House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., took aim at the report of a work-from-home deal that was struck last week for tens of thousands of federal employees by a just-departed appointee of President Joe Biden's.
Comer signaled that he'll resurface his Stopping Home Office Work's Unproductive Problems SHOW UP Act, which he introduced in February 2023, following a Tuesday report that the union representing 42,000 Social Security Administration workers locked in a deal with the Biden administration that will protect telework through 2029 — after President-elect Donald Trump leaves office.
"THOUSANDS of federal employees just landed a work from home deal ahead of @realDonaldTrump taking office. This is why I introduced the SHOW UP Act. Our government needs to show up for the people it serves. Time to hold the bureaucracy accountable," Comer posted on X.
He tagged Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who are set to co-lead the Department of Government Efficiency and have vowed "mass head-count reductions across the federal bureaucracy" on the way to cutting $2 trillion from the federal government.
Comer's post came after a Bloomberg report that Martin O'Malley, Biden's just-departed SSA commissioner, approved an updated contract with the American Federation of Government Employees that permits workers to "maintain current levels of telework," ranging from two to five days per week, depending on the job.
The updated contract comes two weeks after Musk and Ramaswamy wrote in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece: "Requiring federal employees to come to the office five days a week would result in a wave of voluntary terminations that we welcome: If federal employees don't want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn't pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home."
Comer's bill, which passed the House on Feb. 1, 2023, but had no chance in the Democrat-controlled Senate, would "require federal agencies to reinstate their 2019 pre-pandemic telework policies."
Beginning next month, however, Republicans take back the majority in the upper chamber.
"Don't get too comfortable," read a post on X from Comer's Oversight Committee.