On the recordSeptember 27, 2023
I am reading the text of this amendment, and it says here none of the funds appropriated may be used for the purposes of teleworking or remote working for any employee or any contractor of the Department of Defense on a regular and recurring basis. That seems pretty excessive to me. Now, I would agree with my colleague from Wyoming that certainly telework presents opportunities in some cases for abuse just as regular work does, but we are living in a new world. We are living in a post- COVID world. There is a place in our workforce for regular work, which is not so regular anymore, and there is a place in our world for telework. I can certainly envision legitimate purposes for an employee or a contractor of the Department of Defense to engage in telework; for example, particularly, a valuable contractor who does, in fact, choose to work at home and that contractor's services are desired by the Department of Defense. Why should we limit the Department of Defense in its ability to utilize telework if and as appropriate? By the way, it may be not only about the efficiency of the work, but it may be more cost effective. It may be more cost effective for that work to be engaged in from the telework perspective. We have the technology to do that. There are a lot of ways that we can provide for work.…





