II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 102
To require Federal agencies to impose in-person work requirements for em-
ployees of those agencies and to occupy a certain portion of the office
space of those agencies, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY15, 2025
Mr. K
ENNEDYintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require Federal agencies to impose in-person work re-
quirements for employees of those agencies and to occupy
a certain portion of the office space of those agencies,
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 Act may be cited as the ‘‘Reinforce Occupancy 4
Obligations for Maximized Interagency Efficiency Act’’ or 5
the ‘‘ROOMIE Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 7
In this Act: 8
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(1) ADMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-1
trator’’ means the Administrator of General Serv-2
ices. 3
(2) F
EDERAL AGENCY .—The term ‘‘Federal 4
agency’’ has the meaning given the term in section 5
621 of title 40, United States Code. 6
(3) F
EDERAL CIVILIAN REAL PROPERTY .—The 7
term ‘‘Federal civilian real property’’ has the mean-8
ing given the term in section 3 of the Federal Assets 9
Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 (40 U.S.C. 1303 10
note; Public Law 114–287). 11
(4) U
SABLE SQUARE FEET .—The term ‘‘usable 12
square feet’’ has the meaning given the term by the 13
Administrator. 14
SEC. 3. FINDINGS. 15
Congress finds that— 16
(1) according to a 2023 review of Federal agen-17
cies by the Government Accountability Office— 18
(A) 17 Federal agencies ‘‘used on average 19
an estimated 25 percent or less of the capacity 20
of their headquarters buildings’’; and 21
(B) 1 Federal agency headquarters exam-22
ined would only occupy 67 percent of the office 23
space of the Federal agency if 100 percent of 24
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the employees of the Federal agency worked in- 1
person; 2
(2) according to a 2024 report by the Public 3
Buildings Reform Board established by section 4(a) 4
of the Federal Assets Sale and Transfer Act of 2016 5
(40 U.S.C. 1303 note; Public Law 114–287)— 6
(A) in the National Capital Region, the 7
Federal Government owns or leases almost 8
90,000,000 square feet of property; 9
(B) a sample of Federal properties in 10
Washington, D.C., maintained only 12 percent 11
capacity on average; 12
(C) ‘‘billions of dollars are being expended 13
on buildings that should be disposed of given 14
the new normal of low occupancy’’; and 15
(D) some Federal agencies have developed 16
cultural expectations that they should retain a 17
‘‘flagship’’ property despite significant under 18
usage of that property; and 19
(3) according to a 2023 report by the Office of 20
Audits of the Office of Inspector General of the Gen-21
eral Services Administration— 22
(A) Federal Government buildings can 23
pose significant health risks if they remain un-24
derutilized; and 25
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(B) since July 2023, ‘‘elevated levels of 1
Legionella’’, which is a bacterium that can 2
cause serious infection and death, ‘‘were found 3
in six GSA-controlled buildings, all of which are 4
open to the public’’. 5
SEC. 4. IN-PERSON WORK REQUIREMENTS. 6
(a) F
EDERALAGENCYPOLICYMODIFICATION.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 8
after the date of enactment of this Act, the head of 9
each Federal agency shall amend the policies of the 10
Federal agency, if necessary, to require— 11
(A) not less than 80 percent of the employ-12
ees of the Federal agency to work in-person 13
Monday through Friday of each week, not in-14
cluding any day that is a legal public holiday 15
described in section 6103 of title 5, United 16
States Code, as certified by the Director of the 17
Office of Personnel Management; and 18
(B) except as provided in paragraph (2), 19
not less than 60 percent of the usable square 20
feet of the office space of the Federal agency in 21
any Federal civilian real property owned, 22
leased, or controlled by the Federal agency to 23
be occupied by employees of the Federal agen-24
cy, as certified by the Administrator. 25
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(2) EXCEPTION.— 1
(A) I
N GENERAL.—If a Federal agency 2
does not employ enough individuals to occupy 3
60 percent of the usable square feet of the of-4
fice space of the Federal agency in any Federal 5
civilian real property owned, leased, or con-6
trolled by the Federal agency, the head of the 7
Federal agency shall, not later than 1 year 8
after the date of enactment of this Act, prepare 9
and submit to the Administrator, the Com-10
mittee on Environment and Public Works of the 11
Senate, and the Committee on Transportation 12
and Infrastructure of the House of Representa-13
tives an occupancy plan in accordance with sub-14
paragraph (B). 15
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—An occupancy plan 16
prepared and submitted under subparagraph 17
(A) shall detail how the Federal agency plans to 18
reach 60 percent occupancy in the usable 19
square feet of the office space of the Federal 20
agency in any Federal civilian real property 21
owned, leased, or controlled by the Federal 22
agency through the use of individuals employed 23
by any Federal agency, with special consider-24
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ation given to individuals employed by different 1
Federal agencies. 2
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 1 year after the date 3
that is 120 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 4
the Comptroller General of the United States shall submit 5
to Congress a report regarding the implementation of the 6
requirement under subsection (a)(1), as certified by the 7
Director of the Office of Personnel Management and the 8
Administrator, as applicable. 9
SEC. 5. NONCOMPLIANCE. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—If a Federal agency fails to com-11
ply with section 4(a) by the deadlines described in that 12
section, the Federal agency or the General Services Ad-13
ministration, as applicable, shall sell, terminate, or be pro-14
hibited from re-signing the lease for, the applicable Fed-15
eral civilian real property in accordance with subsection 16
(b) or (c), as applicable. 17
(b) P
ROPERTYOWNED ORCONTROLLED BY THE 18
F
EDERALAGENCY.—If the Federal agency owns or con-19
trols the Federal civilian real property in which the office 20
space described in subsection (a) is located, the Federal 21
agency or the General Services Administration, as applica-22
ble, shall sell the Federal civilian real property. 23
(c) P
ROPERTYLEASED BY THE FEDERALAGEN-24
CY.—If the Federal agency leases the Federal civilian real 25
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property in which the office space described in subsection 1
(a) is located, the Federal agency or the General Services 2
Administration, as applicable— 3
(1) if the lease contains an early termination or 4
other applicable provision— 5
(A) shall execute that provision and termi-6
nate the lease early; and 7
(B) shall not re-sign the lease; or 8
(2) if the lease does not contain an early termi-9
nation or other applicable provision, shall not re-sign 10
the lease. 11
Æ
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