[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 202 (Tuesday, December 12, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H9814-H9815]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 EXTENDING AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT TELEWORK TRAVEL EXPENSES TEST PROGRAMS

  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 4171) to amend title 5, United States Code, to extend the 
authority to conduct telework travel expenses test programs, and for 
other purposes, as amended.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                               H.R. 4171

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

     SECTION 1. EXTENSION OF AUTHORITY TO CONDUCT TELEWORK TRAVEL 
                   EXPENSES TEST PROGRAMS.

       (a) In General.--Section 5711(g) of title 5, United States 
     Code, is amended by striking ``7 years after the date of the 
     enactment of the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010'' and 
     inserting ``on December 31, 2020''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) 
     shall take effect as though enacted on December 1, 2017.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Montana (Mr. Gianforte) and the gentlewoman from Florida (Mrs. Demings) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Montana.


                             General Leave

  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to 
include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Montana?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4171, a bill I 
introduced with Congressman Connolly, to extend Federal agencies' 
authority to conduct a telework pilot program.
  The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 provided Federal agencies, and 
specifically the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with the authority 
to conduct a pilot program to incentivize telework. The pilot program 
allows agencies to waive the reimbursement of travel costs for 
teleworking employees who return to headquarters for mandatory training 
programs.
  Both agencies and employees benefit from this arrangement. Agencies 
benefit from having an additional tool for recruitment and retention. 
Agencies also realize cost savings by allowing employees to work at 
different locations.
  For example, according to the USPTO, its telework program saved $77.4 
million in fiscal year 2016 alone. The savings are related to lower 
real estate costs and increased personnel retention.
  In turn, teleworking employees can work from almost anywhere in the 
United States. The teleworking program moves USPTO employees into the 
communities that they serve. For example, in my State of Montana, the 
pilot program allowed the USPTO to place patent examiners in Bozeman, 
Butte, Billings, and Missoula.
  Teleworking can grow opportunities in our communities that aren't 
close to highly populated areas that house Federal agencies. It has the 
promise of bringing more good-paying jobs to Montana and other rural 
areas across the country.
  Now that agencies are seeing the cost savings associated with 
telework, this pilot program can be wound down. Absent congressional 
action, this program expired last week. However, the USPTO has 
requested an extension in order to allow it to budget for increased 
travel expenses related to paying for employees to return to agency 
headquarters in northern Virginia or one of its regional offices. This 
bill extends the program for 3 years.
  I thank the congressman from Virginia (Mr. Connolly), for working 
with me in a bipartisan fashion to bring this bill to the floor. I urge 
my colleagues to support the bill.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. DEMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Representative Gianforte and 
Representative Connolly for their work on this bipartisan bill to 
extend the authority for agencies to conduct telework pilot programs 
for travel expenses. The current authority for this program expired on 
December 9 of this year, so passage of this bill is urgently needed. 
The bill extends the program until December 13 of 2020.
  In February of 2012, the United States Patent and Trademark Office 
used this authority to initiate the Telework Enhancement Act Pilot 
Program. This program allows USPTO employees to work throughout the 
country and waives the requirement that the agency pay their travel 
costs for mandatory trips back to its headquarters.
  According to the USPTO, the program significantly expanded the 
agency's teleworking workforce and allowed it to hire and retain a 
highly skilled workforce. The USPTO also estimates that this program 
has saved the agency more than $77 million in fiscal year 2016, 
including $17 million in avoided real estate costs and nearly $32 
million in reduced recruitment expenses.
  The agency also cites increased productivity, work hours, employee 
morale, and decreased environmental impacts as benefits of the pilot. 
Given its benefits, it makes sense to authorize an extension of this 
pilot program.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter that the Oversight 
Committee received from The National Treasury Employees Union yesterday 
supporting the bill.

                                             The National Treasury


                                              Employees Union,

                                                December 11, 2017.
       Dear Representative: As National President of the National 
     Treasury Employees Union, representing over 150,000 federal 
     employees in 31 different agencies, I am writing to express 
     NTEU's views on HR 4171, a bill to amend title 5, United 
     States Code, to extend the authority to conduct telework 
     travel expenses test programs, which is scheduled to be 
     considered by the House tomorrow.
       NTEU represents the trademark attorneys at the U.S. Patent 
     and Trademark Office (PTO). The enhanced telework program has 
     allowed employees to work and live in various communities 
     across the nation, saving PTO office property costs and 
     reducing employee turnover. We support the bipartisan 
     legislation for a short-term extension of the pilot, which we 
     believe has been a success for both the PTO and employees. We 
     believe, with the expiration of this new extension, that the 
     agency will have the experience to be able to allow national 
     telework while covering employee travel costs.
           Sincerely,
                                               Anthony M. Reardon,
                                               National President.

  Mrs. DEMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I would make the gentlewoman from Florida 
(Mrs. Demings) aware that I have no further speakers and I am prepared 
to close.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mrs. DEMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to 
the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson Lee).
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, let me thank the gentlewoman from 
Florida and the author of the legislation and manager for their 
leadership on this issue as members of the Oversight Committee and 
indicate that I rise to support H.R. 4171.
  I am a member of the Judiciary Committee and have worked very hard on 
patent and trade issues, and particularly the patent office, and I see 
this as

[[Page H9815]]

raising the caliber of opportunity of different types of employees, 
which are very important. The patent office is a skilled entity, and 
clearly, this gives a greater opportunity for those individuals to work 
in places beyond Washington, D.C.
  I also think it is important to note that telework is advancing, and 
it should not be considered less work than anyone who is at an office. 
I would hope that, as we look at legislation dealing with telework, 
that telework would not diminish the benefits that an employee gets and 
they would not be distinguished because they are working at home, if it 
was allowed, versus in an office.
  So I think this is an important responsibility of the Oversight 
Committee, and clearly, I rise to support that. Keeping in mind that 
the House Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee have 
worked together on a number of issues, I might just comment on, I 
think, an element that needs the cooperation of the Judiciary Committee 
as well.
  I think, today, many of us heard of a statement being offered by the 
Oval Office. I would like to read part of it into the Record. It deals 
with the standards of accountability and protocol and decorum. It was 
sent by the Oval Office.
  ``Lightweight Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a total flunky for Chuck 
Schumer and someone who would come to my office `begging' for campaign 
contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them), is now 
in the ring fighting against . . .''--I will just say the Oval Office.
  This requires oversight of the appropriate committees because it is a 
question of protocol, dignity of the office.
  I would offer to say, as a woman, I am outraged that these comments 
were made. I don't know what it means to say ``would do anything.'' We 
all know that we do not have public finance, and members of various 
parties and levels of government raise fundraising dollars to 
communicate to their constituents. I would imagine that they go to any 
number of individuals who live in their State.

                              {time}  1430

  I think that Senator Gillibrand obviously went to an individual who 
lived in her State, but to silence a sitting Senator on her expression 
of outrage over treatment of women and to utilize a theme that has been 
used for decades regarding how women rise--this is the larger question, 
how women rise.
  Are they Ph.D.'s? Are they law enforcement? Are they secretaries or 
doctors? Are they teachers? Are they in businesses in Hollywood? Are 
they in aviation? How do they rise?
  This squarely talks about, overall, all women and, frankly, I think 
it is important, in an oversight capacity, that the women who have 
asked to be heard as it relates to issues of the Oval Office should be 
heard, as all, in a process of combining committees, such as Oversight 
and Judiciary. That is our appropriate protocol.
  All that I have said, I have always said that these issues should be 
allowed the appropriate investigation and due process, and that, I 
think, would be what the American people would want us to do.
  So I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. I could not be on the floor, 
and I would be remiss, if I did not bring to the attention of my 
colleagues the dastardly comment that does not fit the office and, 
really, characterizes women, American women, since this is an issue and 
a statement made here in the United States, characterizes women in a 
highly inappropriate manner; and a professional colleague in an equal 
branch of government to be castigated by the Oval Office, I think an 
apology is warranted.
  But I think an investigation is warranted for those women who have 
made allegations who have yet, to date, been heard, and I might add, 
they have yet, to date, been sued, so they have not had their day in 
court to be able to answer any such allegations.
  I hope that our respective chairpersons and committees will 
investigate this in the most appropriate way forward.
  And any woman that is of a generation of this time, millennials or 
other women, have had the allegations made against them that the only 
way they have risen is because they have acted in a certain manner, I 
don't think that that is appropriate and appropriate decorum.
  With that, I support this legislation. I look forward to the answer 
to our request for full hearings on these women who have to have their 
say and to be heard regarding the protocols of the Oval Office.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman and Members of the body are 
reminded to refrain from engaging in personalities against Members of 
the Senate.
  Mrs. DEMINGS. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers. I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of the bill, and I yield 
back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Montana (Mr. Gianforte) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 4171, as amended.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill, as amended, was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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