{"id":27381,"date":"2024-01-18T19:26:29","date_gmt":"2024-01-18T19:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2024\/01\/18\/interior-dept-official-defends-pace-of-telework-curbs\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:12:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:12:35","slug":"interior-dept-official-defends-pace-of-telework-curbs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2024\/01\/18\/interior-dept-official-defends-pace-of-telework-curbs\/","title":{"rendered":"Interior official defends pace of telework curbs at House hearing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The U.S. Department of Interior defended its efforts to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/career\/2023\/09\/05\/office-reentry-pushing-feds-to-job-hunt-federal-times-survey-shows\/\" target=\"_blank\">ramp up in-person work requirements<\/a> for employees who have been teleworking since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as lawmakers in Congress question whether more should be done to get federal employees back into government office buildings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cHere we are in 2024 and DOI remains mired in irrelevant and ineffective COVID-19 telework policies,\u201d said Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., chairman of a House Committee on Natural Resources oversight subcommittee, at a hearing Thursday. \u201cThe Department of Interior\u2019s agencies are less productive and continue to fall behind on outstanding work affecting the delivery of services to all Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In September, the department first announced it was scaling back telework for managers and supervisors in Washington, D.C. Last month, Interior officials included all employees in that requirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To date, workers across the department\u2019s eleven bureaus are <a href=\"https:\/\/naturalresources.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/testimony_green.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">working onsite 65% of the time,<\/a> said Mark Green, chief human capital officer, in testimony before the panel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe\u2019re not seeing any individual employee performance issues\u201d due to telework, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interior has made tailored calls for other offices that need more in-person services, he said. For example, Bureau of Indian Affairs employees are onsite closer to 80% of the time. In August, there were reports of Native American tribal communities unable to get adequate services from teleworkers, according <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gao.gov\/assets\/d24107162.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">to the Government Accountability Office.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Currently, about half of the Interior\u2019s workforce interfaces with the public on a regular basis. Meanwhile telework <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/career\/2023\/11\/06\/almost-70-of-federal-employees-still-telework-opm-poll-finds\/\">remains largely in place governmentwide. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/career-management\/2023\/12\/19\/interior-dept-mandates-50-in-office-presence-for-dc-area-employees\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/INTERIOR.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Interior Dept. mandates 50% in-office presence for DC-area employees<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Many large departments have issued similar orders in recent months to call broad swaths of their workforces back to offices.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since the national emergency ended last year, the White House, congressional Republicans and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, have all pushed to repopulate federal offices with workers. Beginning late last summer, many large agencies began responding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Within and among agencies, telework varies depending on the nature of the job and the level of public facing customer service. Green said that whether they\u2019re teleworking or not, Interior employees \u201care working everyday to deliver for the American people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That\u2019s been a point of debate between agencies, employees and Congress: does telework count for the purposes of productivity and engagement? Employees and their unions have said it does, and in some cases, telework has been shown to reap higher returns in the form of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/management\/career\/2024\/01\/03\/federal-telework-plays-into-employee-retention-opm-finds\/\" target=\"_blank\">better employee retention and satisfaction.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dawn Locke, director of strategic issues for GAO, said at the hearing that the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Park Service have reported that their applicant pools for new jobs widened thanks to telework offerings.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/management\/leadership\/2024\/01\/11\/mayor-bowser-orders-dc-employees-to-cut-back-on-telework\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP21081632591949.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Mayor Bowser orders DC employees to cut back on telework<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Bowser\u2019s administration is calling district employees back to offices after urging federal agencies to do the same.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">House Republicans countered that the Park Service\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/federal-oversight\/watchdogs\/2024\/01\/11\/national-parks-need-22-billion-to-address-growing-maintenance-backlog\/\" target=\"_blank\">ballooning maintenance backlog<\/a> and recent watchdog reports of <a href=\"https:\/\/naturalresources.house.gov\/uploadedfiles\/hearing_memo_--_sub_on_oi_ov_hrg_on_doi_telework_01.18.24.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">unmet deadlines <\/a>for providing real estate services to tribal citizens are evidence of telework\u2019s inefficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This hearing was the latest of several called by House leaders to hear from selected agencies on their ongoing telework policies, including the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.federaltimes.com\/federal-oversight\/congress\/2023\/09\/14\/lawmakers-question-nasa-other-agency-leaders-over-telework-policies\/\" target=\"_blank\">National Science Foundation, NASA, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission<\/a>, the Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, the epartment of Homeland Security, the Department of Commerce and U.S. Agency for International Development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shalanda Young, director of the White House\u2019s Office of Management and Budget, and Kiran Ahuja, director of the Office of Personnel Management, declined invitations to testify or provide written statements at Thursday\u2019s hearing, Gosar said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The hearing Thursday probed the Department of Interior over its lingering telework flexibilities despite recent return-to-office orders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":79149,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":38,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[66,38,31,15,33,9],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3269],"class_list":["post-27381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-career-management","category-congress","category-home","category-management","category-newsletters","category-federal-oversight"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"ZXEYCY4J75A2HJ57ESWHV5UJ6Q","arc_canonical_url":"\/federal-oversight\/congress\/2024\/01\/18\/interior-dept-official-defends-pace-of-telework-curbs\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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