Iowa’s Ashley Hinson wants to force feds into the office. Here’s why

Iowa Republican U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, of Marion, wants federal workers to start returning to government offices, citing a recent Government Accountability Office report revealing that 17 of the 24 federal agency headquarters are using just 25 percent of their building capacity.

Agencies that use more of their headquarters’ capacity were using, on average, 39 to 49 percent of the available space.

Hinson, on a Friday conference call with Iowa reporters, called it a massive waste of taxpayer dollars and resources. She said she supports legislation that would require the federal workforce to return to pre-pandemic levels of telework.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has been over for a long time, and Americans and Iowans have been back at work in-person to keep our economy and our country moving,” said Hinson, who serves on the House Appropriations Committee. “ … Taxpayers are keeping the lights on, but nobody is home. This, to me, is the epitome of government waste that Iowans sent me to D.C. to fight against.”

The federal government owns more than 500 million square feet of office space that costs billions annually, according to the GAO reports.

“As the country emerges from the pandemic, the federal government has a unique opportunity to reconsider how much and what type of office space it needs,” the report states.

Underutilized office space has financial and environmental costs, the GAO notes. Federal agencies spend about $5 billion annually to lease office buildings and another $2 billion a year to operate and maintain federal office buildings, including energy consumption costs, regardless of the buildings’ utilization.

Hinson said she hears constant complaints and frustrations from Iowans of “getting a dial tone” when they call federal agencies to solve a problem.

“Federal employees who are paid by hard working Iowa taxpayers shouldn’t still be at home, and federal agencies shouldn’t be wasting taxpayer money by operating at minimal capacity,” she said.

The House-passed SHOW UP Act, which Hinson supported, requires federal agencies to explain how pandemic-era telework levels impacted their missions and ability to serve Americans.

“I’m calling on the Senate to pass the SHOW UP Act, and I’m calling on President Biden to sign it,” Hinson said. “Additionally, if these federal agencies aren’t going to use this space to work for the American people, they need to give it up. And they need to use resources more efficiently.”

The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), though, estimates that telework provided a total cost savings of more than $90 million across the federal government.

The most commonly reported savings related to: transit/commuting costs (47 percent); reduced absences (16 percent); training (12 percent); utilities (11 percent); rent/office space (10 percent); and human capital (10 percent), according to the fiscal year 2021 report.

Federal employees have said telework improves their performance, increases their desire to stay at the agency, improves morale and engagement by supporting employees’ ability to manage their professional and personal responsibilities, and acts as an important recruitment tool for attracting qualified applicants near and far.

And initial data supports those impressions, according to the OPM report.

“The provision of workplace flexibilities allows employees to work in the environment best suited to their needs and correlates with higher levels of productivity,” the report states. “Research consistently identifies a significant and positive relationship between telework and job performance, both with supervisory performance ratings and objective performance criteria.”

Hinson on Friday reiterated a “disconnect” between telework and the numbers of casework complaints her office has with federal agencies. She said that includes delays in receiving tax help from the Internal Revenue Service, problems with the State Department issuing passports, and getting records from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to help veterans access VA benefits.

“This GAO report simply highlights what we already knew — taxpayers are not getting full value,” she said.

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