face. What kind of
adaptations did you have to make, and really, I know there are
benefits but what are we missing or what can we help you do
better, because some things do get lost in translation when you
are maybe just on the phone.
So maybe Mr. Borland, if you want to speak about that.
Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. I would be happy to. So
when the pandemic was declared by the World Health
Organization, we pretty quickly swung to maximum telework, but
we also made the decision to close our offices. As I mentioned
in my opening remarks, we serve a population that is
particularly vulnerable to COVID-19; and because of the nature
of the work that we are doing [audio difficulties-inaudible]
across America. You need to protect not only employees but the
public.
We made the decision to close our offices, but we swung
immediately to a public information campaign to make sure that
local communities knew that while our physical buildings were
closed that our employees were working, that they could be
reached at the phone number for their local Social Security
Office, and if you have a claims representative that you worked
with at that office you can reach that claims representative.
Our 800-number service had some different challenges, ones
that we were able to overcome pretty quickly. We had a
situation where we have a legacy telephone platform, and only
25 percent of our employees that work in our teleservice
centers were equipped to telework. We quickly re-engineered a
solution that would allow the 800-number employees to use the
system that is used in our field offices, so we could quickly
telework-enable all of our 800-number agents.
I am happy to say we just ended our fiscal year (FY), and
we met our average speed of answer goal for our 800 number. It
is not as low as we want it to be and we are going to keep
working hard to continue to provide better service to the
public.
Senator Rosen. Thank you. I know my time is just about up,
but I know it is always--speaking from my own experience,
whenever you try to do something with customer service it is
nice to be able to get to a person. And then if you have to
call back again, particularly with some things with social
security perhaps, that the ability to have continuity with the
same person is really important in resolving a case without
having to revisit it and re-litigate it, and satisfaction for
everyone.
So I appreciate it and I yield back my time. Thank you,
Senator Lankford.
Senator Lankford. Senator Rosen, thank you.
I do want to ask a couple more questions here. Ms. Rose,
you talked before about onboarding and those lessons learned.
Obviously, that is one of the challenges that we have all
discussed. It is a very different dynamic onboarding someone
you have never met, your manager is not interacting with on a
daily basis, and the challenge that you have typically when you
land in the middle, as you and I have both said, the cubicle
farm, and you do not know how to fill out a certain form or to
be able to do a certain process, you turn to the person next to
you and they kind of help you through that.
You do not have that at this point when you are working
remotely. You do not know the people that you work around. You
do not know who else to be able to call on the team that is
also doing this same job, to be able to help you in the
process. You do not even know your manager and your manager
does not know you.
So what lessons have you learned at this point, and I would
be interested in any of the other of the three of you, if you
have specific ideas on this issue about onboarding, mentoring,
helping people in the earliest days to be able to be a
productive, valued part of a team, what lessons you have
learned in this. Because if we are going to start hiring people
no matter where they live, then we are going to have to take
what we learned during this time period and to be able to
accelerate that in a broader perspective.
So anyone can answer that question. If you have additional
insight, jump in. But I would like Ms. Rose to go first.
Ms. Rose. Thank you, Senator Lankford. That is such an
important point and it is a vital lesson learned. We knew very
early on that we would have to stay very engaged with our
employees if we are not going to be physically co-located with
them. We have provided training to managers and supervisors on
how to manage and supervise in a virtual environment, and quite
frankly, we have really leveraged information technology to
every extent possible to try to replicate a real-time, face-to-
face experience for our employees and for our supervisors. So
we are using programs like Teams and Skype so that people can
have conversations in person, digitally, and see one another,
because that really makes a difference in getting to know
someone.
We have also tried to replicate some of our morale-boosting
experiences in a virtual environment. We are going to launch
our Secretary's Honor Award ceremony tomorrow, and it is going
to be conducted completely virtually, but it will be streamed
out so that all of our employees can participate and send
congratulations to their colleagues, just as they would if we
were having the ceremony in our auditorium.
It takes a lot of effort and you have to rethink the way
you do things, but technology has given us the ability to be
almost as good as being there if we try and we use it.
Senator Lankford. OK. So can I ask just a follow-up
question on that as well?
Ms. Rose. Sure.
Senator Lankford. As you are gathering all this information
and these ideas and you have new training modules and
everything else, are the CHCOs sharing that with each other or
is every agency kind of developing their own structure, their
own idea, because everyone is ramping up through this time
period? How much collaboration is there agency to agency to
say, we have found this module to be really good for training
new employees, we have found this to be really good for
onboarding, we have found this metric to be really good for
measuring performance and evaluating this in the remote
setting.
So I am just asking the question, is collaboration
happening at this point, at what level? I am not expecting us
to be perfect at this yet because we all trying to figure it
out. But has that started, and if so, what does it look like?
Ms. Rose. I am pleased to report it has started. We have
weekly CHCO collaborative calls that all of the Executive
Branch agencies participate in. We have not done as much
sharing of lessons learned as I think we will coming out of
this, because as you have acknowledged, we are still kind of in
the thick of it. And we talk to each other on a case-by-case,
individual basis. We know each other. It is a small community,
and the collaboration vehicle is there for us to make more use
of it as we gain more experience and have time to share lessons
learned.
Senator Lankford. OK. That would be very helpful. And if we
can participate in that, we want to be able to help in that
process. Senator Sinema and I are very engaged in this, along
with the rest of our Committee. What I do not want to have is a
contractor pull together a really good training module and sell
it to you, and sell it to you, and sell it to you, and to you,
and suddenly the taxpayer is not getting good bang for the buck
because one contractor created something that is really good
and now they are selling it all over the place to everyone,
when we could actually buy that license once and use it
governmentwide if we choose to on that.
OK. Mr. Washington, do you have anything to add to this?
Mr. Washington. The one additional thing I would add is
that we have identified a sponsor for any new staff, I mean,
even before they come on board, so they could have that as a
resource that they could reach out to. And the sharing of best
practices and the collaboration, that has really been integral
to our success at the Department of Transportation. I mean, we
have 54,000 employees all over the country, so when the
pandemic hit we started weekly meetings with our HR directors,
and they were able to raise challenges and talk about best
practices. So that has been very integral to our success.
Senator Lankford. OK. Mr. Borland, do you have anything you
want to add?
Mr. Borland. It is a technology solution that we found to
be particularly helpful, but a pretty rudimentary one, and it
is persistent chatrooms. In other words, giving folks kind of
that water cooler place to check in during the day, to ask
questions, to touch base. We have found it to be very effective
in keeping those connections that we are all used to from our
physical work space and perpetuating them.
We also make widespread use of video teleconferencing, for
meetings. I think many people have forgotten how to use their
telephones because they are so used to just clicking on someone
and calling them.
So there is lots of great technology out there, but the
important part of the use of the technology is the human aspect
of it. It is that human connection. That is why we are moving
toward video as well as audio, to make that human connection.
We have all been isolated a long time, and it is frankly really
good to see my colleagues from time to time.
Senator Lankford. You know what? I cannot begin to tell you
the number of times I have heard, in the last few months, when
I ran into someone in person at some spot, that their first
response is, ``It is so nice to see a person.'' And so I get
that.
Ms. Rosenberg, anything that you want to be able to add to
this as well?
Ms. Rosenberg. I would certainly echo the sentiments that
my colleagues made, that maintaining that social connectedness
and being creative in the way you do it is very important.
I think the one thing I would add is that as part of this
continuing communication is that employees' needs change over
time, and so you need to adapt as the employees' needs are
changing. I think we have certainly learned that as the
pandemic has lasted longer than I think any of us had hoped,
that we have had to adjust the types of resources we provide to
staff and how we outreach to them as the situations that they
are facing change.
Senator Lankford. I appreciate that very much, and you are
right. This has lasted much longer than any of us had thought
or hoped. I distinctly remember conversations in early March
saying by Easter, and then we would fill in the blank after
that. We did not realize it was Easter 2021. But it is just the
reality of where we are today.
I have about 9 hours more of questions for each of you, but
you will all be glad to know that a vote has been called and so
I am not going to be able to do 9 hours more of questions with
you. But I very much appreciate your insight.
Let me ask one favor of all of you. As you work through
this process you are going to bump into regulations and the
statutory prohibitions of things that you think, this really
needs to be done. This is the Committee that will work on those
things. So when you run into the statutory problems and issues,
or regulatory issues, would you please make sure you actually
share them with us and not assume that Congress does not care
to hear this. We do. We are just not doing the same thing you
are doing all day, every day. We are not going to see it at the
same level you are.
So when you see those statutory barriers, or you see a
regulatory issue that needs to be addressed, please make sure
you share it back with our Committee. We are going to continue
to be able to work on this, because this is a paradigm shift
for how we work as the Federal Government. We are opening up a
much larger pool of individuals that are eligible to be able to
work with us, and with greater flexibility on some of the tasks
that we have.
We will always have in-person, and we should always be here
in Washington, DC, with our agency heads and all of those
things, to be able to interact for those face-to-face meetings
that need to occur. But we have millions of people around the
country that would love to be able to serve their country by
serving in one of these agencies, and I would love for them to
be able to have the opportunity to be able to do that as well,
and to be able to compete, to end up on someone's list as the
well-qualified candidate that happens to live in Altus,
Oklahoma, and they get the opportunity to be able to compete
for those tasks as well.
I look forward to ongoing dialogue about these issues, and
please make sure that you continue to be able to keep that
communication going with our team, as we are pulling together
different ideas. Senator Sinema and I have already started the
conversation about legislation that may be needed or helpful in
this process as well. But as you have ideas, and your
legislative team has ideas, please make sure those actually get
shared with us on a timely basis.
That concludes today's hearing. I am very grateful, again,
for the witnesses that are here and for the time that you have
been able to share with us, all four of you. Thank you for
that.
The hearing record will remain open for 15 days until the
close of business on Thursday, December 3rd, which it is hard
to believe 15 days from now we are into December, but we are.
That will be for the submission of statements and questions for
the record.
Thank you again very much for your continued service, as
you have done for a very long time, and we look forward to
getting the chance to be able to work together on this. This
hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:45 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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