In the fading hours of arguably the worst administration since Herbert Hoover, Joe Biden’s Social Security Commissioner, former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley signed a five-year contract with the American Federation of Government Employees guaranteeing continued work-from-home, or telework, for up to four days per week for the agency’s workers.
“This deal will secure not just telework for SSA employees, but will secure staffing levels through prevention of higher attrition, which in turn will secure the ability of the agency to serve the public,” he said. “This is a win for employees and for the American public.”
Not everyone was quite as enthusiastic.
The news was less celebrated among congressional Republicans and a co-leader of President-elect Donald Trump’s planned government efficiency commission, Vivek Ramaswamy. Elon Musk and Ramaswamy have repeatedly said they would seek to roll back telework usage at federal agencies, if not end it entirely, and have suggested the move as a tool to shed federal jobs.
“Thousands of federal employees just landed a work from home deal ahead of [President-elect Trump] taking office,” said House Oversight and Accountability Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., on X.
“These midnight-hour maneuvers by the Biden administration are illegitimate and will be scrutinized,” Ramaswamy posted on Twitter. “All new proclamations made by executive fiat can be reversed by executive fiat.”
Outside of some finding of malfeasance that could lead to a court voiding it, the Trump administration is stuck with this stinker of a deal. It was just the kind of chicken-poo move that wouldn’t surprise anyone who lived through O’Malley’s two terms in Maryland’s statehouse.
This points to two major problems in the federal workforce. First, the idea that a union should represent federal employees is ridiculous. The whole thing is a gift. That’s a subject for a different day. The second problem is that telework and its abuse are the norm, and there is no doubt it cheats taxpayers out of money and services.
A new report by Iowa Senator Joni Ernst details just how the system is abused.
Hellbound and Down 