DOGE Caucus Unveils That Only 6% of Federal Employees Attend Work In-Person – One America News Network
OAN Staff Blake Wolf
5:59 PM – Thursday, December 5, 2024
A newly published Senate report from the inaugural Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) caucus meeting indicates that only 6% of federal government employees are present at their workstations each day.
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This report is the result of a “year-and-a-half investigation led by Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa),” who shared her findings with Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, the leaders of DOGE, appointed by 47th President-elect Donald Trump.
“The capital of our nation resembles a ghost town, with government buildings reporting an average occupancy rate of 12[%],” Ernst stated in her report. “If federal employees aren’t found at their desks, precisely where are they?”
“The situation in the federal government is so skewed that it is more common for employees to receive excessive pay rather than consistently work in the office five days a week,” Ernst added. “We must turn Washington upside down, require bureaucrats to show up for work like everyone else, and assess individual performance in the manner that all American businesses do.”
The report further indicated that “nearly one-third” of the federal workforce works “entirely remotely.”
“Washington continues to function as if it’s March 2020,” Ernst noted. “Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, only three percent of the federal workforce engaged in daily telework. Currently, six percent of employees work in-person full-time, while almost one-third are fully remote.”
“None of the headquarters for major agencies or departments in the capital are even at half capacity,” the report expressed. “Service delays and backlogs, unanswered calls and emails, and missed appointments are adversely affecting the health, lives, and goals of Americans.”
Additionally, Elon Musk commented on the findings, criticizing federal employees for their lack of office attendance.
“Excluding security personnel and maintenance staff, the percentage of government employees who actually report in person and work 40 hours a week is closer to 1%!” Musk remarked in an X post. “Almost no one.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson was also present at the DOGE caucus and referred to the findings as “ridiculous, and this is not something the American populace will tolerate.”
“One of the first actions you’ll likely witness from the new administration, and from all of us in Congress, is a request for federal workers to return to their offices,” Johnson remarked.
The extensive report also highlighted that remote workers are taking advantage of higher pay rates based on their location even when they aren’t working from those areas.
“My audits indicate that between 23[%] to 68[%] of teleworking employees in some agencies are improperly receiving higher locality pay,” the report disclosed. “Some employees reside over 2,000 miles from their offices, and one ‘temporary’ telecommuter has received elevated locality pay for nearly a decade.”
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