[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 139 Introduced in House (IH)]
<DOC>
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 139
To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study of the
impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during
the COVID-19 pandemic and a plan for the agency's future use of
telework and remote work, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
January 9, 2023
Mr. Comer (for himself, Mr. Donalds, Mr. Biggs, and Mr. Cloud)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on
Oversight and Accountability
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study of the
impacts of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during
the COVID-19 pandemic and a plan for the agency's future use of
telework and remote work, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Home Office Work's
Unproductive Problems Act of 2023'' or the ``SHOW UP Act of 2023''.
SEC. 2. REINSTATEMENT OF PRE-PANDEMIC TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND
LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE AGENCIES.
Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act,
each agency shall reinstate and apply the telework policies, practices,
and levels of the agency as in effect on December 31, 2019, and may not
expand any such policy, practices, or levels until the date that an
agency plan is submitted to Congress with a certification by the
Director of the Office of Personnel Management under section 3.
SEC. 3. STUDY, PLAN, AND CERTIFICATION REGARDING EXECUTIVE AGENCY
TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE
AGENCIES.
(a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of
enactment of this Act, the head of each agency, in consultation with
the Director, shall submit to Congress--
(1) a study on the impacts on the agency and its mission of
expanding telework by its employees during the SARS-CoV-2
pandemic that commenced in 2019, including an analysis of--
(A) any adverse impacts of that expansion on the
agency's performance of its mission, including the
performance of customer service by the agency;
(B) any costs to the agency during that expansion
attributable to--
(i) owning, leasing, or maintaining under-
utilized real property; or
(ii) paying higher rates of locality pay to
teleworking employees as a result of
incorrectly classifying such employees as
teleworkers rather than remote workers;
(C) any degree to which the agency failed during
that expansion to provide teleworking employees with
secure network capacity, communications tools,
necessary and secure access to appropriate agency data
assets and Federal records, and equipment sufficient to
enable each such employee to be fully productive;
(D) any degree to which that expansion facilitated
dispersal of the agency workforce around the Nation;
and
(E) any other impacts of that expansion that the
agency or the Director considers appropriate;
(2) any agency plan to expand telework policies, practices,
or levels beyond those in place as a result of section 2; and
(3) a certification by the Director that such plan will--
(A) have a substantial positive effect on--
(i) the performance of the agency's
mission, including the performance of customer
service;
(ii) increasing the level of dispersal of
agency personnel throughout the Nation; and
(iii) the reversal of any adverse impact
set forth pursuant to paragraph (1)(D);
(B) substantially lower the agency's costs of
owning, leasing, or maintaining real property;
(C) substantially lower the agency's costs
attributable to paying locality pay to agency personnel
working from locations outside the pay locality of
their position's official worksite; and
(D) ensure that teleworking employees will be
provided with secure network capacity, communications
tools, necessary and secure access to appropriate
agency data assets and Federal records, and equipment
sufficient to enable each such employee to be fully
productive, without substantially increasing the
agency's overall costs for secure network capacity,
communications tools, and equipment.
(b) Limitation.--
(1) In general.--An agency may not implement the plan
submitted under subsection (a)(2) unless a certification by the
Director was issued under subsection (a)(3).
(2) Subsequent plans.--In the event an initial agency plan
submitted under subsection (a)(2) fails to receive such
certification, the agency may submit to the Director subsequent
plans until such certification is received, and submit such
plan and certification to Congress.
(c) Definitions.--In this Act--
(1) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given the term
``Executive agency'' in section 105 of title 5, United States
Code;
(2) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the Office
of Personnel Management;
(3) the term ``locality pay'' means locality pay provided
for under section 5304 or 5304a of such title; and
(4) the terms ``telework'' and ``teleworking'' have the
meaning given those terms in section 6501 of such title, and
include remote work.
<all>