On October 18, Rep. Dan Newhouse introduced the Federal Employee Return to Work Act (H.R. 10014) which would prohibit any fed who teleworks at least one day per week (or 20 percent of work hours) from receiving locality pay from their official work station. All feds covered by this legislation would instead be considered in the “Rest of U.S.” locality pay area. The legislation is a House companion bill to legislation (S. 4834) introduced by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) in late July.

“The federal government pays for massive offices for agency employees in Washington, D.C., and we now know that 17 of the 24 federal agencies are using less than a quarter of their space because of work from home employees,” Newhouse said in a statement. “If agencies wish to allow their employees to work from home, that is their right to do so. But if they do, then the government should not be paying locality bonuses to those employees and they should be treated like any other work from home federal employee that doesn’t receive such a bonus. Taxpayers pay for federal buildings and salaries; it is time to stop wasting their money on empty buildings and unneeded work from home bonuses.”

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) said, “Federal employees get paid extra to work in higher-cost cities. But what if they don’t show up to work? Why should they get paid?” said Dr. Cassidy. “If you don’t show up for work, you don’t get paid at the same rate just for teleworking.”

H.R. 10014 was referred to the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability and has no cosponsors at this time. While it seems unlikely to be considered during the remaining weeks of the 118th Congress, telework policy and locality pay will almost certainly be raised again in the 119th Congress.

To learn more about the Federal Employee Return to Work Act, click here.