As previously reported on The Drill Down, the Biden Administration is having a tough time getting federal workers back to the office after a couple of years of remote work due to COVID. More than 200,000 federal workers are refusing to return to their desks.
Over the summer, White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients wrote the following in a memo to Biden Cabinet heads:
“We are returning to in-person work because it is critical to the well-being of our teams and will enable us to deliver better results for the American people. As we look towards the fall, and with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, your agencies will be implementing increases in the amount of in-person work for your team. This is a priority of the President — and I am looking to each of you to aggressively execute this shift in September and October.”
The memo did little to put butts in the seats — and the benchmark is pretty low, with workers only expected to spend five out of every ten days in the office.
Now, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst has announced 12 Agencies of Christmas —a promise to American voters to expose agencies wasting taxpayer money by throwing cash at empty office spaces. Ernst says if employees don’t return to in-person work, the unused space should be sold.
“It is 12 days until Christmas. For the next 12 days, I will be highlighting the 12 agencies that have the most unused office space here in Washington, DC. If President Biden won’t bring his bureaucrats back and fill these offices and work for our hardworking taxpayers, then we should do the right thing and sell off the unused office space,” Ernst said in the video.
“We’re spending about 2.5 million dollars every single day for the upkeep, maintenance, and paying for these unused office spaces. Folks, let’s do something about it. Join me for the next 12 days – 12 Days of Christmas,” Ernst continued.
The first agency Ernst will expose is NASA.
Will Ernst calling out these agencies get federal employees back to work if the White House Chief of Staff has failed to make major gains? Stay tuned…
