Sponsors (3)
The bill aims to reduce headquarters footprint, standardize telework/pay locality rules, and speed agency actions (potentially lowering real-estate and legal costs), but does so at the cost of reduced employee telework protections, forced relocations, weakened collective-bargaining and judicial remedies, and increased privacy and implementation risks.
Federal employees and agencies get clearer, statutory definitions of 'headquarters,' 'full-time telework,' and pay-locality references, reducing ambiguity about telework eligibility and pay boundaries.
Employees who relocate outside the Washington area will have pay adjusted to their new locality, aligning salaries with local markets and potentially lowering agency personnel costs for taxpayers.
Relocating staff into regional offices and reducing at least 30% of headquarters footprint can strengthen regional in-person customer service, encourage geographic workforce diversity, and reduce federal real-estate costs.
All people and entities harmed by agency decisions under the Act lose the ability to sue, removing a key check on agency error and reducing external accountability.
Many headquarters employees will lose full-time telework and face forced relocation (within 90–180 days for some), disrupting families, increasing commutes, and risking retention and morale among experienced staff.
The Act can override collective bargaining agreement terms that conflict with it, which may strip workers and unions of negotiated protections (pay, scheduling, grievance procedures) and provoke labor disputes.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Requires the Administration to relocate ≥30% of HQ staff and cut ≥30% of HQ office space outside the Washington metro area, restricts many full‑time telework rights, adds annual reporting, and preempts conflicting law.
Official title: Require the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to relocate 30 percent of the employees assigned to headquarters to duty stations outside the Washington metropolitan area, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 29, 2025 by Joni Ernst · Last progress January 29, 2025
Requires the Small Business Administration to move at least 30% of its headquarters employees and cut at least 30% of its headquarters office space away from the Washington metropolitan area on a specified timeline, restricts full-time telework for relocated employees, and adds recurring reporting requirements to budget submissions. The law also preempts conflicting federal law and collective-bargaining terms, bars private lawsuits challenging agency actions under the Act, and includes severability language.