A Brief Summary of the Telework Transparency Act of 2024 (S. 4043)

A Brief Summary of the Telework Transparency Act of 2024 (S. 4043)

INSIGHTi

A Brief Summary of the Telework
Transparency Act of 2024 (S. 4043)
May 20, 2024
On March 21, 2024, Senators Gary Peters and Joni Ernst introduced the Telework Transparency Act of
2024 (S. 4043). The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs discussed the
bill at a May 15, 2024, markup and continues to consider it. As discussed in this Insight, S. 4043 includes
provisions that could potentially increase standardization of executive branch telework, facilitate data
collection on the utilization of federal buildings and data standards for reporting telework information,
and make telework in the federal government more transparent.
Amendments to 5 U.S.C. Chapter 65
The Telework Enhancement Act of 2010, codified at Chapter 65 of Title 5 of the U.S. Code, generally
governs telework in executive agencies. Many of the provisions in S. 4043 would amend Chapter 65 to
provide more transparency of federal telework policies. For example, S. 4043 would direct each executive
agency head to submit a description of the agency’s telework policy to the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) director and publish the most recent version on the agency’s website within 180 days
after enactment and as updates are made thereafter.
S. 4043 would also require OPM’s telework website to include links to agency websites with telework
information. In addition, the bill would require OPM’s website to include telework guidance submitted by
the Department of State (in addition to that already required for the Federal Emergency Management
Agency, the General Services Administration [GSA], and OPM). The guidance would need to be
published on OPM’s website within 30 days after submission (instead of the current requirement of 10
days).
Chapter 65 currently requires OPM to provide an annual report to Congress on the status of telework in
the federal government that includes an assessment of the progress made by agencies in meeting telework
goals such as emergency readiness, energy use, recruitment and retention, performance, productivity, and
employee attitudes and opinions regarding telework. The report would additionally include assessments
of the impacts of telework on carbon emissions, the ability of the agency to dispose of or consolidate
unnecessary and underutilized space or property (including to reduce the monetary and environmental
costs of maintaining that space or property), and the agency’s customer experience and service (including
backlogs and wait times).
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As part of the assessment, S. 4043 would require OPM to explain whether each agency met its telework
goals and, if not, the actions being taken to identify and eliminate barriers to meeting them. The annual
report would also discuss additional steps that are planned by agencies to ensure telework oversight and
quality control and increase the utilization rates of office building space owned or leased by the agencies.
S. 4043 also requires the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), in consultation with GSA and the
Federal Real Property Council, to develop benchmarks and guidance for executive agencies to use when
calculating building utilization rates. S. 4043 would then require each executive agency head to establish
(1) a system to track office building space utilization rates consistent with that OMB guidance and (2)
indicators that measure the effects of telework policy on the management of real and personal property,
among other things.
S. 4043 would also require OPM to establish data standards to aid telework reporting requirements and
for automated telework tracking within payroll systems used by agencies. S. 4043 would require OPM, in
turn, to create an online tool that makes the standardized and reported data publicly available and would
allow OPM to use the online tool to fulfill its annual reporting requirements. For a more detailed
discussion of the bill’s provisions on telework data standards, including office building utilization data,
see CRS Insight IN12352, Establishing Data Standards and Measuring Building Use: Select Provisions
of the Telework Transparency Act of 2024 (S. 4043).
Several provisions of S. 4043 would provide new authorities, such as authorizing the OPM director to
prescribe regulations to carry out Chapter 65, which could increase standardization of telework
implementation across the executive branch. S. 4043 would also authorize an executive agency head to
direct an employee or group of employees to telework during an emergency incident—notwithstanding
any other provision of law—under procedures established by the OPM director. The term emergency
incident would be defined to mean an event that, as determined by the agency head, would pose a threat
to the life, health, or safety of an employee or group of employees if they were to report to the worksite.
Comptroller General Report
S. 4043 would also add new congressional briefing and reporting requirements for the Comptroller
General (CG). Within 180 days after enactment, the CG would be required to brief specified committees
on how executive departments determine official worksites for teleworking employees, especially for the
purpose of determining the employees’ locality payments. Not later than one year after this briefing, the
CG would submit a report to the committees on the matters discussed.
The report would be required to assess how executive departments ensure that employees regularly report
to their official worksites, including:
• the frequency with which executive departments use the authorities at Title 5, Section
531.605(d)(2), of the Code of Federal Regulations;
• the average duration that employees telework under an exception granted by that section;
and
• the oversight practices that executive departments use to review and verify teleworking
employees’ locality payments.
The CG would assess these practices once for each of the five fiscal years that begins after the fiscal year
in which the CG submits the report and submit a report to the committees if the CG determines that there
have been any changes to those practices since the last such assessment.
Thereafter, the CG would conduct an assessment no more than once each fiscal year and upon the request
of any Member of Congress.

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Author Information

Garrett Hatch
Barbara L. Schwemle
Specialist in American National Government
Analyst in American National Government

Natalie R. Ortiz

Analyst in Government Organization and Management

Disclaimer
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