Political Quotes

“Resolving casework is one of the most important services provided by our offices. I was shocked to learn that my predecessor left behind numerous unresolved cases--but, in retrospect, perhaps I shouldn't be so critical. Maybe the simple reason is they were unable to solve constituent issues because he and his staff were hampered by the fact that agency personnel, were either unavailable, or, those who were, simply didn't have the resources available for them to process requests. Why? Because they are working from home. Our functional system of government, how we get things done, was built to support a government workforce where our people come into an office, work together, in one place, face to face. Around that infrastructure, we have businesses (or perhaps I should say we had businesses) that were built to support that workforce--small businesses, such as coffee shops, restaurants, dry cleaners, etc. Most industries, who instituted telework policies during the pandemic have returned or have begun to return to their respective workplaces. And like the government, those businesses were designed around an in- office workforce. This bill does not eliminate telework; it simply returns the workforce to the policies that were in place in 2019. And perhaps, with the report, that this bill requests from the OPM, there is a good chance some agencies will show that telework or other arrangements make sense. Fine. But as of today; we the oversight body, do not have that data.…”