The House Oversight and Accountability Committee has laid bare what many have suspected for years: the federal workforce has turned telework into a golden ticket, leaving taxpayers on the hook for billions in unused office space. A new report highlights the alarming waste of resources, all while the Biden administration seems more focused on appeasing federal unions than ensuring public service. The timing is no coincidence, either—it seems perfectly tailored to create hurdles for the incoming Trump administration, which has pledged to rein in bureaucratic inefficiencies.
Chairman James Comer of the House Oversight Committee didn’t hold back during a hearing aptly titled “The Stay-at-Home Federal Workforce: Another Biden-Harris Legacy.” The numbers speak for themselves. Of the 2.28 million federal civilian employees, around 228,000 reportedly never darken the doorway of an office. Among the 1.1 million eligible for telework, most average just three in-office days a week, with some agencies clocking even less. Meanwhile, the number of fully remote employees—those who never have to show up at all—has skyrocketed fivefold since 2019. For a government supposedly serving the people, that’s a lot of empty chairs.
Certain departments stand out for their staggering shift to remote work. Since 2019, the Department of Health and Human Services went from 2% remote workers to a whopping 29%. The Department of Education isn’t far behind, jumping from 2% to 55%. And let’s not forget the General Services Administration, where half the workforce is now remote. Yet, despite these seismic changes, federal agencies occupy just a fraction of their office space. Some headquarters boast occupancy rates as low as 9%, all while taxpayers fork over $7 billion annually to lease and maintain these glorified storage units.
Adding insult to injury, federal agencies haven’t stopped spending on office amenities. Over the last few years, they’ve shelled out $3.3 billion on furniture for buildings that sit mostly empty. Hundreds of thousands have been wasted on upgrading conference rooms that no one uses. Even Robin Carnahan, the GSA Administrator responsible for overseeing federal properties, has reportedly spent only one out of every four workdays at her D.C. headquarters, choosing instead to telework from Missouri. It’s an irony that would be funny if it weren’t so infuriating.
The Biden administration’s cozy relationship with federal unions has only entrenched the problem. Long-term collective bargaining agreements have locked in telework guarantees, making it nearly impossible for management to hold employees accountable. A rule issued in April by the Office of Personnel Management further insulated federal workers from scrutiny, ensuring that reforming the system would be an uphill battle for the incoming Trump administration. For taxpayers, this unchecked telework experiment is yet another example of bureaucratic overreach, inefficiency, and misplaced priorities—a mess that someone else will inevitably have to clean up.
