Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2025

Floor Speech

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chairman, I rise in favor of my amendment, No. 58 to H.R. 8774, which prohibits classified teleworking and remote working for DOD employees.

The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and House Republicans in the 118th Congress prioritized returning the Federal workforce to the office and cracking down on wasted Federal office space.

To this extent, last year I sponsored an amendment to the fiscal year '24 DOD appropriations bill blocking routine and regular telework and remote working, ensuring that DOD personnel who defend the Nation operating largely in a classified environment are in the office.

I thank Chairman Calvert and the committee as similar language is in this year's bill, but since last year, new DOD policy may thwart the return-to-office needs of the government, while also raising serious national security concerns.

On January 8, 2024, the DOD Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness updated the Department's telework and remote work policies for the first time since 2012.

Under this new policy, DOD personnel are qualified for telework and remote work when: ``The duties of the position do not require more than occasional handling, discussion, or processing of classified material.''

In short, if you handle classified information, you still qualify to work from home.

While this policy permits the handling of information just up to the collateral secret level, it requires the DOD to provide the employee with a classified teleworking device, which means more resources and spending simply to accommodate telework desires in a job not compatible with that style of work.

This is not the only development as the Space Force has awarded contracts for the development of a digital environment to integrate classified and nonclassified work from a remote location as well.

Reporting on the development of this software already shows that there is an interest in elevating this technology to top secret and special access program level.

Mr. Chairman, the development of these technologies and DOD policies for classified remote and telework are a new concerning trend. They risk delaying the return of the Federal workforce to the office, as personnel traditionally exempt from telework and remote work are now being brought into the system, versus focusing on bringing everyone back.

It also raises significant national security concerns. Homes, coffee shops, and other places people choose to remote work from are simply not as secure as a DOD facility.

I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chair, while I would like to assume that our Federal employees charged with handling sensitive information will always act responsibly, we cannot control human nature, and, therefore, we cannot control where these DOD systems will be opened up in the public.

Further, the DOD facilities themselves protect information from intrusion such as physical break-ins or cyber threats of bad actors seeking access to our information. The security simply cannot be guaranteed in every household of the DOD workforce.

I quote the director of a company developing this technology for the Space Force. In an article discussing the software and development, the director stated: You can't just pop your laptop up at Starbucks. Some of the things within that user agreement would be, you know, you are in a closed space, there are no windows, there is no one else home, your cell phone isn't with you, things of that nature.

What is being described here is a SCIF, something that DOD personnel only have access to at work and not at home. Outside the office, even equipped with new technologies, there is too much unpredictability for the handling of classified information, and these policies should not be allowed to go forward.

I urge my colleagues to support this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Ms. HAGEMAN. Mr. Chair, I believe that my colleague is misunderstanding the policy that is being proposed by the Department of Defense. This doesn't relate to people on committee work. This has to do with the policy that was proposed by the DOD office on January 8, 2024, that would allow DOD personnel to occasionally handle, discuss, or process classified material in an at-home or away-from-work setting.

The purpose of the amendment is to prohibit that. The idea that this is a total ban on telework for Members and staff of Congress, that has absolutely nothing to do with this. This is directly related to the DOD Office of Under Secretary's personnel and readiness policies that were updated earlier this year.

There is clearly a misunderstanding by my colleagues on the other side as to what the purpose of this amendment is.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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