Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) discovered an odd bedfellow Wednesday in help of his invoice compelling federal employees to return to the workplace in individual: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.) — who would have voted for the invoice if Congress gave D.C. voting rights.
Washington, D.C
Odd bedfellows: Norton backs Comer bill returning federal workers to office
If the laws passes Congress and is signed by President Biden, the directive would make its best affect in D.C., whose practically 200,000 federal employees make up 1 / 4 of town’s workforce, in accordance with information from town’s Division of Labor.
“I help that invoice very strongly,” Norton mentioned in an interview earlier than the vote, “as a result of the impact of covid protecting folks residence — and now many remaining residence — has had extra of an impact on the District of Columbia than I’m positive some other jurisdiction. Do not forget that our workforce is basically a federal workforce right here within the District. So downtown itself can’t be revitalized with out federal employees.”
In her inaugural tackle final month, Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) urged Biden to return federal employees to the workplace or else let D.C. use their half-empty buildings for different functions, resembling housing — feedback Comer seized on to attempt to increase help for his invoice.
However in an interview Wednesday, Bowser mentioned she didn’t have a place on the laws and wasn’t accustomed to it, despite the fact that the invoice would largely meet the identical goal she laid out to deliver federal employees again downtown.
“We predict most employees needs to be in more often than not and we expect that that was the case earlier than covid,” she mentioned. “We haven’t taken the strategy that the legislature ought to do it. However I do assume they must be concerned within the dialogue as a result of they’ve oversight over these companies.”
Bowser has described federal employees’ presence as integral to the financial material of town, making their absence deeply felt. Downtown D.C. is a shell of what it as soon as was earlier than the pandemic, with vacant storefronts and sleepier streets, lacking the pre-pandemic ranges of gross sales tax income and Metro ridership that Bowser and metropolis officers try to deliver again. The mayor has made revitalizing downtown a core piece of her third-term agenda, seeing the return of federal employees as one doable side in that plan, as she described in her tackle final month. Federal 2022 survey information reveals that almost 40 p.c of federal employees telework three or extra days per week, or below an accredited remote-work settlement.
Comer’s preliminary intent with the Present Up Act wasn’t precisely to revitalize downtown D.C. — Republicans have largely argued federal companies are extra environment friendly in individual. However he’s echoed the mayor’s considerations on a number of events, and on Monday he famous he and Bowser have been on the identical web page — “you gained’t hear me say that fairly often.”
“The federal authorities’s abuse of telework has gotten so unhealthy that Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser has referred to as on President Biden to droop its telework insurance policies for federal employees or flip over federal buildings in D.C. for conversion to inexpensive housing,” he mentioned on the Home ground Wednesday.
In an interview Tuesday, Norton didn’t instantly notice Comer was the principle sponsor of the Present Up Act. However as soon as she realized he was main it, she was pleasantly shocked. “I’m very happy,” she mentioned. “Maybe there shall be some bipartisanship.”
There wasn’t a lot bipartisanship Wednesday, as Democrats overwhelmingly opposed the laws. Different Home Democrats within the nationwide capital area, together with Reps. Don Beyer (Va.) and Steny H. Hoyer (Md.), mentioned they didn’t help the invoice, describing it as an assault on federal employees that will not make companies more practical.
Unions supporting federal employees additionally oppose the invoice: The Nationwide Treasury Staff Union — representing 150,000 federal employees — mentioned the invoice would drive companies to desert cost-saving telework plans related to decreasing federal workplace house, thereby losing taxpayer {dollars}. The American Federation of Authorities Staff feared the invoice — which if handed offers companies 30-day discover to vary their insurance policies — would mark a major disruption and in flip hurt productiveness. Additionally they argued that cementing a extra inflexible telework coverage would put the federal authorities at a aggressive drawback with extra versatile non-public sector employers.
Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) mentioned that he didn’t help “indefinite, common distant working.” However he additionally discovered Comer’s invoice too indelicate, failing to incorporate any directives for federal companies to develop public well being safeguards or insurance policies, or any acknowledgment the pandemic was nonetheless taking place. Connolly led laws within the final Congress requiring companies to develop extra strong return-to-work security plans, after considered one of his constituents, a federal worker, died of covid-related issues.
He mentioned he realized that Biden’s plan to finish the nation’s covid public well being emergency in Might might present Republicans ammunition in searching for to finish pandemic-era working preparations — however nonetheless, he mentioned, Congress needs to be extra considerate about the way it compels a transition.
“That is reflecting on the truth that 1,000,000 and a half Individuals are useless,” he mentioned. “That quantity is so profound that it’s affected our demographic progress, our life span, the office, the labor market, shopper conduct — I imply, this isn’t some localized outbreak that may be contained, and so we must always, it appears to me, strategy longer-term options with huge respect and humility, and I believe that’s the very reverse of what [Comer’s] invoice displays.”
Biden had beforehand signaled an intent to deliver the federal workforce again to the workplace in individual final 12 months, however the White Home has not launched a place on Comer’s laws, and White Home press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t say at a Wednesday briefing earlier than the vote whether or not the administration supported the invoice or whether or not Biden would veto it. Nevertheless, she mentioned, “we expect that call needs to be guided by companies. That’s their choice to make.”
Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), who represents Prince George’s County, mentioned he might perceive Bowser’s financial considerations, however mentioned what’s finest for the employees needs to be the chief concern, and he believed telework flexibility was nonetheless finest. He mentioned he would oppose the invoice.
“I perceive the mayor’s considerations,” he mentioned. “However I do assume we have to separate out financial advantages to the District from federal authorities insurance policies for workers which might be nationwide.”
In arguing in opposition to the invoice, Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.) famous on the Home ground that Republicans didn’t give the invoice a listening to or herald heads of federal companies or the Workplace of Personnel Administration to testify concerning the teleworking coverage. It appears the one stakeholder Republicans had heard from, not directly, was Bowser, he mentioned — “who not surprisingly appears to be proof against telework coverage.”
“We can’t enter a time machine and easily want away the utility of telework,” he mentioned.
Eric Yoder contributed to this report.