II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 23
To require the head of each Executive agency to relocate 30 percent of
the employees assigned to the headquarters of the Executive agency
to duty stations outside the Washington metropolitan area, and for
other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY7, 2025
Ms. E
RNSTintroduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred
to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs
A BILL
To require the head of each Executive agency to relocate
30 percent of the employees assigned to the headquarters
of the Executive agency to duty stations outside the
Washington metropolitan area, 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 ‘‘Decentralizing and Re-4
organizing Agency Infrastructure Nation-wide To Harness 5
Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Man-6
agement Practices Act’’ or the ‘‘DRAIN THE SWAMP 7
Act’’. 8
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SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) B
UDGET JUSTIFICATION MATERIALS .—The 3
term ‘‘budget justification materials’’ has the mean-4
ing given that term in section 3(b)(2)(A) of the Fed-5
eral Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 6
of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 7
(2) E
MPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘employee’’— 8
(A) has the meaning given that term in 9
section 2105 of title 5, United States Code; and 10
(B) does not include an individual who— 11
(i) in the event of a lapse in appro-12
priations, would be an excepted employee 13
and exempt from the limitation on vol-14
untary services under section 1342 of title 15
31, United States Code, because the duties 16
of the position in which the individual is 17
serving are performing mission-essential 18
functions of the Executive agency employ-19
ing the individual that are necessary for 20
purposes of defending the United States 21
against imminent threats; and 22
(ii) is serving in a position within— 23
(I) the Executive Office of the 24
President; or 25
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(II) a component, the mission of 1
which is related to national security, 2
of— 3
(aa) the Department of De-4
fense, including— 5
(AA) the Defense Intel-6
ligence Agency; 7
(BB) the National Se-8
curity Agency; and 9
(CC) the National 10
Geospatial-Intelligence 11
Agency; 12
(bb) the Department of En-13
ergy; 14
(cc) the Department of 15
Homeland Security; 16
(dd) the Office of the Direc-17
tor of National Intelligence; or 18
(ee) the Central Intelligence 19
Agency. 20
(3) E
XECUTIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘Executive 21
agency’’ means an agency, as defined in section 551 22
of title 5, United States Code, that is in the execu-23
tive branch of the Government. 24
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(4) HEADQUARTERS EMPLOYEE OF AN EXECU -1
TIVE AGENCY.—The term ‘‘headquarters employee of 2
an Executive agency’’ means— 3
(A) an employee of an Executive agency 4
whose permanent duty station is at the head-5
quarters of the Executive agency; or 6
(B) an employee of an Executive agency— 7
(i) who teleworks on a full-time basis; 8
and 9
(ii) whose rate of pay is calculated 10
based on the Washington metropolitan 11
area rate of pay. 12
(5) H
EADQUARTERS OF THE EXECUTIVE AGEN -13
CY.—The term ‘‘headquarters of the Executive agen-14
cy’’, with respect to an Executive agency, means the 15
building serving as the principal managerial and ad-16
ministrative center of the Executive agency. 17
(6) P
AY LOCALITY.—The term ‘‘pay locality’’ 18
has the meaning given that term in section 5302 of 19
title 5, United States Code. 20
(7) R
URAL.—The term ‘‘rural’’ means any area 21
that is not designated as an urban area, based on 22
the most recent data available from the Bureau of 23
the Census. 24
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(8) TELEWORK.—The term ‘‘telework’’ has the 1
meaning given that term in section 6501 of title 5, 2
United States Code. 3
(9) T
ELEWORK ON A FULL -TIME BASIS.—The 4
term ‘‘telework on a full-time basis’’ means that an 5
employee is authorized to telework for 100 percent 6
of the work days of the employee per pay period. 7
(10) W
ASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA .—The 8
term ‘‘Washington metropolitan area’’ means the ge-9
ographic area to which the Washington metropolitan 10
area rate of pay applies. 11
(11) W
ASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA RATE 12
OF PAY.—The term ‘‘Washington metropolitan area 13
rate of pay’’ means the rate of pay in effect for the 14
pay locality designated as ‘‘Washington-Baltimore- 15
Arlington, DC–MD–VA–WV–PA’’. 16
SEC. 3. RELOCATION OF EMPLOYEES. 17
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-18
sions of law, and not later than 1 year after the date of 19
enactment of this Act, the head of each Executive agency 20
shall— 21
(1) change the permanent duty station of not 22
less than 30 percent of the headquarters employees 23
of the Executive agency, as of the date of enactment 24
of this Act, to be at an office of the Executive agen-25
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cy at a location outside the Washington metropolitan 1
area, which shall be at locations throughout the re-2
gions of the Executive agency; and 3
(2) for each employee of the Executive agency 4
whose permanent duty station is changed under 5
paragraph (1), ensure that— 6
(A) the rate of pay of the employee is cal-7
culated based on the pay locality for the perma-8
nent duty station of the employee; and 9
(B) the employee is not authorized to 10
telework on a full-time basis. 11
(b) D
ETERMINATION OF NEWDUTYSTATIONS.— 12
The head of each Executive agency shall, in determining 13
the permanent duty stations of headquarters employees of 14
the Executive agency under subsection (a)— 15
(1) promote geographic diversity, including con-16
sideration of rural markets; and 17
(2) ensure adequate staffing throughout the re-18
gions of the Executive agency, to promote in-person 19
customer service. 20
(c) D
ETERMINATION OF EMPLOYEESELIGIBLE FOR 21
ACHANGE INDUTYSTATION.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-23
graph (2), the head of each Executive agency shall 24
include each headquarters employee of the Executive 25
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agency as eligible for a change in permanent duty 1
station under subsection (a). 2
(2) E
XCEPTION.—A headquarters employee of 3
an Executive agency who is a qualified individual 4
who receives an accommodation to telework on a 5
full-time basis as a reasonable accommodation under 6
title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 7
(42 U.S.C. 12111 et seq.)— 8
(A) shall not be determined to be eligible 9
for a change in permanent duty station under 10
subsection (a); and 11
(B) shall be counted as a headquarters em-12
ployee of the Executive agency for purposes of 13
complying with subsection (a)(1). 14
(3) N
OTICE OF DETERMINATION OF ELIGI -15
BILITY.—Not later than the day before the date on 16
which the head of an Executive agency submits the 17
report required under subsection (d), the head of the 18
Executive agency shall notify each headquarters em-19
ployee of the Executive agency who the head of the 20
Executive agency determines is eligible for a change 21
in permanent duty station under subsection (a) of 22
that determination. 23
(d) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 24
of enactment of this Act, the head of each Executive agen-25
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cy shall submit to each committee of the Senate or the 1
House of Representatives with jurisdiction of 1 or more 2
programs, projects, or activities of the Executive agency 3
a report that provides— 4
(1) the number of headquarters employees of 5
the Executive agency, as of the date of enactment of 6
this Act; 7
(2) the number of headquarters employees of 8
the Executive agency identified as eligible for a 9
change in permanent duty station, in accordance 10
with subsection (c); 11
(3) the number of headquarters employees of 12
the Executive agency whose permanent duty station 13
will be changed to be at an office of the Executive 14
agency at a location outside the Washington metro-15
politan area under subsection (a); 16
(4) the number of headquarters employees of 17
the Executive agency subject to an exception under 18
subsection (c)(2); and 19
(5) the plan of the head of the Executive agen-20
cy to implement subsection (a). 21
(e) I
MPLEMENTATION.— 22
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not earlier than 60 days, 23
and not later than 90 days, after the date on which 24
the head of an Executive agency submits the report 25
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required under subsection (d), the head of the Exec-1
utive agency shall notify each headquarters employee 2
of the Executive agency whose permanent duty sta-3
tion will be changed to be at an office of the Execu-4
tive agency located outside the Washington metro-5
politan area under subsection (a)— 6
(A) that, effective 90 days after the date 7
of the notification— 8
(i) the permanent duty station of the 9
employee shall be changed; 10
(ii) the rate of pay of the employee 11
shall be calculated based on the pay local-12
ity for such permanent duty station; and 13
(iii) the employee shall not be author-14
ized to telework on a full-time basis; and 15
(B) of the location of such permanent duty 16
station. 17
(2) F
ULL-TIME TELEWORKERS REMAINING IN 18
THE WASHINGTON METROPOLITAN AREA .— 19
(A) I
N GENERAL.—For any employee de-20
scribed in subparagraph (B), effective on the 21
date that is 180 days after the date on which 22
the head of the Executive agency employing the 23
employee submits the report required under 24
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subsection (d), the employee shall not be au-1
thorized to telework on a full-time basis. 2
(B) E
MPLOYEES COVERED .—An employee 3
described in this subparagraph is a head-4
quarters employee of an Executive agency— 5
(i) who teleworks on a full-time basis, 6
as of the date of enactment of this Act; 7
(ii) who is not subject to an exception 8
under subsection (c)(2); and 9
(iii) whose permanent duty station is 10
not changed to be an office of the Execu-11
tive agency at a location outside the Wash-12
ington metropolitan area under subsection 13
(a). 14
SEC. 4. REDUCTION IN HEADQUARTERS OFFICE SPACE. 15
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 60 days after the 16
date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office 17
of Management and Budget shall— 18
(1) issue a memorandum directing that the 19
amount of real property serving as the headquarters 20
of an Executive agency that is owned or leased by 21
the Federal Government be reduced by not less than 22
30 percent; and 23
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(2) in identifying property to be sold or for 1
which a lease is to be terminated or not renewed, 2
prioritize— 3
(A) the disposal of buildings; and 4
(B) co-locating the headquarters of Execu-5
tive agencies in as few locations as practicable. 6
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.—If the head of an Executive 7
agency is directed to reduce office space under the memo-8
randum issued under subsection (a), the head of the Exec-9
utive agency shall— 10
(1) begin reducing office space in accordance 11
with the memorandum not later than 180 days after 12
the date of enactment of this Act; and 13
(2) complete the reduction of office space in ac-14
cordance with the memorandum not later than 2 15
years after the date of enactment of this Act. 16
SEC. 5. INFORMATION INCLUDED IN BUDGET JUSTIFICA-17
TION MATERIALS PROVIDED TO CONGRESS. 18
The head of each Executive agency shall include in 19
the first budget justification materials of the Executive 20
agency submitted after the date of enactment of this Act, 21
and the budget justification materials of the Executive 22
agency for each fiscal year thereafter— 23
(1) the number of headquarters employees of 24
the Executive agency; 25
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(2) the number of employees of the Executive 1
agency assigned to a permanent duty station in— 2
(A) a field office of the Executive agency; 3
(B) a district office of the Executive agen-4
cy; or 5
(C) a regional office of the Executive agen-6
cy; 7
(3) the number of employees of the Executive 8
agency who telework on a full-time basis; and 9
(4) the number of employees of the Executive 10
agency who are a qualified individual who receives 11
an accommodation to telework on a full-time basis 12
as a reasonable accommodation under title I of the 13
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 14
12111 et seq.). 15
SEC. 6. NO RELOCATION INCENTIVES. 16
If, pursuant to this Act, the official worksite (as de-17
fined in section 531.605 of title 5, Code of Federal Regu-18
lations) of an employee changes from the residence of the 19
employee to the headquarters of the Executive agency of 20
the employee, notwithstanding any other provision of law, 21
no such employee shall be paid any relocation incentive. 22
SEC. 7. SEVERABILITY. 23
If any provision of this Act or the application of such 24
provision to any person or circumstance is held to be un-25
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constitutional, the remainder of this Act and the applica-1
tion of the provision to any other person or circumstance 2
shall not be affected thereby. 3
SEC. 8. SUPERSESSION. 4
This Act shall supersede any other provision of law 5
and any provision of a collective bargaining agreement or 6
master labor agreement. 7
SEC. 9. NO PRIVATE CAUSE OF ACTION. 8
Nothing in this Act shall be construed to establish 9
a private cause of action, equitable or otherwise, to chal-10
lenge any selection, change, or decision made, or action 11
taken, under this Act. 12
Æ
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