Only 6% work full-time from an office, while a third of federal employees are completely remote. A Senate investigation revealed that some people aren’t working at all when they claim to “work from home”.

The report was written by Sen. Joni Ernest (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, and author.

Just three percent of federal workers teleworked every day before the COVID-19 epidemic. The report says that today, 6 percent of employees report to work in person on a daily basis. Nearly one third are completely remote.

The government spends 16 billion dollars a year on operating office buildings that are occupied by only 12% of their total capacity. Even the General Services Administration (which manages federal property) is based in Missouri.

Ernst added, “You’re more likely to encounter a ghost in the halls of government buildings than you are a bureaucrat these days.”

According to an audit, office buildings are so empty they have allowed the water supply in the Environmental Protection Agency’s office — which is responsible for ensuring that drinking water is clean — to stagnate so long that dangerous bacteria developed. Unions, however, have insisted that individual workstations be provided for every employee on the rare occasions that they are needed. They also want to allow their members to work remotely.

Elon Musk has announced that the Department of Government Efficiency of the Trump Administration will require federal employees to work in the office. Those who do not want to, can leave, leading to a leaner, more efficient government.

In his State of the Union speech in 2022, President Joe Biden said that federal employees should return to the workplace. His chief of staff demanded repeatedly that cabinet officials do the same because “there is no substitute for face to face”. Yet, the Biden administration, during the waning years of his presidency signed a contract with the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s union, locking them into telework until 2029.

Despite the fact that SSA’s massive headquarters, which is 91% unused, just underwent a $120-million office renovation. While supposedly working from home, one SSA employee ran a home inspection company for three years. His mother would occasionally send him emails.

Ernst wrote: “It appears that the president of the public employees union and not the President is currently making personnel decisions for the U.S. government.”

When federal employees work in areas with high costs of living, they are paid more. In some agencies, however, teleworking staff can now live in areas with lower costs of living, and still receive the higher pay. Some agency heads told Congress they had implemented policies that required employees to attend work for a few days each pay period. However, reports on the ground indicate that this is not enforced.

Over 90% of Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) employees work at home and do not have to visit the office more often than once per week. A former union leader who worked for HUD allegedly had a DUI when she was supposed to be working at home. Another woman was able to work two government jobs worth six figures at the same, while both employers thought she worked full-time.

Patent and Trade Office, which has been widely using teleworking since the 1990s, considers itself to be a pioneer. In a nine-month span, the Patent and Trade Office paid out at least $8.8 millions in hourly wage to “teleworking” workers who didn’t work.

Ernst stated that the federal government does not have systems in place to monitor whether employees are logging into their computers or where they’re coming from each day. The Department of Health and Human Services looked at employee computer logins and found that 30% of “teleworkers”, on any given day, were not working when the COVID Pandemic was occurring, and the department’s services would have been needed.

VA’s website advertised to prospective employees that they could “break away from the traditional nine to five, 40-hour workweek” without sacrificing opportunities or benefits. In Atlanta, one third of calls were not answered, and the Veterans Affairs manager who was responsible for setting up the appointments had posted a picture online of him “working” in a bubble bath.

Only two out of 76 local IRS offices answered the phone, according to the report. The inspector general of the IRS said, “maximizing telework to respond to the pandemic may have contributed” to a decline in productivity. The Biden administration also hired a large number of new employees at the IRS even though there’s no indication that existing staff are performing to their full potential.

Ernst said: “If bureaucrats do not want to go back to work, then make their wish true.”

She suggested that the government sell any real estate not being used fully, and that agencies be relocated to areas with lower costs that are connected to the work they do, such as the Department of Agriculture being located in the farmland. This would be done by the Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement Act and other proposed legislation.