House Republicans regained a majority in 2022 with ambitious plans to curtail the widespread remote work arrangements adopted by federal employees since the onset of COVID-19. However, as the 118th Congress nears the end of productive work and election season gets underway, their efforts appear to have yielded little progress.

Throughout the year, GOP appropriators have included various provisions in their bills aimed at measuring and reducing the prevalence of telework within federal agencies. For instance, one proposal would have required the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to report all personnel allowed to work remotely on a permanent basis.

Another directive sought to have the Labor Department document employees receiving D.C.-area pay rates without regularly attending their offices. Additional measures included barring the Defense Department from covering teleworking costs and reducing the Social Security Administration’s budget for its capital branch.

These initiatives have met strong resistance from labor unions representing federal workers. Jacqueline Simon, public policy director of the American Federation of Government Employees, criticized the GOP's approach as contradictory. “These are the same people who are great advocates of the federal government following the private sector, and a smaller percentage of the federal workforce does telework than the private sector,” Simon remarked.

The challenge for these House Republicans was compounded by the political landscape, with Democrats controlling the Senate and the White House. This dynamic made it difficult for the GOP to advance........

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