[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 149 (Thursday, September 14, 2023)]
[House]
[Page H4305]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     TIME TO GET BACK TO THE OFFICE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Missouri (Mr. Alford) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ALFORD. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize our recently 
introduced legislation, the Congressional Access to Bureaucratic 
Offices, the CABO Act.
  Oversight of the executive branch is one of the core functions of 
this very body, the U.S. House of Representatives, but agencies have 
continuously refused entry to Members of this House. For 6 long months, 
we have been refused entry into the U.S. Department of Agriculture and 
the Small Business Administration. I sit on the Ag Committee and the 
Small Business Committee. This is unacceptable.
  From everything we have been told, it appears that at least half of 
the Federal workforce is away from their office at any given time. Some 
reports say if you go over to these Federal offices down the way here 
from Congress, fewer than 20 percent of the workforce will actually be 
at their desks.
  I ask, Mr. Speaker, are these agencies trying to hide the low numbers 
of workers actually showing up for work and doing their jobs like we do 
here?
  Our legislation, the CABO Act, will address this very problem. It 
will allow Members and their staffs full access to these bureaucratic 
agencies without excuses like COVID restrictions or other declared 
emergencies. We need transparency. We need access to these agencies, 
these Federal bureaucracies that we oversee.
  There is no reason that Members of Congress should not be allowed to 
see what is happening inside these buildings. It is time to get off the 
beach and back to work in Washington, D.C.

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