[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 51 (Wednesday, March 25, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E764-E765]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 THE TELEWORK IMPROVEMENTS ACT OF 2009

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. JOHN P. SARBANES

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 25, 2009

  Mr. SARBANES. Madam Speaker, I rise today to introduce the Telework 
Improvements Act of 2009. Telework allows workers to perform their 
duties and responsibilities from home or at another work site removed 
from their regular place of employment. The Telework Improvements Act 
encourages a uniform and consistent telework policy across the federal 
government, while imposing strict oversight and accountability that 
will ensure the success of this pragmatic yet innovative workforce 
management policy.
  First and foremost, this bill is about good government. According to 
an estimate by the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service, in the 
next five years approximately 550,000 federal employees--almost 30 
percent of the federal workforce--will leave government, largely 
through retirement. Broadband and other technological advances have 
made remote work arrangements widely possible and the government should 
use telework as a powerful recruitment and retention tool to compete 
with more highly paid private sector jobs. The flexibility that 
telework provides will make a career in government more attractive to 
the next generation of civil servants.
  Telework will also help mitigate congestion in high-traffic areas 
such as the National Capital Region--reducing carbon emissions from 
vehicles and improving the quality of life for all commuters. I commute 
from my home in Towson, Maryland to our nation's capital, tracing the 
length of my district. Each day, I sit in suffocating traffic with 
thousands of federal employees and other commuters. The gridlock 
results in lost productivity, less time spent with families, and 
pollution that poisons our air and alters our climate. If we offer an 
innovative alternative so that some in the federal workforce can avoid 
these commutes through telework, not only will we improve their quality 
of life, we will relieve the overall strain on our regional 
transportation infrastructure and improve the daily commute for all 
area workers.
  Select agencies within the federal government like the United States 
Patent and Trademark Office, the Defense Information Systems Agency, 
and the General Services Administration have shown strong leadership--
from agency heads down to individual managers--by putting in place an 
efficient and effective telework policy. They have demonstrated 
extraordinary results and are a template for other agencies to follow. 
But even though telework has been available to federal employees for 
over a decade, there are no uniform policies in place. Agencies are 
hampered by a lack of guidance and training for federal employees who 
wish to telework. Uneven application among managers and supervisors has 
too often rendered telework policies ineffective. Finally, the absence 
of uniform data collection and meaningful oversight make the best 
practices employed by agencies with effective telework programs all but 
impossible to implement elsewhere in government.
  To address these flaws, the Telework Improvements Act of 2009 will: 
instruct the Office of Personnel Management to develop a uniform, 
government-wide telework policy for federal employees; ensure that 
federal employees who wish to telework and are eligible to telework are 
able to do so for at least 20 percent of the hours they work in a two-
week work period; designate a Telework Managing Officer within every 
agency and department to oversee telework; provide greater access to 
and opportunities for telework training and education to both employees 
and supervisors, while providing employees electing to telework with 
greater protection against discriminatory punitive treatment by 
supervisors and managers; require the Office of Personnel Management to 
compile government-wide data on telework; and require the Government 
Accountability Office (GAO) to evaluate agency compliance, produce an 
annual report to Congress and make that report publicly available on 
the internet.
  In closing, I would like to salute Congressman Frank Wolf for his 
vision and tireless advocacy for telework in the federal government. 
Over the last decade, he has put telework on the map as a management 
option within the federal workforce and I thank him for his leadership.
  I would also like to thank Congressman Gerry Connolly for joining 
Congressman

[[Page E765]]

Wolf and myself in writing this legislation. Though Congressman 
Connolly is new to this body, he is not new to telework. As Chairman of 
the Fairfax County, Virginia Board of Supervisors, Congressman Connolly 
instituted a far-reaching telework policy--performing a great service 
to the employees of Fairfax County and offering a model solution for 
the federal government.
  Finally, I would like to thank Congressman Danny K. Davis for his 
support. Congressman Davis and I introduced a similar piece of 
legislation in the 110th Congress. As chairman of the Federal Workforce 
Subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, 
the Congressman shepherded this crucial legislation through the House 
of Representatives, but unfortunately the measure stalled in the 
Senate. We are hopeful that we will get a bill to the President's desk 
during the 111th Congress.
  Madam Speaker, the federal government should lead the way as a model 
employer and embrace innovative personnel policies that increase 
productivity while striking the right balance between family and work. 
By enacting the Telework Improvements Act, we have the opportunity to 
bolster the federal workforce, reduce traffic and carbon emissions, and 
improve the quality of life for our dedicated civil servants all in one 
fell swoop. I hope my colleagues will join me in supporting this 
pragmatic, commonsense legislation.

                          ____________________