WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa)
joined Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and Mark Kelly
(D-Ariz.) to
demand answers from President Biden’s top personnel heads regarding plans to bring
federal workers back into the office. In a letter to the heads of the Office of
Personnel Management (OPM), the General Services Administration (GSA) and the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) the bipartisan group of senators express
concern that the agencies have not instituted plans to transition federal
workers back to in-person responsibilities.
“We are writing to express our concerns
about the lack of federal agency work plans to transition federal workers back
to in-person operations,” the senators
wrote. “We respectfully request that you take effective and safe action to
transition federal agencies back to the physical workplace to ensure they can
adequately serve the public.”
Their letter follows legislation the
senators
introduced in February that would direct federal agencies to submit a
comprehensive plan for resuming in-person work. Grassley also joined his
colleagues on a similar
letter
in November citing examples of government task backlogs getting worse due to
out-of-office operations. The senators’ efforts are in response to complaints
from constituents who have been unable to access federal services despite
repeated calls from the President and Congress for federal agencies to resume
in-person operations.
“Many of our constituents, particularly
those in rural communities and areas without broadband, lack adequate access to
federal services. It is time to reopen all in-person essential services for the
benefit of the American public,” the
senators wrote.
In March, marking two years since the
start of the pandemic, Grassley
expressed frustration that federal agencies – funded by taxpayers and created to serve
taxpayers – were still closed or partially closed.
Learn more about Grassley’s government
accountability work
HERE.
Read the full letter
HERE.
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