Federal Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessing Outcomes and Lessons Learned , 2025
Federal Telework During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Assessing Outcomes and Lessons Learned , 2025
From the report: “The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in March 2020, initially triggered a period of massive telework, including among the federal workforce. The Trump Administration started recalling some federal workers back to their offices before the end of President Trump’s first term. Since then, the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided, and in April 2023, President Biden declared the emergency over. Yet, four years after President Trump left office, federal office buildings remain largely vacant due to prolonged pandemic-era telework enabled by the Biden-Harris Administration.
This report assesses the current extent of federal telework, how so many government employees ended up at home, the impact of their absence from the office, and the outgoing Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to ensure that federal employees continue to remain at home—even under a new Administration.
During the 118th Congress, the House Committee on Oversight & Accountability (Oversight Committee or Committee) investigated the extent of federal telework and remote work, the effects of telework on agency mission outcomes, and the degree to which telework use was actually monitored. The investigation revealed the Biden-Harris Administration maintained massive telework levels, long after the pandemic ended. This expanded telework posture continued largely unabated, despite a lack of mechanisms to effectively oversee telework or to determine the damage done to mission outcomes, or other collateral harm it could be inflicting.”
Authors - House Committee on Oversight and Government ReformRelated Resources
