[Senate Hearing 116-402] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] S. Hrg. 116-402 MODERNIZING FEDERAL TELEWORK: MOVING FORWARD USING THE LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC ======================================================================= HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND FEDERAL MANAGEMENT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION __________ NOVEMBER 18, 2020 __________ Available via http://www.govinfo.gov Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs [GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] __________ U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 42-886PDF WASHINGTON : 2021 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin, Chairman ROB PORTMAN, Ohio GARY C. PETERS, Michigan RAND PAUL, Kentucky THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire MITT ROMNEY, Utah KAMALA D. HARRIS, California RICK SCOTT, Florida KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming JACKY ROSEN, Nevada JOSH HAWLEY, Missouri Gabrielle D'Adamo Singer, Staff Director David M. Weinberg, Minority Staff Director Zachary I. Schram, Minority Chief Counsel Laura W. Kilbride, Chief Clerk Thomas J. Spino, Hearing Clerk SUBCOMMITTEE ON REGULATORY AFFAIRS AND FEDERAL MANAGEMENT JAMES LANKFORD, Oklahoma, Chairman ROB PORTMAN, Ohio KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona MITT ROMNEY, Utah THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware RICK SCOTT, Florida JACKY ROSEN, Nevada MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming James D. Mann, Staff Director Eric A. Bursch, Minority Staff Director Mallory B. Nersesian, Subcommittee and Document Clerk C O N T E N T S ------ Opening statement: Page Senator Lankford............................................. 1 Senator Sinema............................................... 2 Senator Carper............................................... 10 Senator Rosen................................................ 24 Prepared statement: Senator Lankford............................................. 31 Senator Sinema............................................... 37 WITNESSES Wednesday, November 18, 2020 Michelle Rosenberg, Acting Director, Strategic Issue Team, Government Accountability Office............................... 5 Keith Washington, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation.............................. 6 Sydney T. Rose, Chief Human Capital Officer, Office of Human Resources, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management, U.S. Department of Labor....................... 8 Jim Borland, Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Systems and Deputy Chief Information Officer for IT Operations, Social Security Administration................................................. 9 Alphabetical List of Witnesses Borland, Jim: Testimony.................................................... 9 Prepared statement........................................... 61 Rose, Sydney T.: Testimony.................................................... 8 Prepared statement........................................... 57 Rosenberg, Michelle: Testimony.................................................... 5 Prepared statement........................................... 39 Washington, Keith: Testimony.................................................... 6 Prepared statement........................................... 52 APPENDIX Statement of the American Federation of Government Employees, AFL-CIO........................................................ 66 Responses to post-hearing questions for the Record: Mr. Washington............................................... 75 Mr. Borland.................................................. 78 MODERNIZING FEDERAL TELEWORK MOVING FORWARD USING LESSONS LEARNED DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC ---------- WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2020 U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Regulatory, Affairs and Federal Management, of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 3:11 p.m., via Webex and in room 342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. James Lankford, Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. Present: Senators Lankford, Scott, Sinema, Carper, and Rosen. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LANKFORD\1\ Senator Lankford. Welcome, everybody. Thanks for being here. This is a hearing for the Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management Subcommittee (RAFM) titled ``Modernizing Federal Telework: Moving Forward Using Lessons Learned during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic.'' We should at least have something good come out of this pandemic. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Lankford appears in the Appendix on page 31. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This hearing is really focused on what we can gain, what has already been learned, what gaps are still there, and what we can do to better improve the process. It has been a decade since the last significant piece of Federal telework legislation, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. It set the baseline standard for Federal agencies to follow for telework. Over the last 10 years, we have seen great advances in technology, workforce expectations, and an increase in cybersecurity threats. So many changes in the world, it makes sense to take a close look at the current telework policies and strategies in the Federal workforce. The current pandemic has acted as a magnifying glass for telework policy improvement. This Committee held a hearing in July with a panel of private industry witnesses. During that hearing, we were able to gather valuable information concerning what private employers have done to support their remote workforce. We were also able to draw on some lessons learned that could help the Federal workforce recalibrate its telework strategies and policies. During that hearing, we also gained some insight into what the current private workforce is demanding. This, coupled with all the environmental challenges we now face, may help us create remote work policies that keep the Federal Government competitive in the hiring of highly qualified individuals. Since early March, Federal agencies have been forced to deal with complex problems like cybersecurity, remote performance management, and employee engagement on a massive scale. The pandemic has been extremely disruptive to all of our lives, and I am hopeful we can use these challenging times to shine a light on telework processes and find long-term solutions that provide real value for Federal agencies and their employees. As I stated in the first hearing, there are some very important telework questions that I believe need clarity on in order for us to chart a clear path forward for the Federal workforce. For example, how do we best prepare employees so that during a future disaster or pandemic they can seamlessly transition into a Federal workforce policy? How do we effectively train managers to stay engaged and to monitor performance of remote workers? What tasks could be permanently teleworked, which would open up opportunities to hire anyone, anywhere in the country? I want to make sure that cybersecurity threats and information technology (IT) infrastructure improvements are at the forefront of future telework legislation conversations. Today, I look forward to hearing from the front line. We have heard anecdotal evidence of agencies overcoming the challenges of a mostly remote workforce, but today we have the opportunity to hear from the source. I hope that we can take what we learn in today's hearing, use it to create a more efficient, flexible, and competitive Federal workforce. I do want to thank this panel for taking the time away from their very busy schedules. You have all done written statements in advance and you have been a part of this for your oral testimony as well. We really appreciate the opportunity to be able to pick your brain, be able to hear about what the agencies have done, what experience that you have gained in the process. For everyone watching this hearing, this is what we are affectionately calling a hybrid hearing. We have some individuals that are here in the room, though it is very few. Four of our witnesses that will testify in this hearing, two of them are live, two of them are remote. Most of the individuals that are here will be remote for this hearing, and everyone is very well spaced during this hearing as well, to be able to make sure that we maintain social distancing in the time period. So we are being attendant to all of those basic elements through this. But I do want us to be able to get this information out. It is important that we get it on the record as well. With that I would like to recognize Ranking Member Sinema for her opening remarks, and she is joining us remotely. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SINEMA\1\ Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, for holding this important hearing, and as this is likely our last Subcommittee hearing of the year I want to thank you for your leadership throughout this Congress. It has been an absolute pleasure to work with you. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Senator Sinema appears in the Appendix on page 37. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I do want to submit a statement for the record from the American Federation of Government Employees.\1\ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The statement submitted by Senator Sinema appear in the Appendix on page 66. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- I appreciate all of our witnesses joining us today. I had hoped that all of our witnesses would agree to join the hearing remotely, because I think that would be a great message to show our Committee and the country as our COVID numbers are increasing across the country, and demonstrate our ability to work remotely and to adapt to this changing world. Our hearing today is important for a number of reasons, but a key one is to dispel the myth that telework automatically means decreased productivity. My office has been working completely virtual since March, and there has been no disruption in our work. Every day our team is working to help Arizonans, and, in fact, we have found that telework can increase productivity, improve employee morale, and allow workers the flexibility they need to care for their kids and their loved ones. So the key is to develop an effective telework strategy so that workers have the tools they need and that everyone in the organization understands the policies and goals. I look forward to our conversation today on those topics, learning more about the problems and challenges you all have overcome, and what operational challenges remain. It is also important to note the risks of returning our Federal workforce to their offices too soon. According to a recent Government Executive article, more than 100,000 Federal employees nationwide have tested positive for COVID. Many States have seen alarming rises in COVID cases recently. This week in Arizona, the percent of positive COVID tests has reached its highest level in 3 months, and the number of Arizonans hospitalized for COVID at the beginning of this week was 70 percent higher than it was just on November 1. While most Federal employees continue to work from home, there are certainly some positions, such as our agents and officers at the border, our postal workers, and Veterans Affairs (VA) staff who cannot do so. So to protect those individuals, it is critical that we allow maximum telework to minimize the number of people in Federal buildings. With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back, and I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. Senator Lankford. Thank you. At this time I want to be able to proceed with testimony from our witnesses. Let me do a quick introduction of the four of them. Joining us remotely is Michelle Rosenberg. She is the Acting Director of U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO's) Strategic Issues Team, where she oversees the agency's work on Federal human capital issues. Prior to joining the Strategic Issues Team she served for over 20 years on GAO's Health Care Team. Throughout her tenure in GAO, Ms. Rosenberg has been recognized with numerous GAO-wide and Health Care Team awards, including two Meritorious Service Awards and a Distinguished Service Award. She will be testifying first and will be joining us remotely. Keith Washington is here. He is the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration at the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT). He has been with the Department since 1991. In his current position, he provides leadership and oversight in the areas of human resources (HR), security, audit relations, acquisitions and grants, transportation and facilities, and space management. Maybe you could lead National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for us next, since we need a new director for NASA, since you are good at space management. What do you think? We will talk about that. Prior to this role, he was the Director in the departmental Office of Human Resource Management. Sydney Rose is also here. She is the Chief Human Capital Officer (CHCO), at the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). She has over 40 years of Federal service, all of which have been spent in human resources-related occupations. Ms. Rose is responsible for all the Department's human capital policies and programs and is key advisor to departmental leadership on employee engagement efforts. Ms. Rose joined the U.S. Department of Labor in 2011, and has previously served at the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM). Thank you for being here. Also joining us remotely is Jim Borland. He is the Assistant Deputy Commissioner and Deputy Chief Information Officer (CIO) for IT Operations at the Social Security Administration (SSA). He leads the day-to-day management of the agency's computing infrastructure. He previously served as the Acting Deputy Commissioner for Communications and the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Social Security's Office of Disability Adjudication and Review. Prior to joining Social Security Administration, he served in various analytical, technical, and leadership positions over 15 years with the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Education here in Washington, DC. I want to thank all four of you for your preparation for being here. It is the custom of this Subcommittee to swear in all witnesses that appear before us. So if I would ask you all to please stand and raise your right hand. Yes, even remotely. Sorry about that. Do you swear that the testimony you will give before this Subcommittee will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? Ms. Rosenberg. I do. Mr. Washington. I do. Ms. Rose. I do. Mr. Borland. I do. Senator Lankford. Thank you. Let the record reflect that all witnesses answered in the affirmative. We are using a timing system, with even the folks that are joining us remotely should be able to see the timer as well, as you go through the process. We will try to stick fairly close to that, to be able to make sure we give as much time as possible for questions and for conversations as we go through this in the process. So with that I would recognize Ms. Rosenberg for your opening statement. TESTIMONY OF MICHELLE ROSENBERG,\1\ ACTING DIRECTOR, STRATEGIC ISSUES TEAM, GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE Ms. Rosenberg. Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today to discuss Federal telework. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Rosenberg appears in the appendix on page 39. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Telework offers benefits to both Federal agencies and the Federal workforce. It can help with recruitment and retention of employees, reduce the need for costly office space, and as the Ranking Member mentioned, provide an opportunity to better balance work and family demands. Telework is also a tool that agencies can and have used to accomplish their mission during periods of disruption. As you know, during the current COVID-19 pandemic, use of telework has allowed Federal employees to work remotely in order to sustain agency operations and serve the American public. GAO previously identified key practices in telework-related literature and guidelines that Federal agencies should implement as part of a successful telework program. Regular attention to the key practices can help to foster program growth and remove barriers to telework participation. My written statement lists all of the key practices we identified. This afternoon I will highlight three. First, telework agreements. To facilitate telework, agencies should have telework agreements that outline the agreed-upon work arrangements between agency managers and teleworking employees. The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010 requires agencies to have such written agreements. However, in 2017, we reported that selected agencies did not require regular reviews, or document the reviews of telework agreements. Given the likelihood of changes in work responsibility and employee schedules over time, it is important for agencies to regularly review their telework agreements to ensure that they reflect and support their current business needs. In addition, if telework agreements are not up to date, agencies may be using inaccurate telework data when making decisions such as space planning and technology investments. The second key practice I will highlight is training, something Senator Lankford mentioned. Telework involves a different way of working as well as supervising employees. As such, agencies are required to provide training to eligible employees and to managers of teleworkers. Such training should cover agencies' telework policies and provide an orientation to telework, and focus on telework program activities, including the IT applications used while teleworking and performance management. Our 2017 review of selected agencies' telework programs found that managers were generally not required to complete telework training before approving staff's telework agreements. As a result, managers may have been approving or denying requests to telework before they fully understood the agency's telework policies and goals. The third key practice I will mention is program evaluation. It is important for agencies to develop program evaluation tools. This should include a tracking system that can help to accurately determine the status of telework implementation at the agencies. Agencies should use the evaluation tools to identify problems or issues with the program, and their progress in achieving program goals. Agencies should then develop an action plan to guide any needed changes. Assessments of the costs and benefits, including cost savings, of agencies' telework programs can help decisionmakers in determining the overall effects and value of telework. However, our past work found that selected agencies have little data to support the benefits or costs associated with their telework programs. OPM has indicated that agencies have improved in their ability to track cost savings, but not all agencies are reporting cost savings information in response to OPM's annual telework data call. In conclusion, the telework key practices GAO has identified, several of which are required by statute, provide a roadmap for Federal agencies to successfully implement their telework programs. However, we have previously found that agencies face challenges related to implementing telework programs that align with the key practices. The challenges agencies face provide a valuable learning opportunity as we look to expand and modify Federal telework programs. Improving the mechanics of telework programs can yield benefits to agencies, Federal employees, and the public. This concludes my prepared remarks. I am happy to answer any questions you may have. Senator Lankford. Thank you. Mr. Washington. TESTIMONY OF KEITH WASHINGTON,\1\ DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ADMINISTRATION, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION Mr. Washington Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss Federal telework during the COVID-19 public health emergency on behalf of the U.S. Department of Transportation. I am Keith Washington, the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Administration, and I have been with the Department for 29 years. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Washington appears in the Appendix on page 52. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Department's longstanding support for and encouragement of telework across our widespread operations proved its value and stability when we quickly and seamlessly converted headquarters and field operations in mid-March to maximum telework to meet the COVID-19 public health emergency. Telework has been a critical flexibility that enables DOT employees to ensure America has the safest, most efficient and modern transportation system in the world. It boosts our economic productivity and global competitiveness and enhances the quality of life in both rural and urban communities. Telework allows the Department to achieve important performance goals and improve the Department's capability to support homeland and national security requirements, all while supporting employees' work-life balance outcomes. In 2013, well before the onset of COVID-19, DOT implemented an agency-wide policy in accordance with the Telework Enhancement Act of 2010. The policy encourages the use of telework and includes notifying 100 percent of our employees of their individual telework eligibility status. That policy remains in effect today. DOT leaders encourage the use of telework to the maximum extent possible while maintaining office coverage and consistent operations. To ensure the vitality of DOT's telework program, DOT conducts telework exercises to give employees and managers opportunities to practice working remotely and to test the information technology capacity to support telework. Those efforts resulted in additional investments in emerging technologies and innovation, including secure virtual private networks and virtual desktop infrastructure. DOT's transition to maximum telework was virtually seamless following the onset of the COVID-19 public health emergency. Because of advanced preparations across DOT, monthly Federal employee teleworkers increased from about 14,000 in February to 30,000 in March, without disruption to the agency's mission or network. Under normal circumstances, typically just under half of the DOT total workforce is telework eligible, and about a quarter of total employees telework monthly, on average. Since the onset of the COVID-19 health emergency, upwards of 60 percent of the total workforce teleworks monthly. The remaining positions are in positions that require their physical presence to perform their core responsibilities, such as air traffic controllers in the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), line handlers in the St. Lawrence Seaway Development Corporation, and merchant mariners in the Maritime Administration. Perhaps one of the most viable lessons learned was to use a considerable degree of flexibility when leveraging the telework policy, work scheduling procedures, and human resources flexibilities and authorities. As a result, some offices are reviewing plans to reduce their office footprint by eliminating leased space and maximizing work and telework once the COVID-19 public health emergency ends. The maximum telework environment has provided DOT with an opportunity to test and implement relatively new and various methods of communicating with both large and small groups. Maximum telework also presented some ongoing challenges, including adjusting to new team dynamics and synergy virtually, limited access to office supplies and equipment, and connectivity issues for some. Several months into this new reality, thousands of our employees are now teleworking full-time, and managers are experiencing how their organizations can function successfully under these conditions, providing vital information on future decisions about our operations. The Department has been successful at implementing maximum telework. DOT has a wide array of workforce missions and has maintained a consistent level of operations and productivity during the health emergency. Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss Federal telework during the COVID-19 public health emergency, on behalf of the Department of Transportation. I am happy to answer any questions that you may have. Senator Lankford. Thank you, Mr. Washington. Ms. Rose. TESTIMONY OF SYDNEY T. ROSE,\1\ CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICER, OFFICE OF HUMAN RESOURCES, OFFICE OF THE ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR Ms. Rose. Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, and Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to testify today. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Ms. Rose appears in the Appendix on page 57. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- On March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus disease, was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). On March 13, 2020, the United States declared the COVID-19 outbreak a national emergency, and by mid-March 2020, the U.S. Department of Labor entered a maximum telework posture due to the COVID-19 global pandemic health emergency. As it became clear to us that COVID-19's impact would require significant modifications to the Department's operations, the Office of Human Resources had the tools available to support the Department in moving to a maximum telework posture, modifying internal guidance as necessary. DOL issued HR guidance, increased technical assistance to employees and managers, and responded to hundreds of inquiries from managers and employees on a full range of human resources issues that included pay, leave, benefits, staffing, telework, work schedules, and other workplace flexibilities. Additionally, DOL rapidly developed guidance related to emergency paid sick leave, offered under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, to ensure that our employees who were unable to work or telework due to qualifying COVID-19 related reasons, as outlined in the regulations, are aware of their entitlements under the law. In accordance with OPM pandemic guidance, the Department allowed telework-eligible employees to telework to the maximum extent possible in order to maintain operations as close to normal as possible, while ensuring our employees' safety. Prior to and during the pandemic, telework eligibility at the Department requires that an employee's duties be suitable, in whole or in part, for performance at a telework site and that individual employees meet the additional criteria required by the Telework Enhancement Act, departmental policy, and our applicable collective bargaining agreements. Further, individual employee participation in telework is subject to supervisory approval, based on factors such as the business needs of the office, the cost of an arrangement, and the availability of technology and equipment required to support the duties of the position. DOL's recent implementation of enterprise-wide shared services for human resources and information technology supported and facilitated the Department's ability to quickly adapt to a posture of more remote work in response to the pandemic. More centralized HR allowed DOL to decisively expand the use of telework during the declared pandemic and implement any necessary HR policy changes to support those shifts in work arrangements. Similarly, DOL's implementation of a more centralized IT service delivery model allowed the Department to make the necessary policy changes and resource investments to ensure that DOL was able to adequately support the shift to more remote work. Telework participation at DOL requires completion of interactive telework training, available through the Department's internal learning development system. Additionally, the Department provides employees with supplemental telework resources, available on our intranet, as part of a helpful repository of coronavirus guidance and resources. The department is presently continuing to use telework to ensure its continuity of essential functions and to perform the bulk of its day-to-day operations. DOL is very proud of its work to implement a robust telework policy in response to the pandemic. We believe our efforts have helped the Federal workforce to achieve and maintain productivity and to serve the Department's mission and the American public. Thank you again for the opportunity to address the Subcommittee about the Department's work, and I look forward to answering your questions. Senator Lankford. Thank you. Mr. Borland. TESTIMONY OF JIM BORLAND,\1\ ASSISTANT DEPUTY COMMISSIONER FOR SYSTEMS AND DEPUTY CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER FOR IT OPERATIONS, SOCIAL SECURITY ADMINISTRATION Mr. Borland. Thank you. Good afternoon. Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to discuss telework at the Social Security Administration. I am Jim Borland, the Assistant Deputy Commissioner for Systems and the Deputy Chief Information Officer for IT Operations. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- \1\ The prepared statement of Mr. Borland appears in the Appendix on page 61. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Social Security first began to offer remote work options around 20 years ago, when technology was much different and the solutions we had today were not widely available. Our online services were limited and our work was heavily paper-based. Since then, we have made significant progress in modernizing our workloads and IT infrastructure. We have implemented technology solutions that allowed us to be more agile, by replacing desktop computers with laptops, and building a virtual private network to improve our business continuity. We have also expanded our online presence to make it easier for our customers to do business with us without having to come into our offices. For our employees, we implemented electronic solutions that facilitate virtual and telework service environments. For example, technology allows employees to answer their office phones through their laptops. These decisions were practical, budget conscious, and made business sense from a customer service standpoint. When the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic hit earlier this year, those decisions supported our ability to keep service going remotely. While we closed our offices to the public, we never stopped providing service, with over 90 percent of our employees able to telework. This maximal telework not only protects our employees but also the public we serve, many of whom, by definition of the work we do, meet the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC's) high-risk categories. Still, we know we can do better. Our goal is to serve the public at least as well as we serve them in person, and right now that is not possible because not all of our work is portable. For example, we need employees onsite to handle certain sensitive workloads that require face-to-face interviews, and to open mail and scan mailed documents into our systems so that teleworking technicians can process them. We have been able to find workarounds for some of our in- person services which has allowed us to address some of the challenges of serving the public remotely. We have also been flexible with policy. For example, in some cases, we are allowing telephone attestation as an alternative way to sign documents. At SSA, telework is not one size fits all. Some work does not inherently lend itself to telework. In non-emergency times, different jobs may warrant different amounts of telework, or in some cases no telework at all. We also have confirmed that a successful continuity of operations plan requires a robust telework program built on modernized IT infrastructure, and we have been reminded that we have more work to do to establish a fully robust telework program based on accountability and objective measures. This makes sense for the public we serve and our employees. The pandemic has delivered a real-time pressure test of our capability and it is helping us focus on where we can improve. I would like to thank the public, our employees, and you for being patient and supportive of us in this national emergency. I look forward to answering any questions you may have. Thank you. Senator Lankford. Jim, thank you very much. Senator Sinema and I have a habit in our hearings that we hold our questions to the end and we defer to the other Members to be able to add questions in. This will be an interesting dynamic just for the four witnesses to be able to participate in this. You will, at times, some Senators that will call you by name or title and will ask you a specific question, and they will sometimes be open to anyone who wants to answer it. I would encourage those who are joining us remotely to just unmute and just jump in if you want to be able to answer a question and feel like you are in the room with us as well, to be able to participate. With that I would recognize Senator Carper for his questions. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CARPER Senator Carper. Can you recognize me with my mask on? Senator Lankford. I can. Senator Carper. Good. Here we go. Everybody, thanks so much for joining us today. I wanted to start off with a question of Mr. Borland, and this is actually a question, Mr. Borland, that was suggested to us by a member of our constituent services team back in Delaware. It goes something like this. As you know, the Social Security Administration requires physical inspection of original personal identification documents, such as birth certificates, in order to process certain kinds of requests to come in. Due to the pandemic, the Social Security Administration is currently asking people to send these original documents by mail, so they can undergo physical inspection. I have heard from a number of our constituents in Delaware that are concerned about mailing their original documents, specifically about the security of those documents and the timeliness for which they are returned. Mr. Borland, here is my question. Can you share with us how the Social Security Administration is working to address concerns of this nature? Thank you. Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator Carper. Let me first say that we recognize that the pandemic has produced service challenges for us. You are correct. One of the requirements of our regulations is that for a new social security card or a social security card that reflects changes--name, for instance--we do require original documentation and the inspection of original documentation. We take protecting the integrity of the social security card and number very seriously. We do have, in some cases, limited ability to set appointments for individuals. Those opportunities are limited. We are forced, on a public health direction, to limit the number of employees that we have in our offices and to limit the numbers of the public that we provide in-person service to. Appointments are available for what we call the priority cases, and we are fulfilling that requirement. As I mentioned in my testimony, we do not have a workaround for all of our in-person services, and unfortunately the social security card is one of those. I also want to say that most Americans who need a replacement card can use our My Social Security service. They can go online at socialsecurity.gov, set up a My Social Security account, and request a no-change replacement card fully online. Senator Carper. Thank you, Jim. Mr. Washington, how many years have you worked at DOT? Mr. Washington. Senator, I have worked at the Department of Transportation for 29 years. Senator Carper. OK. Have you testified before at hearings where I was privileged to be in attendance? Mr. Washington. Sir, this is my first opportunity to testify. Senator Carper. How is it going? Mr. Washington. So far, so good. Senator Carper. When I was Governor, I used to love testifying before House and Senate hearings. I hope you enjoy this one as much as I did when I was sitting in your seat. I was encouraged to learn that the Department of Transportation has successfully moved its in-person onboarding program to a fully virtual format and that the flexibility of virtual onboarding allows more senior leaders to participate in the program. As you know, in the next couple of months we will have a new administration with thousands of new employees serving in the Federal Government. Could you take just a moment to explain how the Department of Transportation ensures that new employees have the resources and support they need to be successful during this time? The second half of my question is, do you have any recommendations for other agencies across the government with regard to newly onboarded employees? It is a two-part question, please. Thank you. Mr. Washington. Thank you, Senator, for that question. So at the onset of the pandemic, we reached out right away, our Human Capital Office, to our stakeholders and information technology, and we came up with a virtual onboarding experience. And as you stated, that really has allowed very senior levels of the Department to participate. In fact, we have successfully onboarded over 500 new Department of Transportation employees across the country, and they have been able to hear from the chief of staff. He actually personally participates in that virtual onboarding experience every other Monday. So that has worked very well. Another thing that we have done, recognizing the need that many of our employees are working in a remote environment, we have assigned a sponsor for all of our new employees so that they could really feel part of the team and that they can get best practices from, long-serving employees. So I think the collaboration between, human capital, our stakeholders, and the information technology organization has been really integral to rolling out that successful onboarding process so our employees across the country are getting that experience. So that would be my recommendation for other Federal agencies, that collaboration and partnership with the various elements of the organization. Senator Carper. I agree. Thank you. One last question if I can to Ms. Rose, Mr. Washington, and Mr. Borland, that deals with agency coordination with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) over at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Over the years, a number of my colleagues and I worked to give the Department of Homeland Security the resources necessary to carry out its cyber mission [inaudible]. One agency that I am most proud of with their mission, capabilities, and leadership is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency at the Department of Homeland Security. I often say if you want to go fast, go alone, and if you want to go far, go together. As I went through each of your testimonies I did not see much at all on interagency coordination with CISA, which I would presume would be incredibly valuable as they provide the cybersecurity tools, incident response services, and assessment capabilities to safeguard the [inaudible] networks. And I ask each of you, starting with Ms. Rose, to describe your relationship with CISA, and tell us if more needs to be done to improve interagency partnership in the cybersecurity space. Let's just start with Ms. Rose, and then Mr. Borland and Mr. Washington. Thank you. And if we run out of time, I always do. Just be brief. Ms. Rose. Oh, I am sorry, Senator. You wanted to start with me? Senator Carper. Ms. Rose. Ms. Rose. Yes. Information technology is not in my portfolio. However, I do work very closely with our chief information officer to make sure that as we onboard new employees and as we equip employees to move into a telework environment we are meeting all Federal cybersecurity requirements. Senator Carper. All right. Let us turn to Mr. Washington. Same question. Please describe your relationship with CISA. Is there more that needs to be done to improve interagency partnership in the cybersecurity space? Mr. Washington. Thank you, Senator, for that question. At the Department of Transportation we take cybersecurity very seriously, and we believe a lot of the investments and the coordination and centralization of a lot of our commodity IT, sort of centralizing and getting rid of duplicative systems, has really put us in a better posture, from a cyber perspective. We have promoted annual security awareness training, and we give weekly messages, just reminders of employees how to operate from a cybersecurity perspective in a remote environment. We also have issued laptops, DOT-issued laptops, to all of our remote employees, and they have security-monitoring software on them that alerts the user and DOT cyber officials if a threat is detected. We really have not noticed an increase in attacks during the pandemic. Senator Carper. All right. Thank you. I think my time has expired. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for letting me go over time. Thank you. Mr. Borland, to be continued. Thank you. Senator Lankford. Thank you, Senator Carper. I am going to go next to Senator Sinema for questions. Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. First I just want to thank our panelists again for their presentations today. I did note, Mr. Washington and Ms. Rose, in your testimony you highlighted a number of successes that your agencies have had in expanding telework during the pandemic, which I very much appreciated hearing about. I do find it slightly strange, though, that your agencies then insisted on you appearing before the Committee in person, which I am not sure is quite the message we want to send during this time of rising COVID cases. So just a thought for you to have as we move forward. My first question is for Mr. Borland. Before the pandemic, your agency reported it was moving away from telework because it could not evaluate the impact of telework on public services and did not have the metrics in place to ensure accountability. Today your agency is working to put these controls and metrics in place, and there are media reports that SSA employees are successfully decreasing the backlog of claims while in this maximum telework situation. So could you tell me, what has SSA learned about telework in recent months to cause it to change directions dramatically, and how do these learnings inform your decisions moving forward? Mr. Borland. Thank you for that question, Senator Sinema. So as I mentioned in my testimony, at SSA telework is not one size fits all. We obviously have a core public service function, but that manifests itself in many different kinds of work. Prior to the pandemic, we did re-evaluate our telework program to focus on accountability and to ensure that we could address our public service challenges. I think that we all recognize that the Social Security Administration is serving the 10,000 Baby Boomers that retire every day. So that is claims for Medicare, claims for retirement benefits. And public service has always been so very fundamental to our mission. So in the re-evaluation of our telework program, because we did not have historically adequate metrics, and as my colleague from GAO said, an adequate program evaluation, each subcomponent of the agency determined telework eligibility based on public service needs, the availability of portable work, and the ability to ensure accountability. Senator Sinema. Thank you. I have a follow-up question for you as well. One of the challenges of this pandemic has been recognizing that some jobs cannot be done fully or even partially through telework. Early in the pandemic, my Arizona casework team was fielding calls from constituents who were having a hard time getting social security cards replaced at their local field offices. Access to online-only services can be particularly difficult in rural areas or areas where access to a computer is limited. So how are you collecting and considering feedback from beneficiaries as you review the shift to maximum telework and assess these practices moving forward? Mr. Borland. Thank you. It is a perfect question to pose to me because I am a technology guy, and we are looking at new ways to use technology. I mentioned our nonportable work. Our nonportable work is not portable because there is not technology, or we have not laid in technology to support that. It is really one of the lessons learned from trying to serve the American public remotely. Specifically with regard to social security cards, we are looking at the use of technology, at video technology, and the ability to rather than inspect physically, for example, driver's license, to confirm a driver's license features through a data exchange, real time, so that we could use a combination of data exchange and video technology to handle social security card workloads. The technology is there, but until the pandemic, we were not looking at it. We are looking at it now very seriously. Senator Sinema. Thank you. I appreciate that. My next question is for Mrs. Rose. Mine Safety and Health Administration inspectors have to be onsite to perform inspections, but some portion of their jobs can be done remotely. Employees have shared with our Committee that they are not being granted permission for partial telework, and even more concerning, some employees are not asking their supervisors for telework over fears of retaliation. So how is DOL working to overcome longstanding prejudice against telework so that all employees who are eligible and able to perform telework can do so for at least a portion of their job, and what mechanisms is DOL using to allow employees to request telework and then report concerns about denial of telework without fear of retaliation? Ms. Rose. Senator Sinema, thank you so much for that question. I am very happy to report that 99 percent of DOL employees at this time are eligible for telework, and up to 98 percent of our employees are teleworking almost every day. And that does include our mine safety inspectors and our other employees who work in the field, performing enforcement and inspection duties. We have encouraged our mine safety inspectors and our other field employees to telework to the maximum extent feasible. There are portions of their job that easily translate to a remote telework site or to a home site, and other portions of their job do require them to continue to remain in the field. We make sure that they have personal protective equipment (PPE) and they are properly equipped and trained when they have to go into public areas to perform inspection and enforcement duties, but we are also working very hard to make sure that those portions of their job that do not require them to be onsite are being done remotely, safely, and with social distancing. We meet on a regular, recurring basis with their union representatives to discuss their concerns and issues. Our Assistant Secretary for Administration and Management is meeting on a weekly basis with leadership and representatives of our three bargaining units to address the kinds of concerns that you are sharing today and to make sure that we have solutions and we work collaboratively with the union to craft those solutions. Senator Sinema. I appreciate that, and we may follow up with some of the concerns we have heard from employees as well. Ms. Rose. Thank you. Senator Sinema. My time is soon to expire but I have one last question for Mr. Washington. In May, Transportation's chief information officer was quoted in a Federal Times article that noted your agency as, ``absolutely seeing an increase in productivity,'' across the workforce. So how are you measuring these increases in productivity and to what do you attribute those increases to? Mr. Washington. So thank you so much for that question, Senator. We do believe that productivity has increased at the Department of Transportation under the remote environment, and we are very proud that the Department of Transportation employees have risen to the occasion. One example, we wanted really metrics for assessing productivity, so we did do a survey--to survey our managers, and we are proud to report that 55 percent of them felt that their work unit was even more effective during the COVID-19 pandemic. So that is one metric that we used, the survey. But also I know when Congress approved the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), they were able to obligate all of the funding to the stakeholders, over $24 billion, ahead of the statutory deadline. So there are numerous examples of the productivity enhancements as a result of the remote environment at the Department of Transportation. So we are continuing to assess that. Senator Sinema. Thank you so much, Mr. Washington. Mr. Chairman, I have slightly exceeded my time. I apologize and I yield back. Senator Lankford. That is not a problem. If you want to do a second round as well, Senator Sinema? Senator Sinema. Yes, I will. Thank you. Senator Lankford. OK. Great. We will make sure that we reserve that as well. I know that we have--Senator Rosen is joining us in just a moment. Let me ask a few questions until Senator Rosen is able to be able to join us remotely as well. Ms. Rosenberg, you have been left out in this conversation. I do not want you to feel left out on it, but I do want to be able to zero in on some of the things that GAO has established. Obviously, GAO has looked at this issue of telework for a long time. You have submitted to us some of the things that you have done in the study, but there is one statement that stuck out to me on it. In the statement from GAO, you said this about performance management: ``Agencies should also establish guidelines to minimize adverse impacts that telework can have on non-teleworkers.'' So provide some clarity for us on agencies should establish guidelines to minimize adverse impacts that telework can have on non-teleworkers. What did you mean by that? Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator. We do not want to create disagreements between those who can telework and those who cannot, for example, by forcing those who are in the office to take up responsibilities of those that are teleworking, whether that means physically moving documents or doing work that cannot be done remotely. And so you want to make sure that if there are times that someone who is not teleworking needs to stand in for someone who is, that there is equity in that, so that responsibilities are shared across both those who telework and those who do not. Senator Lankford. So let me provide a little color to this in how I ask you this question. Several years ago, I was visiting one of our agencies, and I will leave the agency out as I do this. But I was visiting one of our agencies, and it happened to be on a Friday, just walking around through the cubicle farm in that particular entity and just talking to different employees there--How is it going? How is the morale? Anything I need to be able to learn and to be able to help with? In the dialog I heard repetitively, ``It is Friday, so half of our people are not here. They are quote/unquote teleworking today but I know they are just not working today,'' and they were angry. Just about every cubicle I went to, ``I am working hard. They took the day off but they say they are quote/unquote teleworking.'' When I read that statement from you from GAO I thought I personally heard that, where individuals felt like they were carrying the burden. Now in the last several months just about everybody across the Federal workforce has been teleworking. There has not been an option here, back and forth. But in the days ahead we all look forward to the time we have a vaccine and we do have that option again. What would you recommend here? Because what I was picking up from people that were not teleworking was a sense that the people that were teleworking were not being held to account, that the same metrics were not being used for them for productivity as it was for those who were actually in the office, for productivity. Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you for that. One of the key practices that we emphasize is that the performance appraisal system and performance management needs to treat teleworkers and non- teleworkers the same. They need to be rated on the same competencies and judged accordingly. I think one of the issues is that telework requires a different way of managing staff. As opposed to managing by observation, you need to manage by results. We would also suggest that someone that you have a performance issue with, you are likely to have that performance issue with them regardless of whether they are teleworking or in the office. And finally, if there are concerns that someone that you cannot observe is not working, I would argue that that is not a telework issue but that is a trust issue. And again, that goes back to holding staff accountable for the results and the timeframe and the work product that they are supposed to produce, regardless of where they are working. Senator Lankford. OK. Thank you. Ms. Rose, I am going to ask you a similar question on that. At the Department of Labor, are your managers able to hold teleworkers to account, to be able to check in on them, evaluate, to be able to have metrics performances? This is not new to the Department of Labor. You have done telework for a very long time and you have a lot of workers that telework some days are in-office some days. What authorities does your management have, or I should say the opposite, what boundaries do they have in their management capabilities in the office versus in telework situations? Ms. Rose. Thank you, Senator Lankford. We have worked very hard with our managers and supervisors to make sure they feel equipped and supported to manage in a virtual environment. As you have acknowledged, it is different to supervise someone remotely than it is someone that you can see physically throughout the work day and check in on periodically. We have been able to leverage technology to replicate as much of a real-life experience as possible, just as we are doing today with a partially virtual hearing. We find that works very well. Our performance management system for years at DOL has been metrics based, and we really work hard to make sure that all employees' performance plans are linked to departmental and agency operating plans and contain quantifiable measures. I am delighted to report that we just completed our 2020 performance year and have noticed no appreciable decrease in productivity or achievement against those operating plan metrics, the whole time we have been teleworking. It also is interesting to note--and I think this goes back a little bit to perception versus reality--not a day goes by that I do not have managers and supervisors tell me how amazed and delighted they are at how well 99 percent telework is working. I always ask, ``What did you expect?'' and they stop and say, ``Well gee, I don't know, but I am just really surprised and happy that it is going so well.'' So the training, the support, and the performance elements that we are holding employees to seem to be working. Senator Lankford. OK. Mr. Borland, I want to bring you into this conversation with Ms. Rose as well. Both of you deal with a lot of private information, more so than many other entities do. Obviously, every agency does some, but you deal with a lot, for both of your entities, not only from your employees dealing with that on a laptop that is now in a home environment rather than in a more controlled office environment. There are personal identifiable information (PII) issues that are there. But there is also, as we have mentioned already, which Senator Carper and Senator Sinema brought up, there are individuals trying to get access to you. I will tell you, Mr. Borland, I had the same calls in to my constituent services and caseworkers. Those calls have come in saying, ``I am trying to get a social security card replaced and I cannot get anyone there.'' We have an extra hurdle in Oklahoma that we are still trying to be able to get all of our Real ID stuff all worked out, and it has made it much more complicated, and physically putting documents in the mail and mailing them to you has been a challenge. For Department of Labor, I have had individuals that have contacted me that said, ``We love the flexibility that we have, because we have employees that we have hired remotely and we are not having to physically handle their documents this year. We are given authority to be able to virtually look at their license, virtually look at their birth certificate for an I-9.'' And their statement is, ``How do we keep that?'' So there are really two sides of this--the dialogue both for the customer, for our taxpayers, to say how can they continue to get that kind of flexibility, and for the agency, how can they continue to be able to maintain private information as private and secure? So, Mr. Borland, you are the IT genius in this conversation and so I am going to let you take off on this first. Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. Certainly we do hold as custodians some very private information of the American public and very valuable information. While telework is not new for us, technology does give us opportunities to ensure the continued protection of that information. First, I think we were one of the first agencies to implement a two-factor authentication for our employees and our contractors. So we have logical and physical access through our personal identity verification cards. Our network monitoring is similar to, but not the same as, pre-pandemic. And when I say that, when you take a workforce that is connected to the wall and immediately swing it to connect it to the Internet, there are some specific challenges there. We were able to pivot and change the way we do things like scanning for vulnerabilities and remediating them. We also look at, from a program integrity standpoint, we have a longstanding process for monitoring transactions that take place within our systems to make sure that no one, employees or the public, are misusing the access to the systems that they have. Our employees, again, our information security policy is very clear. We do not allow bring your own device. Employees are not allowed to print at home. We have done extensive telework training and cybersecurity training for our remote workforce, and we think that has probably improved our security posture, although we do certainly have some unique challenges in being remote. Senator Lankford. Any thoughts that you have for the end user, for the taxpayer themselves, and their use of digital items to be able to submit. Are there statutory limitations of that or is it just technology limitations? Mr. Borland. There are some limitations, some regulatory, but technology can overcome some of those challenges. As I mentioned in my response to Senator Sinema's question, we are looking at how we can use data exchanges to verify identity documents so that they do not have to be physically produced. Senator Lankford. Ms. Rose, do you want to make a comment on this, as far as protecting private information, and then also giving the flexibility to individuals to be able to submit their information? Ms. Rose. Yes. Thank you, Senator Lankford. We have implemented many of these same security protocols that the Social Security Administration has in place. We are using personal information verification (PIV) for multi-factor authentication. We do not permit sensitive data to be accessed on anything but government-provided DOL computers, and people must use RSA tokens to log into our network. So we feel that we have an environment, and we work closely with our colleagues in the Information Technology Office to make sure that environment stays safe and secure. We have onboarded over 1,000 people now virtually since the pandemic started, and we have gotten extremely positive feedback from all of the users, the people who are being onboarded, the supervisors and managers who are welcoming new employees in. A lot of people have commented on the facility and ease of the application and onboarding process, because we have converted all of those paper-based forms and processes to the computer. And we have done away with wet signature everywhere we can. We are using digital signatures now. We provide the oath of office virtually. We will probably continue that process, with lessons learned, beyond the pandemic. It has been so successful and it has made face-to-face contact with people who are remotely duty-stationed much more effective and vibrant. Senator Lankford. OK. We are going to come back to that as well. I want to recognize Senator Sinema for a second round of questions. Senator Sinema. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Ms. Rosenberg, one thing I have noticed regarding Federal telework policies is that they vary based across agencies, and even sometimes within offices inside agencies. So it makes it pretty confusing for Federal employees and challenging for Congress to track. Are there recommendations that you would make to Congress to better standardize agency policies and the tracking of those policies as we look at telework in a post-pandemic world? Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator. That is a very good question. So one of our key practices is that eligibility be based on--approved on--an equitable basis, and that the criteria be things such as the suitability of tasks to the remote environment and employee performance. So I think the key is to ensure that agencies have concrete eligibility criteria that are based on those types of things and that are applied consistently across the agency. I would say that it would make sense that there would be some variation among agencies since their missions differ and the type of work differs, and, of course, some positions are less suitable for remote or telework than others. Senator Sinema. Thank you. Ms. Rose, given the broad success of telework during the pandemic, how are you approaching plans to move employees back onsite once this public health emergency is over, and what data are you examining to ensure that onsite work is safe and essential? Ms. Rose. We have worked very hard and long, Senator Sinema, on our reconstitution plans, our reopening plans, as it were. We will take a phased approach. We will follow State and local guidelines in doing that and follow the government- prescribed gating criteria to bring people back. We have already put safety procedures and protocols in place in all of our government office space, things that include the wearing of masks in public and common spaces. We have put in Plexiglas barriers and shields so that people who face the public in the office are protected, and the public is protected. We have set up seating schematics so that people in cubicle farms are not working on top of each other or directly next to each other. So we will continue to leverage telework with an onsite presence in order to maximize social distancing in what traditionally have been fairly close working spaces, with cubicles, and the movement away from traditional four-wall offices. So we have gotten a lot of information about safety and security out to our workforce already. Everything is posted on our Intranet. We will continue to work with our labor unions and our employees as we move back into a more traditional work posture, to make sure people feel safe, secure, and protected, and, in fact, are safe, secure, and protected. Senator Sinema. Thank you. Another question for you. Your agency is unique in that not only were you transitioning your own employees to maximum telework but you were also releasing guidance to the nation's broader labor force about telework policies and best practices. I realize that private sector guidance is not your area of expertise, but I would like to follow up with your agency on this topic. Ms. Rose. Yes. Guidance on telework external to the Federal Government has been provided, it is my understanding, by our Wage and Hour Division, and we would be happy to get you that information. Senator Sinema. I appreciate that. Now focusing on the Department of Labor's workforce, can you share any instances where work you initially thought had to be done in an office space ended up being compatible with telework? Are any of these instances relative to changing Labor's view of determining telework eligibility? Ms. Rose. We had a higher percentage of the people whose jobs were not considered telework eligible under the Telework Enhancement Act prior to the pandemic, and our managers and supervisors have worked to see how those positions can be reformatted, how duties and responsibilities can be reallocated, and how technology can be leveraged, for example, using data on forms that used to be paper that have now been converted to digital so that we could send more of our employees home to work during the pandemic. We have very few jobs that require an in-office, onsite presence, jobs like receptionist, jobs like mail clerk, jobs like building engineer. And even with those positions we have tried to find duties and responsibilities that are discrete and unique and compatible to moving into a remote work environment, even if it is part-time. Senator Sinema. Thank you. Mr. Washington, in your testimony you noted that your agency was considering a new remote work policy before the pandemic. Looking ahead, I think as we all are, to a non- pandemic situation, what advantages will a robust remote work policy bring to your agency, and what barriers do you foresee in implementing such a policy? Mr. Washington. So thank you, Senator, for that question. We were considering, even prior to the pandemic, a remote policy, and we are continuing to assess that. But one of the rationales for it was to help us with the ability to recruit and retain talent. And what we found, particularly in the national capital area where we compete for HR specialists and acquisition specialists among each other--I see my colleague at Labor nodding her head--that has been a challenge. So we are hoping that if we can broaden the applicant pool nationwide that we can really recruit and retain employees at a better rate, so that it will really improve our attrition. So that is our rationale. We are continuing to assess that. We have learned a lot over the last few months. So we tried to make that business case before going forward with our remote policy. We are benchmarking with the private sector and our stakeholders and counterparts at other Federal agencies as well. Senator Sinema. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my round of questioning, and thank you for holding this hearing again. I have learned so much. Senator Lankford. Thank you. Thanks for your participation in the hearing as well and your engagement on this. Mr. Washington, I want to continue to press this, and actually I want to talk to all four of you on this one issue, and it is about hiring. It is a shift in perspective, because many of the telework individuals are really people that are connected to the office and they telework 1 day a week, 2 days a week, 3 days a week, but they are in the office, or maybe they are in the office once a month or whatever it may be. But there is a physical connection here. There is a paradigm shift in the conversation to say we have now learned that we cannot only telework 5 days a week but we can do that month after month after month, and it begs the basic question, why couldn't you hire someone in Oklahoma to be able to do a task for an agency that is based in Washington, DC.? What is the difference between Washington, DC, Northern Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona for actually bringing people on board? And the practical answer is there is not one. It also brings up a significant job opportunity to, let's say, spouses of our military, which often are working in very remote areas. By definition a base or post is very far from another area and there are very few jobs available. But they could work at Department of Transportation in a telework situation even if they are in beautiful, fabulous Altus, Oklahoma, where there are not as many jobs available in that area, because it is a remote training area. So that is whether you are Border Patrol and you are assigned to the Northern Border in North Dakota, in a remote area, and you are a spouse and you do not have any options, or whether you are a military spouse or whatever it may be. This opens up a lot of options for those spouses, to be able to help those other Federal families, not to mention a lot of other people that want to work in other areas. So I want to drill down, and be as specific as you can. What would prohibit you, either in the regulatory space or the statutory requirements, or just in practical engagement, from not hiring people that you literally never plan to meet, or if you do plan to meet it may be an annual meeting at some point in the future. But you are talking about onboarding, supervising, working at a distance, with no intention that they will drive in once a week, to be able to ever connect with the office on that. What would prohibit that? So Mr. Washington, you are first. Mr. Washington. Thank you so much for your comments, and that is so interesting that you mention military spouses because I just had that conversation with a colleagues a couple of weeks ago. Because, with a lot of military spouses you bring the person on board, you train them, they are an excellent employee, and then the veteran is deployed somewhere, and you do not want to lose your investment. So we have been flexible, even pre-pandemic, at the Department of Transportation, with allowing employees to transition and work remotely. We are hoping, as a result of a lot of our lessons learned from the health emergency that managers would be more receptive. I think it is more of a culture change, and we are compiling a lot of the data, assessing metrics, to build that business case to have a more rigorous remote work policy. But I think a lot of it is culture change. Senator Lankford. So there is not anything regulatory or statutory right now that you could not do that today. Or let's say we are post pandemic, that you could not do that in just a decision you want to make? Mr. Washington. I am not aware of regulatory or statutory barriers. In fact, there could be cost savings. I mean, if the employee is working in Oklahoma or a rural area where the cost of living and the locality pay is cheaper, there could actually be cost savings associated with that. Senator Lankford. That is correct. I would think the exact same thing. I am grateful to say that Oklahoma has a much lower cost of living than Northern Virginia, so hiring people out of Northern Virginia rather than hiring people out of Oklahoma or so many other great States around the country, there is a cost savings there, and plus there is a ready workforce that may be interested in being able to take that on and another group of people you could recruit from. Ms. Rose, talk about this on the hiring side of this. Why wouldn't that work and what are the barriers that you see? Ms. Rose. It absolutely would work, and it does work. We had already started making that shift at the Labor Department just as the Transportation Department has. It was a paradigm shift for some of our managers and supervisors who now had their eureka moment, like, this is working really well and now, suddenly, I have an applicant pool that is the entire United States, not just the Washington, DC. metro area. We are routinely announcing jobs at this time for all locations, no longer just a Washington, DC. duty station or a Chicago, Illinois duty station, but considering everyone in the country. In the Office of Human Resources itself, about a third of my staff is 100 percent remote telework, and that will continue permanently beyond the pandemic, because of where they are located and where they are working. I just had an employee in my office whose husband was posted to Germany, and she was going to accompany him to Frankfurt, obviously. She is still working for us, I am happy to report, and will continue to work for me full-time for his entire 3-year assignment in Germany. It is the best, and we have found that employees outside the Washington, DC. area stay longer. They are happy to stay working with the agency that recruited them and hired them. Employment in the government in Washington tends to be a revolving door, and we just steal people from each other, and it goes around and around and around. I am delighted that we can now access a much bigger applicant pool of very qualified people. Senator Lankford. OK. Thank you. Mr. Borland? Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. I think looking across government we know that the Patent and Trademark Office has been doing this for years, and so I do not believe there are any regulatory or statutory barriers to permanently out- stationing or having kind of work-from-anywhere situation. I think that we have learned, at Social Security, that whether it be provisioning security credentials, laptops or cellphones, providing training, that work can be done remotely. The workforce can be remote. We have been addressing challenges, public service challenges on our 800 number, and we have new 800 number agents that received all of their equipment, their security credentials, their onboarding, their orientation, and their training remotely, and they are working from home. Senator Lankford. Ms. Rosenberg, let me refine this question, not only just for your agency as well, but Washington, DC. is one of the most expensive real estate areas in the country. Is there a potential that this could be a cost- savings issue that agencies could, if they worked through the process, determine I do not need as big of a footprint here in Washington, DC. to be able to hire on people, knowing I am going to assume I am going to add 25 percent or 20 percent or 40 percent, whatever the number is, agency to agency, that could be hired anywhere in the world, at this point from any American citizens? Is that something that you would see that would be a change and shift here in D.C. as well, in how we actually manage things? I know that is much a General Services Administration (GSA) question, but I have GAO in front of me rather than GSA right now, so I am asking you first. Ms. Rosenberg. I think there is certainly the potential for cost savings, I think in two ways. One is that individual salaries are based on their official duty station, and if their official duty station is their home or a telework location that is in a less-expensive area, then salaries could be reduced. And it also could mean savings for agencies in terms of space. I know when GAO moved to expanded telework it enabled us to reduce our footprints, both in our regional offices and reduced the amount of leased space, as well as in our headquarters building. It enabled us to rent out parts of our headquarters building to other agencies since we had less people who needed physical space in the building. Senator Lankford. Senator Rosen, I see that you are there now as well. I would love for you to be able to join in the conversation, and let me open this up to you for questions. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR ROSEN Senator Rosen. Thank you, Senator Lankford. I am really happy that you have held the second hearing on telework because really our Federal workforce, particularly how they are coping with the stresses of the pandemic, but they still have to deliver the services that everyone needs, and deliver them out to the American people in the way that is best. So I am really glad we are coming together in a bipartisan way to figure out how we do this. I want to talk a little bit about cybersecurity, because with millions of Federal and private sector workers navigating the transition from an office environment to their home, obviously because of COVID-19, maintaining cybersecurity while teleworking, it is imperative for our national security, really. Small organizations, in particular, face challenges like resource constraints and protecting themselves from increasingly sophisticated cyber threats like ransomware. We know how destructive that can be and how frightening that is for companies when that happens, or agencies. So to address this vulnerability, just this very afternoon I introduced bipartisan legislation, along with Senator Moran, that requires CISA, in coordination with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), to publish a network of telework-related cybersecurity best practices for small organizations, including small businesses, nonprofits, and small governmental jurisdictions. Those could be our school districts, and we have had issues with ransomware attacks on school districts, of course, in my State, and I know across the country. However, even large Federal agencies are facing unprecedented cybersecurity challenges now that, like you say, the majority of your workforces are working virtually. Ms. Rosenberg, can you tell us what you assess to be the most significant and most prevalent challenges Federal agencies may be facing when they are implementing telework-related cybersecurity practices? And you know that National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and CISA, we have put out guidelines and done a lot of work on that. How can we assure that those best practices are reaching particularly our Federal workforce? Ms. Rosenberg. Thank you, Senator Rosen. What I could say to you is that we have ongoing work. Our information technology and cybersecurity team has initiated work that is looking at what selective Federal agencies experiences have been in implement IT telework solutions in response to the pandemic, and to what extent the selected agencies addressed Federal information security guidance when implementing those solutions. That work is still in its initial phases, but the team expects to issue something this summer. Senator Rosen. Thank you. Anyone else want to talk about the cybersecurity practices and the challenges you have had, or how we can help best respond and overcome those cybersecurity challenges, as you are protecting, obviously, personal information, particularly our Social Security Administration. Mr. Borland. Senator Rosen, if I may, I am Jim Borland from the Social Security Administration. Thank you for that question. I want to emphasize, and getting back to something that Senator Carper said earlier, that our agency has a very close and productive working relationship with CISA. Obviously, cybersecurity is of critical importance to the American public when it comes to protecting their personal information, and Social Security has one of the largest repositories of that information in government. We have found the concept of having CISA to be so incredibly helpful, because they have the ability to do threat assessment and intelligence gathering, that even as a large Federal agency, would take many resources and would be duplicative. So when we get a binding operational directive from CISA, we know that it has been thoroughly researched, it is a real threat. They give us advice as to what to do, and our role is just to get it done. And so in that regard the advice, the direction that we get from CISA really has a major role to play in improving and sustaining strong cybersecurity posture. Senator Rosen. That is fantastic. I cannot see everyone there, if there is anyone else that wants to respond to that. Otherwise I do have one other question in my remaining time. Of course, as we know, the general public, they are depending on our Federal agencies for our vital services, our social security checks, like you say, our VA benefits, so many things that they are going to benefit all of us in the long run, and maintenance of our public lands even. So particularly at the time when reliable information about public health and safety is so important, we have to have the public trust our Federal agencies to offer fast services and accurate responses. So anyone who would like to address this, can you talk about how you have met the pandemic's challenges in terms of providing public services, customer service, especially that aspect of your agency's mission, as you are missing out on some of the face-to-face. What kind of adaptations did you have to make, and really, I know there are benefits but what are we missing or what can we help you do better, because some things do get lost in translation when you are maybe just on the phone. So maybe Mr. Borland, if you want to speak about that. Mr. Borland. Thank you, Senator. I would be happy to. So when the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization, we pretty quickly swung to maximum telework, but we also made the decision to close our offices. As I mentioned in my opening remarks, we serve a population that is particularly vulnerable to COVID-19; and because of the nature of the work that we are doing [audio difficulties-inaudible] across America. You need to protect not only employees but the public. We made the decision to close our offices, but we swung immediately to a public information campaign to make sure that local communities knew that while our physical buildings were closed that our employees were working, that they could be reached at the phone number for their local Social Security Office, and if you have a claims representative that you worked with at that office you can reach that claims representative. Our 800-number service had some different challenges, ones that we were able to overcome pretty quickly. We had a situation where we have a legacy telephone platform, and only 25 percent of our employees that work in our teleservice centers were equipped to telework. We quickly re-engineered a solution that would allow the 800-number employees to use the system that is used in our field offices, so we could quickly telework-enable all of our 800-number agents. I am happy to say we just ended our fiscal year (FY), and we met our average speed of answer goal for our 800 number. It is not as low as we want it to be and we are going to keep working hard to continue to provide better service to the public. Senator Rosen. Thank you. I know my time is just about up, but I know it is always--speaking from my own experience, whenever you try to do something with customer service it is nice to be able to get to a person. And then if you have to call back again, particularly with some things with social security perhaps, that the ability to have continuity with the same person is really important in resolving a case without having to revisit it and re-litigate it, and satisfaction for everyone. So I appreciate it and I yield back my time. Thank you, Senator Lankford. Senator Lankford. Senator Rosen, thank you. I do want to ask a couple more questions here. Ms. Rose, you talked before about onboarding and those lessons learned. Obviously, that is one of the challenges that we have all discussed. It is a very different dynamic onboarding someone you have never met, your manager is not interacting with on a daily basis, and the challenge that you have typically when you land in the middle, as you and I have both said, the cubicle farm, and you do not know how to fill out a certain form or to be able to do a certain process, you turn to the person next to you and they kind of help you through that. You do not have that at this point when you are working remotely. You do not know the people that you work around. You do not know who else to be able to call on the team that is also doing this same job, to be able to help you in the process. You do not even know your manager and your manager does not know you. So what lessons have you learned at this point, and I would be interested in any of the other of the three of you, if you have specific ideas on this issue about onboarding, mentoring, helping people in the earliest days to be able to be a productive, valued part of a team, what lessons you have learned in this. Because if we are going to start hiring people no matter where they live, then we are going to have to take what we learned during this time period and to be able to accelerate that in a broader perspective. So anyone can answer that question. If you have additional insight, jump in. But I would like Ms. Rose to go first. Ms. Rose. Thank you, Senator Lankford. That is such an important point and it is a vital lesson learned. We knew very early on that we would have to stay very engaged with our employees if we are not going to be physically co-located with them. We have provided training to managers and supervisors on how to manage and supervise in a virtual environment, and quite frankly, we have really leveraged information technology to every extent possible to try to replicate a real-time, face-to- face experience for our employees and for our supervisors. So we are using programs like Teams and Skype so that people can have conversations in person, digitally, and see one another, because that really makes a difference in getting to know someone. We have also tried to replicate some of our morale-boosting experiences in a virtual environment. We are going to launch our Secretary's Honor Award ceremony tomorrow, and it is going to be conducted completely virtually, but it will be streamed out so that all of our employees can participate and send congratulations to their colleagues, just as they would if we were having the ceremony in our auditorium. It takes a lot of effort and you have to rethink the way you do things, but technology has given us the ability to be almost as good as being there if we try and we use it. Senator Lankford. OK. So can I ask just a follow-up question on that as well? Ms. Rose. Sure. Senator Lankford. As you are gathering all this information and these ideas and you have new training modules and everything else, are the CHCOs sharing that with each other or is every agency kind of developing their own structure, their own idea, because everyone is ramping up through this time period? How much collaboration is there agency to agency to say, we have found this module to be really good for training new employees, we have found this to be really good for onboarding, we have found this metric to be really good for measuring performance and evaluating this in the remote setting. So I am just asking the question, is collaboration happening at this point, at what level? I am not expecting us to be perfect at this yet because we all trying to figure it out. But has that started, and if so, what does it look like? Ms. Rose. I am pleased to report it has started. We have weekly CHCO collaborative calls that all of the Executive Branch agencies participate in. We have not done as much sharing of lessons learned as I think we will coming out of this, because as you have acknowledged, we are still kind of in the thick of it. And we talk to each other on a case-by-case, individual basis. We know each other. It is a small community, and the collaboration vehicle is there for us to make more use of it as we gain more experience and have time to share lessons learned. Senator Lankford. OK. That would be very helpful. And if we can participate in that, we want to be able to help in that process. Senator Sinema and I are very engaged in this, along with the rest of our Committee. What I do not want to have is a contractor pull together a really good training module and sell it to you, and sell it to you, and sell it to you, and to you, and suddenly the taxpayer is not getting good bang for the buck because one contractor created something that is really good and now they are selling it all over the place to everyone, when we could actually buy that license once and use it governmentwide if we choose to on that. OK. Mr. Washington, do you have anything to add to this? Mr. Washington. The one additional thing I would add is that we have identified a sponsor for any new staff, I mean, even before they come on board, so they could have that as a resource that they could reach out to. And the sharing of best practices and the collaboration, that has really been integral to our success at the Department of Transportation. I mean, we have 54,000 employees all over the country, so when the pandemic hit we started weekly meetings with our HR directors, and they were able to raise challenges and talk about best practices. So that has been very integral to our success. Senator Lankford. OK. Mr. Borland, do you have anything you want to add? Mr. Borland. It is a technology solution that we found to be particularly helpful, but a pretty rudimentary one, and it is persistent chatrooms. In other words, giving folks kind of that water cooler place to check in during the day, to ask questions, to touch base. We have found it to be very effective in keeping those connections that we are all used to from our physical work space and perpetuating them. We also make widespread use of video teleconferencing, for meetings. I think many people have forgotten how to use their telephones because they are so used to just clicking on someone and calling them. So there is lots of great technology out there, but the important part of the use of the technology is the human aspect of it. It is that human connection. That is why we are moving toward video as well as audio, to make that human connection. We have all been isolated a long time, and it is frankly really good to see my colleagues from time to time. Senator Lankford. You know what? I cannot begin to tell you the number of times I have heard, in the last few months, when I ran into someone in person at some spot, that their first response is, ``It is so nice to see a person.'' And so I get that. Ms. Rosenberg, anything that you want to be able to add to this as well? Ms. Rosenberg. I would certainly echo the sentiments that my colleagues made, that maintaining that social connectedness and being creative in the way you do it is very important. I think the one thing I would add is that as part of this continuing communication is that employees' needs change over time, and so you need to adapt as the employees' needs are changing. I think we have certainly learned that as the pandemic has lasted longer than I think any of us had hoped, that we have had to adjust the types of resources we provide to staff and how we outreach to them as the situations that they are facing change. Senator Lankford. I appreciate that very much, and you are right. This has lasted much longer than any of us had thought or hoped. I distinctly remember conversations in early March saying by Easter, and then we would fill in the blank after that. We did not realize it was Easter 2021. But it is just the reality of where we are today. I have about 9 hours more of questions for each of you, but you will all be glad to know that a vote has been called and so I am not going to be able to do 9 hours more of questions with you. But I very much appreciate your insight. Let me ask one favor of all of you. As you work through this process you are going to bump into regulations and the statutory prohibitions of things that you think, this really needs to be done. This is the Committee that will work on those things. So when you run into the statutory problems and issues, or regulatory issues, would you please make sure you actually share them with us and not assume that Congress does not care to hear this. We do. We are just not doing the same thing you are doing all day, every day. We are not going to see it at the same level you are. So when you see those statutory barriers, or you see a regulatory issue that needs to be addressed, please make sure you share it back with our Committee. We are going to continue to be able to work on this, because this is a paradigm shift for how we work as the Federal Government. We are opening up a much larger pool of individuals that are eligible to be able to work with us, and with greater flexibility on some of the tasks that we have. We will always have in-person, and we should always be here in Washington, DC, with our agency heads and all of those things, to be able to interact for those face-to-face meetings that need to occur. But we have millions of people around the country that would love to be able to serve their country by serving in one of these agencies, and I would love for them to be able to have the opportunity to be able to do that as well, and to be able to compete, to end up on someone's list as the well-qualified candidate that happens to live in Altus, Oklahoma, and they get the opportunity to be able to compete for those tasks as well. I look forward to ongoing dialogue about these issues, and please make sure that you continue to be able to keep that communication going with our team, as we are pulling together different ideas. Senator Sinema and I have already started the conversation about legislation that may be needed or helpful in this process as well. But as you have ideas, and your legislative team has ideas, please make sure those actually get shared with us on a timely basis. That concludes today's hearing. I am very grateful, again, for the witnesses that are here and for the time that you have been able to share with us, all four of you. Thank you for that. The hearing record will remain open for 15 days until the close of business on Thursday, December 3rd, which it is hard to believe 15 days from now we are into December, but we are. That will be for the submission of statements and questions for the record. Thank you again very much for your continued service, as you have done for a very long time, and we look forward to getting the chance to be able to work together on this. This hearing is adjourned. [Whereupon, at 4:45 p.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] A P P E N D I X ---------- [GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT] [all]