Sponsors (24)
Requires agencies to revert telework rules to 2019 limits within 30 days and blocks expansion until OPM-certified plans and studies are submitted to Congress within 6 months.
Official title: To restore in-person work at Federal agencies to not less than pre-pandemic levels, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 16, 2025 by James Comer · Last progress January 16, 2025
The bill trades expanded, flexible telework adopted since the pandemic for clearer, standardized, and more secure telework rules with greater congressional oversight — improving consistency and potential cost savings but likely reducing or delaying flexibility for many federal workers and imposing administrative and economic costs.
Federal employees get a clear, uniform telework baseline reverting to pre‑pandemic (Dec 31, 2019) policies, reducing uncertainty about what telework is allowed.
Agencies must produce standardized analyses and OPM‑certified telework plans within a set timeframe, improving congressional oversight, transparency, and consistency across agencies.
Federal employees will get clearer requirements for secure networks, tools, and equipment to support productive telework.
Federal workers who obtained expanded telework since 2019 could lose access or face delayed/reduced flexible work options while agencies await OPM certification.
Limiting telework or forcing a return to prior baselines could increase commuting time and costs for employees and raise household expenses (including childcare and transportation), while certification rules could also lead agencies to retain costly office space or incur higher locality‑pay costs affecting taxpayers.
Agencies will face substantial administrative burden and short timelines to revise policies, conduct studies, and produce certified plans, diverting staff time and imposing costs on agencies and taxpayers.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires federal executive agencies to roll back telework policies to no more permissive than those in effect on December 31, 2019, within 30 days of enactment and prohibits expanding telework until agencies submit a study, an expansion plan, and obtain certification from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Agencies must deliver a study of telework impacts and any proposed expansion plan to Congress within six months; OPM must certify that a plan will improve mission performance, reduce costs, address security and equipment, and not materially increase overall costs before any expansion can be implemented.