Hinson: No Work from Home Bureaucrat Bonuses

January 14, 2025

Washington, D.C. - Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (IA-02) is an original co-sponsor of the Federal Employee Return to Work Act, introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse (WA-04). This legislation would ensure that American taxpayers are not providing federal employees with location-based pay raises if they do not work in the office.

“Bureaucrats have been abusing federal telework policies for far too long. This commonsense bill ensures that federal bureaucrats can’t game the system to receive a location-based pay raise if they don’t work in the office. It’s past time for all federal employees to show up to work in person and give 100% for taxpayers." - Congresswoman Ashley Hinson

Background:

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that 17 of the 24 federal agencies were using 25% or less of their headquarters building’s capacity at the beginning of 2023.
GAO identified six agencies that were on average 91% vacant while their employees still received a 16.44% locality bonus compared to the rest of the country, regardless of their in-office attendance. These agencies included the Social Security Administration, the Small Business Administration, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
The bill excludes certain federal employees who telework at least one day a week from receiving raises and special locality bonuses for their office location being in a high-cost-of-living area despite working from home.

Full bill text can be found here.