How Biden Tried to ‘Trump-Proof’ Government With Federal Telework

As taxpayers have spent billions to pay for mostly vacant federal office space, President Joe Biden’s administration worked with federal employee unions to lock in telework levels to help “Trump-proof” agencies, according to a congressional investigation. 

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee released a report Wednesday morning ahead of a hearing titled, “The Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Legacy.”

“Biden-Harris administration officials worked with federal labor union allies not only to lock in high telework levels, but to undermine the ability of the incoming Trump administration to unlock them, and to manage its own workforce,” the report says. 

President-elect Donald Trump has called for reform on several fronts for federal employees. 

While the federal government initially allowed telework during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Biden administration kept the policies in place well after the emergency measures expired. 

“The Biden-Harris administration not only failed to bring federal employees back to the office, it made it difficult for the incoming administration to do so, as part of a broader effort to ‘Trump-proof’ the federal government,” the report later adds. 

The committee found that of all 438 federal agencies and sub-agencies, only the Veterans Benefits Administration monitored the effects of telework on the performance of employees. 

The congressional report cites data from a July 2023 Government Accountability Office report that found 17 of 24 federal agency headquarter spaces in the Washington, D.C., area used about 25% or less of the capacity of the headquarters buildings. Some agencies used as little as 9% of their headquarter space. 

“The federal government pays roughly $7 billion annually to lease and maintain office space for federal agencies,” the House report says. “In other words, the federal government is wasting billions in taxpayer dollars to pay for underutilized office space.”

It also notes that as offices were vacant, taxpayers were still spending $3.3 billion on new office furniture.

The report says that Social Security Administration employees are a notable failure. 

“Nearly all of the 58,875 SSA employees are telework eligible, and those eligible employees have spent only 46.9 percent of their time in the office,” the report says. “This failure to show up runs parallel to failures at SSA in accomplishing its mission. SSA is charged with administering the Social Security retirement, survivors, and disability insurance programs.”

The report notes that while the SSA spent $1.6 trillion in fiscal year 2024, the agency’s disability determination processing times on average “have increased since fiscal year 2020.”

“Processing times have not returned to pre-pandemic levels,” the report adds.