On the recordMay 5, 2010
Madam Speaker, I want to thank Chairman Lynch for yielding his time. I want to thank him for his support of this very important bill. Also, Congressman Gerry Connolly is going to speak, I believe, and he has been very supportive. We have bipartisan support on this bill. I think it is a commonsense approach, and I am delighted that we have it on the floor today. We have been working for some time to try to strengthen the telecommuting/telework policy across our Federal agencies, and this legislation will make sure that we have a good, strong policy in place. For starters, it's going to instruct the Office of Personnel Management to develop a uniform, governmentwide telework policy for Federal employees. We haven't had this in place before. We've had agencies that have pursued telework, some with great success, but we haven't had a uniform approach and emphasis on telework in all of our Federal agencies, and OPM will make sure that that happens. I want to say, as an aside, that John Berry, who is the new head of the Office of Personnel Management, is totally on board with this. He's really on the leading edge, and he's as excited as we are that this legislation is on the floor today. This is really about good government.…





