Telework Enhancement Act of 2010

Floor Speech

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Ms. NORTON. I want to thank Chairman Lynch and Mr. Sarbanes for this important bill which takes telework from policy to practice. What progress we have made in telework we owe largely to members of this region, but especially to Mr. Wolf.

The Telework Enhancement Act takes telework all the way from a piece of policy lying on paper to be picked up at will, or not picked up, to a real practice with savings in productivity flowing directly to the Federal Government. The bill converts telework from a passive to an affirmative policy of the Federal Government, along with all the productivity and savings that have been documented to occur. It essentially makes going to work by telework the functional equivalent of getting on the road or getting on a crowded Metro car.

Although this bill will be implemented nationwide, the two snowstorms in this region should have shocked private and public entities alike into telework. Admittedly, though, those are exceptional circumstances--9/11, natural disasters, continuity of operations--all are important, but they are far from the only reasons for this bill.

Government has spent billions of dollars in state-of-the-art technology. This technology is underutilized as long as telework itself is underutilized. Nothing is more inefficient for employees and the government alike than compelling an employee to fight some of the worst traffic congestion in the Nation to get to a Federal office. Nothing is more costly to the government than requiring every employee lockstep to come to a physical place and do the work that could be accomplished with increased productivity and output at home. Nothing is of greater benefit to the oil cartels and to the trade deficit than forcing people on the road. Nothing is more disruptive to two-parent and single-parent families alike than time spent from home, sometimes an hour or two each day in this region, which can now be converted to family life and more work accomplished right there at home.

This bill had a bipartisan vote in committee because there was no addition to the deficit, because management, training limits on who can qualify, and emergency measures are all in place. Going to the office to do a job that can be done in less time, more output, greater savings to the government is so 20th century. This is not 1950. It's time our government came into the 21st century to have in place a set of alternatives that provide employees a better way to get the same job done.

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