Derrick Van Orden: “The work-from-home standard for Federal employees which the Biden administration has empowered has enabled an already…”

“The work-from-home standard for Federal employees which the Biden administration has empowered has enabled an already overcompensated Federal bureaucracy to continue to not show up for work and leave the taxpayers on the hook for empty, unused Federal office space across the country. Back in July, I asked the Commissioner of the Public Buildings Services a simple question during a roundtable: How many of your employees are actually at work today? She was incapable of answering that. Three months later I asked her exactly the same question during a committee hearing chaired by Mr. Perry, and she was still incapable of answering that question. Their truancy has led to possibly the worst customer service of any Federal agency, and that is an incredibly low standard to fail to meet. From my own personal experience, it took over a month to get a single phone line in my public building as a Member of Congress, and we wound up moving my office out of the public space because of their inability to perform customer service functions. I had the luxury of doing that as a Member of Congress. Other members of the United States Government do not have that same luxury. This is just not that hard. As an Active Duty Navy SEAL, I managed military maneuvers on three continents simultaneously. I could tell you, Madam Speaker, within a 10-meter square where each one of those individuals was 24 hours a day. So this simply is not that difficult to do.…”