Biden administration employees are STILL working from home and wasting billions of taxpayer dollars every year, says Oversight chair James Comer in grilling of Office of Management and Budget head

Oversight Chair James Comer accused the Biden administration of being 'intent' on making remote work a 'fixture' of post-pandemic life. 

The Kentucky Republican hauled Jason Miller before his committee on Tuesday, where the Office of Management and Budget deputy director noted that federal workers who are 'telework eligible,' meaning they have jobs that can be done remotely in some capacity, are currently working at least half of their hours in the office. 

The federal government employs some two million people in Washington, D.C.  

'OMB will continue to push agencies to complete implementation,' Miller said. The agency 'has issued guidance for agencies to substantially increase meaningful in person work at federal offices, particularly at headquarters.' 

'My constituents and those of the other members of this Committee want government services delivered efficiently and effectively. And they don’t want to pay for unnecessary overhead. I think we can all agree on that,' Comer said. 

Comer claimed unions are to blame for keeping workers from being in the office, even as federal agencies spend about $2 billion in taxpayer dollars per year to operate and maintain federal office buildings and another $5 billion per year on leases. 

Oversight Chair James Comer accused the Biden administration of being 'intent' on making remote work a 'fixture' of post-pandemic life

The Kentucky Republican hauled Jason Miller before his committee on Tuesday, where the Office of Management and Budget deputy director noted that federal workers who are 'telework eligible,' meaning they have jobs that can be done remotely in some capacity, are currently working at least half of their hours in the office

'What is driving them? Federal employee unions seem to be a major driver,' Comer said. 

'The White House Chief of staff has sent a few emails to agency heads prodding them to increase in person work, but unions have continued to push back,' he went on. 

Late last year Biden's Chief of Staff Jeffrey Zients ordered Cabinet heads to ensure that their workforce returns to the office this year.

According to a memo obtained by DailyMail.com, he wrote that federal employees should be in the office at least 50 percent of their work time in order to achieve the goals of the administration.

Zients highlighted the State Department's 'expectation' that all employees are in the office at least 3-4 times per week because there's 'no substitute' for 'engaging face-to-face' when it comes to diplomacy.

But he also acknowledged that 'some of your agencies are not where they need to be.'

In February a USDA whistleblower wrote to Congress warning of the 'impersonal and inefficient' work environment remote work was causing. 

The employee, who describes themself as a supervisor at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, says full-time remote work and telework is 'negatively affecting productivity, efficiency, and cooperation.'

They said that the 'vast majority' of USDA employees are working remotely, and the unused federal office headquarters resembles a 'ghost town' with empty hallways and vacant offices.

The USDA was found to be at only 11 percent occupied between January and March 2023 and more than 75 percent of the available office space at 17 different federal agencies is still empty, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).