I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 357
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide limitations on Federal
teleworking, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY13, 2025
Mr. N
UNNof Iowa (for himself and Mr. NEWHOUSE) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Government
Reform
A BILL
To amend title 5, United States Code, to provide limitations
on Federal teleworking, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This title may be cited as the ‘‘Back to Work Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. MODIFICATION OF TELEWORK REQUIREMENTS FOR 5
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Chapter 65 of title 5, United 7
States Code, is amended— 8
(1) in section 6502— 9
(A) in subsection (b)(2)— 10
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(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 1
‘‘and’’ at the end; and 2
(ii) by adding at the end the fol-3
lowing: 4
‘‘(C) provides that, subject to subsection 5
(d), an employee may not telework for more 6
than 40 percent of the work days of the em-7
ployee per pay period; 8
‘‘(D) shall be reviewed on an annual basis 9
by, and be subject to the annual approval of, 10
the head of the executive agency; and 11
‘‘(E) provides that the executive agency, by 12
using remote technical means and other appro-13
priate methods, will monitor and evaluate the 14
applicable employee when the employee is en-15
gaged in telework;’’; and 16
(B) by adding at the end the following: 17
‘‘(d) A
DJUSTMENTS TO THE PERMITTEDNUMBER 18
OFTELEWORKDAYS.—With respect to the limitation 19
under subsection (b)(2)(C), the head of an executive agen-20
cy may— 21
‘‘(1) further limit the number of work days per 22
pay period that an employee of the executive agency 23
may telework based on the specific role of the em-24
ployee or other circumstances determined appro-25
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priate by the head of the executive agency, includ-1
ing— 2
‘‘(A) the frequency with which the em-3
ployee needs to access classified information; 4
‘‘(B) whether the employee is newly ap-5
pointed; and 6
‘‘(C) whether the employee occupies a 7
managerial position within the executive agency; 8
or 9
‘‘(2) waive that limitation with respect to an 10
employee of the executive agency if— 11
‘‘(A) the employee is a spouse of— 12
‘‘(i) a member of the Armed Forces; 13
or 14
‘‘(ii) a Federal law enforcement offi-15
cer; 16
‘‘(B) the employee occupies a position— 17
‘‘(i) the duties of which require— 18
‘‘(I) highly specialized expertise; 19
or 20
‘‘(II) frequent travel; or 21
‘‘(ii) for which finding qualified can-22
didates is challenging; or 23
‘‘(C) inclement weather or other exigent 24
circumstances prevent the employee from reach-25
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ing the worksite of the employee during a pay 1
period. 2
‘‘(e) L
IMITATIONS ONPAY.—With respect to any em-3
ployee who has entered into a written agreement under 4
subsection (b)(2), and notwithstanding any other provision 5
of this title, such employee shall— 6
‘‘(1) not be eligible for any adjustment to pay 7
under section 5303; and 8
‘‘(2) receive locality-based comparability pay-9
ments under section 5304 or 5304a at the percent-10
age for the Rest of United States locality pay area.’’; 11
and 12
(2) in section 6506, by adding at the end the 13
following: 14
‘‘(e) E
XECUTIVEAGENCYREPORTS.— 15
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 16
the date of enactment of this subsection, and annu-17
ally thereafter, the head of each executive agency 18
shall submit to the Committee on Homeland Secu-19
rity and Governmental Affairs of the Senate and the 20
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform of 21
the House of Representatives a report that de-22
scribes, for the period covered by the report, the fol-23
lowing: 24
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‘‘(A) What metrics and methods the execu-1
tive agency uses to determine the productivity 2
of employees who telework. 3
‘‘(B) What barriers, if any, prevent the ex-4
ecutive agency from enforcing the limitation 5
under section 6502(b)(2)(C) and any initiatives 6
of the executive agency to address those bar-7
riers. 8
‘‘(C) Any negative effects of telework, in-9
cluding whether telework results in increased 10
costs, security vulnerabilities, lower employee 11
morale, decreased employee productivity, or 12
waste, fraud, or abuse. 13
‘‘(D) Any actions taken by the executive 14
agency (or a detailed justification for any lack 15
of action) in response to any findings of, or rec-16
ommendations made by, the Inspector General 17
of the executive agency with respect to telework. 18
‘‘(2) GAO
REPORT.—With respect to each re-19
port submitted by the head of an executive agency 20
under paragraph (1), the Comptroller General of the 21
United States shall submit an accompanying report 22
that evaluates the accuracy and thoroughness of the 23
report submitted by the head of the executive agency 24
with respect to the matters required to be included 25
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in the report of the executive agency under that 1
paragraph.’’. 2
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—The amendments made by 3
subsection (a) shall take effect on the date that is 180 4
days after the date of enactment of this Act. 5
Æ
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