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Federal agencies will be forced to use buildings at a 60% capacity rate or else SELL off 11,000 acres of unused space as Republicans claw back Biden's remote 'bloated' bureaucracy wasting $2 billion taxpayer dollars per year
Washington,
March 12, 2024
Tags:
Federal Spending
By Kelly Laco, The Daily Mail Republicans are tackling Biden's 'bloated bureaucracy' with new bill that will force the federal workforce to get back into the office. The bill led by Rep. Scott Perry, expected to pass Tuesday evening, requires federal agencies to use their offices at a 60 percent capacity rate or sell the buildings. Damning reports reveal government employees have been in meetings while taking bubble baths, still got paid while on the golf course and attended happy hours while on the clock. All federal agencies are less than 50 percent occupied - wasting an estimated $2.8 million per day. Republicans say its an insult to taxpayers as agencies spend about $2 billion a year to operate and maintain over 11,000 acres of federal office buildings and over $5 billion annually in leases. 'Right now, American Taxpayers are forced to pay $2 billion a year for office space - almost half the size of Disney World - that D.C. bureaucrats refuse to use,' Perry wrote on X. 'President Biden is grasping onto more than 11,000 acres of old, unused buildings,' continued Perry, R-Pa. 'American taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for unelected federal bureaucrats who refuse to come back to work,' Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn, told DailyMail.com in an exclusive statement. 'House Republicans are delivering on our promise to claw back government waste and reduce the Biden administration's bloated bureaucracy with Congressman Perry's commonsense legislation,' the top Republican continued. According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) memo from December, not a single federal agency has over half of its workforce in the office. The shocking findings comes after Biden formally ended the COVID-19 emergency nearly one year ago and his chief of staff Jeff Zients urged the return of the federal bureaucracy to in-person work by the fall. Biden also famously declared the pandemic 'over' in September 2022, surprising members of his own team. The data shows an 'estimated three-month average space utilization' statistics that were collected for 24 agencies during one-week periods in January, February and March 2023. The agency with the greatest percentage of in-office staff for the three months was the State Department at 49 percent. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) took home the prize for the least space utilization (7 percent). The Social Security Administration tied HUD at 7 percent utilization, followed by the the Small Business Administration at 9 percent. The General Services Administration (GSA) tied the Department of Agriculture at a measly 11 percent. Biden's Chief of Staff Jeff Zients also ordered Cabinet heads to ensure that their workforce returns to the office this year. According to a memo obtained by DailyMail.com, he wrote in January that federal employees should be in the office at least 50 percent of their work time in order to achieve the goals of the administration. He highlighted the State Department's 'expectation' that all employees are in the office at least 3-4 times per week because there's 'no substitute' for 'engaging face-to-face' when it comes to diplomacy. But he also acknowledged that 'some of your agencies are not where they need to be.' Senator Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, has been leading the charge on the other side of the Capitol. She wrote to all the federal agencies last year, demanding an immediate review of their telework and pay policies. Ernst told DailyMail.com Tuesday that even though taxpayers are on the hook for the wasted space, 'they're the ones being put on hold because bureaucrats aren't showing up for work.' 'It's past time to put an end to the waste. My message to Biden's bureaucrats is simple: use it or lose it. If the Biden admin won't utilize expensive agency space to serve the American people, we should sell it off.'
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