Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) released a 60-page report on Thursday titled “Out of Office,” blasting the government’s usage of remote workers and laying out questions to President-elect Donald Trump’s nominated Cabinet on the issue.
Ernst is the chairwoman and founder of the Senate DOGE Caucus, which aims to sharpen government efficiency like Elon Musk’s and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency.
At the end of the report, Ernst lays out five questions for Trump’s Cabinet nominees that they “must answer.”
They include a question about whether they’d share their daily schedule, how they will achieve a 60% space utilization rate, how frequently they will require employees to show up to work, and what the consequences are for those who don’t. Other questions consider whether they would disclose the “locations, titles, and job descriptions” of employees and whether they would provide a six-month report on backlogs within the agency along with waiting times and details on unanswered phone calls.
The report is a key cog in Ernst’s crusade against government remote work, which she suggests makes government employees hard to reach and unreliable. The report particularly emphasizes a picture of a government employee working in a bubble bath as an example of “abusing telework.”
Ramaswamy has previously said he will seek to make cuts within government agencies by requiring workers to come back to the office, which he says may trigger voluntary resignations. Ernst has agreed with his sentiment.
“For years, I have been tracking down bureaucrats relaxing in bubble baths, playing golf, getting arrested, and doing just about everything besides their job,” Ernst said in a statement. “It would almost be funny if it wasn’t happening on the taxpayers’ dime and at the expense of veterans, seniors, small business owners, and Americans in need of competent service from government agencies. Federal employees need to return to work, but if they don’t want to, I will make their wish come true.”
Another key part of Ernst’s argument in the report is the government’s inefficient usage of space. One fact that’s cited is that the “EPA is spending $90 million a year for its headquarters, but uses just eight percent of the office space.” The House passed a bill earlier this year that would require 60% of federal government space to be in use.
Ernst’s report says that can be met by either cutting down on government space or forcing more employees into the office. Either way, it’d force the space to be used more efficiently.
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Dealing with government personnel and their space appears to be a top priority for Ernst as DOGE looks to transform the government.
“The DOGE team has our knives out, and we are ready to trim the fat on the overstuffed budget and billion-dollar gravy trains to nowhere,” she said in a November statement. “It is time to make the federal government go cold turkey on waste.”
