Political Quotes

“I am proud today to have the opportunity to support H.R. 1722, the Telework Improvements Act of 2009. I would like to thank Representative Sarbanes, Representative Lynch, Chairman Towns and Representative Wolf for their leadership on this legislation and for working to improve the lives of government employees across the country. Giving people the flexibility to work from home, when possible, makes the federal government a more productive and environmentally responsible employer by saving money, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, decreasing congestion and improving productivity. Currently only 10 percent of eligible federal employees telework on a regular basis, even though many federal jobs would be well suited to teleworking. 95 percent of federal government employees expressed interest in teleworking, but the majority of these workers said there was not adequate support from their agency to do so. This bill will give federal workers the flexibility to telework when appropriate. There are many private companies, such as Intel in my home state of Oregon, where up to one third of employees telework regularly, and these companies have seen increased employee satisfaction, employee retention, and an average savings of $4,500 a year per employee in transportation costs and time savings. Unfortunately, teleworking is a case where the federal government has missed the opportunity to lead by example, and now we need to catch up.”