Welcome, everybody. Thanks for being here. This is a hearing for the Regulatory Affairs and subcommittee. Modernizing moving forward using Lessons Learned during the covid pandemic. We should have something good come out of the pandemic. This hearing is focused on what we can gain, whats already been learned, what gaps are still there and what to do to better improve the process. A decade was telework legislation and enhancement act of 2010 set the baseline standard for federal agencies to follow the telework. Over the last ten years, loosing advances in technology, expectations an increase in Cyber Security threats. So many changes in the world makes sense to take a close look at the current policies and strategies in the federal workplace. Its acting as a magnifying glass for improvement. In july with a panel of private industry witnesses during the hearing, we gathered valuable information concerning what private employers have done to support Remote Workforce and we are able to draw Lessons Learned that could help federal workforce recalibrate strategies and policies. We also gained insight into what the current private workforce is demanding. This coupled with environmental challenges we face may help us create remote work policies keep the federal government competitive and qualified individuals. Since early march, agencies have been forced for remote employment on a massive scale. Its been disruptive throughout our lives and im hopeful we can use these challenging times to shine a light on the processes and find longterm solutions providing real value for federal agencies and their employees. There is important telework questions that i believe need clarity on for us to chart a clear path forward in the federal workforce. How do we best prepare employees so during a future disaster pandemic again seamlessly transitioned into a workforce policy . How to retrain managers, stay engaged workers. Would open up opportunities to hire anywhere in the country. I want to make sure Cyber Security and improvements for the forefront of future telework legislation conversations. Today, i look forward to hearing from the line. Youve heard evidence of agencies overcoming challenges of emotional reward workforce but today we have the opportunity to hear from this source. Help as we take what we learned to create more efficient, complex and better workforce. I want to thank this panel were taking the time from the busy schedules, you read statements in advance and you have been a part of this for your testimony as well. We appreciate the opportunity to pick yr brain and hear about what the agencies have done in the expenses youve gained in e process. For anyone watching this hearing, this is called a hybrid hearing. Somendividuals are here, theres very few. For witnesses will testify in this hearing, to our lives, to remote and most of the individuals here will be remote for this hearing and everyone is very well spaced to make sure we mainta social distancing. We are being attended all of the basic elements through thisut i want to get this information out, it is important to get on the record. Like to recognize Ranking Member for opening remarks, she is joining us remotely. Thank you. With our last subcommittee of the year, i want to thank you for your leadership throughout the year. It has been a pleasure to work with you. I want to submit a statement from the american confederation, i appreciate witnesses joining us today and i have hoped witnesses would agree to join remotely because i think it would be a great message to show our committee and the country has covered numbers are increasing across the country and demonstrate our ability to work remotely and adapt to this changing world. Today, this hearing is importa important, so the myth that telework automatically means decreased productivity. My office has been working completely virtual since march and theres no disruption in our work. Our team is working to help arizonans. Increasing part to the activity, allow workers what they need to care for the kids and loved on ones. The key to develop an effective telework strategy, the workers the tools they need and everyone understands the policies. Learning more about the challenges you all will overcome the operational challenges remain. It is important to note the risk of returning workforce in the offices to sin. Recent articles, more than 100,000 federal employees nationwide tested positive for covid. Many states have seen alarming rises covered cases recently. This weekend, arizona, positive covid test has reached its highest level in three months and the number of arizona for covid the beginning of this week was 70 higher than it was november 1. While most federal employees continue to work from home, there are certainly some such as agents and officers of the border, postal workers, staff who cannot do so. To protect the individuals, it is critical to allow telework to minimize people in federal buildings. With that, i yield back and look forward to today. Thank you. I want to proceed with testimony from witnesses. Joining us remotely, the action director Strategic Issues team she oversees the agencies work on federal Human Capital issues serving cover over 20 years on the Healthcare Team throughout her ten year. Shes been recognized numerous awards including two Service Hours and distinguished Service Award and shall testify first and join us remotely. The Deputy Assistant secretary administration of the department of transportation and blend with the Department Since 1991. He provides ldership and oversight in areas of Human Resources, security, audit relations, acqsitions and grants, transportation and facilities and space management. What do a you think . Well talk about that. The director of the department of office and Human Resource management, sydney is here, the chief Human Capital officer, the chico at the u. S. Department of labor, over 40 years of federal services spent in human serces related occupations. Responsible for the department hun capital policies and programs and key advisor to the department of leadership on Employee Engagement efforts. She joined the departmt of labor in 2011 previously served of the labor of statistics and trademar office and personal management. Thk you for being here. The assistant director Deputy Commission and deputy chief Information Officer for it. Eviously served as the acting depu commissioner for communications and assistanthe Deputy Commissioner for social securis review. Cial Security Administration observed in variousnalytical technical and leadership potions over 15 years with the department of our cultural here in washington d. C. To think all four of you for being here. It isustomer to swear in all witnesses that appear before us so pleasetand and raise your right hand. Even remotely, sry about that. F you swear the subcommitteeill be the whole truth, nothing but the truth thank you. Let the record reflect all the answers in the affirmative. We are using even the folks joining us remotely, should be able to see the time as well as you go to the process. Give as much time as possible for questions and conversation we go through this in the process. With that, i recognize you for your opening stament. Members of the subcommittee, i am pleased to be here today to discuss federal telework. The federal agencies and federal woforce it can help retention employees, reduce the need for office space and Ranking Member mentioned, providing opportunities to better balance work and family demands. The agency can accomplish missions during periods of destruction. As y know, during the current covid pandemic, allow federal employees to work rotely for sustained Agency Operations and serve the American Public. Previously identifies practices lework related guidelines for federal agencies shod implement as part of a successful tework program your attention to theey practices and remove telework participation. Written statement with all the key practices we i identified ad i will highlight three ts afternoon. First, t facilitate telework, agencies should have telework that outlines t agreedupon Work Arrangements between agenc managers and teleworking employees. The enhancement act of 2010 requires agencieo have the written agreement. In 2017, we reported selected agencies do n require regular reviews or documents of reviews of the telework agreement. Gin the likelihood of chang in work responsibility and employee schedule over time, it is impornt for agencies to regularly review telewor agreements to ensure that they reflt and support their current business. In addition, if they are not uptodate, agencies may use inacrate telework data for making decisions such as spaceay planning and technology investment. The second key practice i will highlight this training. Telework invves a different way of working as well as supervising employees. As such, agencies are required to provide traing for eligible employees and managers of teleworkers. Such training should cover agencies telework policies provide an orientation to telework that focus on Telework Program actities including it applications use while teleworking and Performance Management. For 2017 review of selected agencies Telework Program, managers were generally not required to complete training before approving the agreeme. Managers may have been approving or denying requests for telework before they fly understood the agencies telework policies and goals. The third key programs evaluation. It is important for agencies to develop progra evaluations tools. This should include a tracking system to help accurately determine telework litation of the agency, agencies should use the evaluation tools identify problems or iues with the programs and progress in achieving progr goals. Agencies should then develop an actual guide and changes. Assessments of costs and benefits including cost sings of agencies telework commands help decisionmakers in determining the overall effect and valu of telework. Our past work on selected agencies have littl data to support whats associated with Telework Program. It indicated agencies have proved in their ability to track cost savin but not all agencies are reporting cost savings information in response to the annual telework. Inonclusion, the telework he practices they have identified, several of wch are required to prove a roadmap for federal agencies to successful and from the lework program. We have previously found agencies face cllenges related to incrementing Telework Programs tt align with the key practices. The challenge is agencies face provide viable lrning opportunity as you look to expand and modify programs. Programs can be for federal employees and the public. This includes remarks, and happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Chairman langford. Members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss federal telework during the covid19 Public Healtht emergency on behalf of the u. S. Department of transportation. Cy on the Deputy Assistant secretary for administration and have been with the department 29 years. The department longstanding support for an encouragement of telework across our widespread operations proved its value and stability when we quickly and seamlessly converted headquarters and Field Operations midmarch to maximum telework to meet the covid19 Public Health emergency. Telework has been a critical flexibility that enables employees to ensure america as the safest, most efficient and modern Transportation System in the world. It boosts our economic productivity and Global Competitiveness and enhances the quality of life in both rural and urban communities. Telework allows the department to achieve important performance goals and improve the departments capabilities to support all and National Security requirements all while supporting employees worklife balance outcome. In 2013, well before the onset of covid19, dot can implement in agencywide policy in accordance with the telework enhancement act of 2010. The policy encourages use of telework includes notifying 100 of our employees of the individual telework individual telework policy. It remains in effect today. Dot leaders encourage the use of telework the maximum extent possible while maintaining Office Coverage and operations to ensure your teeth Telework Programs, Community Telework exercises to get employees and managers opportunities to practice working remotely and oest Information Technology capacity to support telework. Those efforts resulted in additional investments, emerging technologies and innovation including Virtual Private Networks and virtual infrastructure. Dots maximum telework is virtually seamless following the onset of the covid19 Public Health emergency. Because of advanced preparation across dot, the federal employee teleworkers increased from about 14000 to 30,000 in march without disruption to the agencys mission network. Under normal circumstances, typically, under half of the dot total workforce is telework eligible and about a quarter on average. The onset of the Covenant TeamHealth Emergency, upwards of 60 seof the total workforce works monthly. The remaining positions are in positions that require physical presence to perform work responsiblys such as air Traffic Controllers the federal aviation administration, line handlers the development corporationir and merchant mariners in the administration. Perhaps one of the most valuable Lessons Learned was the use of insertable flexibility when leveraging the telework policy, work schedule and procedures and Human Resources . Abilities and authority. As a result, some offices are ocviewing plans to reduce their Office Footprint by eliminating these space and maximizing in telework with the covid19 Public Health emergency and. The motion environment has provided dot with an opportunity cyto limit relatively new in various methods of communicating with both large and small grou groups. Maximum telework also presented ongoing challenges including adjusting to new dynamics and synergy virtually. Limited assets to Office Supplies and equipment and conductivity issues for something several months to this new reality, thousands employees are not teleworking fulltime managers are expanding how the organizations can function successfully under these conditions providing Vital Information with decisions about operations. The department has been successful at implementing some of telework dot has a wide array of workforce and has maintained a consistent level of operations and productivity during thet. Health emergency. Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss federal telework during the covid19 Public Health emergency on behalf of the department of transportation. Im happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you. Chairman langford and members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the invitation to testify today. March 11, 2020, a Novel Coronavirus disease covid19 was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. March 13, 2020, the United States declared 19 outbreak a National Emergency and by mid march 2020, the u. S. Department of labor entered the maximum telework washer due to the covid19 Global PandemicHealth Emergency. As it became clear to us that covid19 impact would require significant modifications to the department operation, the office of Human Resources the tools available to support the department in moving to a maximum telework posture modifying internal guidances as necessary. Issuing a guidance increase Technical Assistance ton employees and managers and responded to hundreds of inquiries from managers and employees on a full range of Human Resources issues including pay, leave, benefits, staffing, telework, Work Schedules and other place flexibilities additionally, they rapidly developed patents related to Emergency Paid Sick leavell offered under the family first Coronavirus Response act to ensure our employees who were unable to g work or telework due to qualifying covid19 related reasons as outlined in the regulations are aware of the entitlement under the law. In accordance with the pandemic guidance, the department allows telework eligible employees to telework to the maximum extent possible to maintain operations as close to normal as possible while ensuring employees safety. Prior to and during the pandemic, telework eligibility the Department Requires employees duties suitable in whole or in part with performance and telework site the individual employees meet i the additional criteria required by the telework enhancement act departmental policy and applicable collective bargaining agreement. Ew further, individual Employee Participation in telework is subject to supervisor approval based on Business Needs of the office, cost of an arrangement and availability of technology and equipment required to support the duties of the position. The recent implementation of enterprise Wide Shared Services for Human Resources and Information Technology supported and facilitated the departments ability to quickly adapt to a posture of more remote work in response to the pandemic. More centralized hr allowed dols decisively expand the use of telework during the declared pandemic and implement any necessary hr policy changes to support the ships and arrangements. Similarly, the implementation of a more centralized it Service Delivery model allows the department to make necessary policy changes and resource investments to ensure that dol was able to adequately support the shift to more remote work. Telework participation requires completion of interactive telework training available through the Department Internal learning about the system. Additionally, the department provides employees with supplemental telework Resources Available on our internet as part of a propulsion coronavirus guidance and resources. The department is presently continuing to use telework to ensure continuity of essential functions and perform the bulk of its daytoday operations. Dol is very proud of its work to implement a robust telework policy in response to the pandemic. We believe our efforts to help the federal workforce to achieve and maintain e productivity and serve the departments mission in the American Public. Thank you again for the opportunity to address the subcommittee about theb departnt work and i look forward to answering your questions. Thank you good afternoon. Members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to discuss the Social Security information. And the assistant Deputy Deputy chief Information Officer for it operations. Social Security First began to offer remote options for 20 years ago. When technology was much different and solutions we have today were not widely available. Online Services Limited and work was paper based. We made significant progress in monetizing infrastructure and implemented Technology Solutions that allow us to be more agile beth placing Desktop Computers with laptops and building a network to improve Business Continuity and expanded on my presence make it easier for customers to do business with us without having to come into our offices for employees, and limited Electronic Solutions that facilitate virtual environments. For example, Technology Allows employees to answer Office Phones to their laptops. These decisions were practical. The unprecedented covid19 pandemic hit earlier this year, the decisions keep our Services Going remotely while we closed offices to the public, we never stopped providing service with over 90 of our employees able to telework. Maximum telework protects our employees but also the public, many of whom, by definition of the work we do meet the cdcs high risk categories. We know we can do better still. Our goal is to serve the elect at least as well as we serve ine person and right now not all of our work is virtual. We need employees on site until sensitive workloads have facetoface interviews scan documents into our systems so teleworking conditions can process them. We been able to find in Person Services that has allowed us to address challenges of serving remotely. Weve also been flexible with policy in some cases, allowing the station as an alternative way to sign documents telework not onesizefitsall. Different jobs may want different amounts of telework when in some cases, no telework at all. If confirmed successful continuity ofte operations requires Telework Programs build on modernized infrastructure and weve been reminded we have more work to do to have a robust Telework Program with accountability injected measures making sense for the public we serve and for our employees. Pandemic has delivered a realtime pressure of ourre capability and its helping on focusing on what we can improve. I like to think the Public Employees and you for being totient and supportive of us during this National Emergency. I look forward to ansring questions you may have. Thank you very much. We have a habit in our hearings that we hold our questions until the end and we defer to the others at questions in. This will be an interesting dynamic for the witnesses to participate in this. You will at times have some senators going you by name or title and ask specific questions and sometimes open to anyone who wants to answer. I would encourage anyone joining remotely to unmute and just jump in if you want to answer a question and feel like your in the room with us as well and participate. You recognized me with my mask on . We met i can. Okay. He we go. Thank you for joining us today. I want to start off with a question to jim this is a question that was suggested to us by a member of our constituent this is that went Something Like this. As you know, social Security Administration that requires physical inspection personal identification such as birth certificates in order to process certain kinds but due to the pandemic social Security Administration is currently asking people to send original documents by mail so they can undergo physical inspections. Ive heard from a number of constituents in delaware that are concerned about mailing their original documents specifically about security and the timeliness. My question, can you share wit us how the frustration is working to address this ouansition . Thank you. Thank you. Let me first say that we need to recognize the pandemic has reduced seice challenges us, youre correct. A requirement of our regulationc is that for a new Social Security card that reflects changes, we do require original cumentation in the inspection of original documentation,e take protecting the integrity of enocial Security Card and number very serioly. I we do have, in some cases, limited ability to set up appointments for individuals, those opportunities are limited. We are forced on a Public Health election to limit employees we have in our offices and limit the number o members of the public that we provide inperson service to. Appointments are available for some cases and we are fulfilling requirements. As i mentied in my testimony, we dont have a workaround for all services and unfortunaly, the Social Security card is one of those but i also want to say that most amerins who need a replacement card can use Social Security services to go online Social Security. Govet up an account and request a no change replacement card fully online. Thank you. Mr. Washington, how many years have you worked withot . I worked there for 29 yrs. Okay. You testified be in attendance . This is my first opportunity to testify in a closet going . So far, so good. Ok. When i was governor, i used to testy at hearings. I hope you get to do it as much as i did. Was encouraged to learn the department of transportation has successfully moved its inperson program with its fully virtual format and flexibility virtual allows more Senior Leaders to participate. As you know, in the next couple months, we will have a new administration, thousands of new employees serving in the federal government. Would you take a moment and explain how the department of transportation ensures that new employees have resources and what they need to be successful in this . The second half of my question is,at do you have recommendatios for agents across the government in regard to. Thank you for that question. At the onset of the pandemic, we reached out right away, stakeholders in Information Technology and we came up with the virtual onboarding experience. As you stated, it really has allowed senior levels of the department to participate in week successfully on board over 500 new department of transportation employees across the country they have been able hear from the chief of staff and personally participated in the virtual onboarding experience every other monday so that has worked very well. Another thing we have done, recognizing the needs of our employees working in a remote environment. Have assigned a sponsor for our new employees so they can feel all the Team Practices from long serving employees so i think the collaboration between Human Capital, stakeholders of the Information Technology organization has been integral to rolling out the successful onboarding process so employees across the country are getting that experience so thats my recommendation for other federal agencies, collaborati and partnership with the various elemen of the organization. Enthank you. Ill ask the same question, the coordination assistae, cybersecurity and infrastructu infrastructure. Over the years, a number of my colleagues Work Together with Homeland Security rources necessary to carry out its rules. The agency i a most proud of, capalities and leadershi cybersecurity and infrastructure i often say if you want to go fast and wanting to go forward, do not see muc at all on that. You provide these tools and these services and capabilities safeguard these networks. I asked each of you in this relationship. [inaudible] d thank you. I am sorry, senator. Wanted to start with me . Information technology in my folio. However, i do work very closely with our chief Information Officer make sure as we onboarding new employees and equipped employees to move into a telework environment, we are meeting all cybersecurity requirements. All right. Mr. Washington. Same question. Describe yourr relationship in this. Ank you for that question. At the department of transportation, take cybersecurity ver seriously and believe a lot ofha the investmes and coordinationentralization of a lot of our cmodity it centralizes and auplicate of system it is put us in that posture from cyber pspective. We have promoted annual Security Awareness training and we get weekly messages, remders of employees how to operate a cybersecurity perspective and a remote environment. We also have issued laptops dot issued laptops to remote employees and they have security Monitoring Software on them that alerts the user and dot siebel securities if a threat is detected. We have niced an increase in the tax durg the pandec. I think my times expired. Thank you so much. Thank you. Next. Thank you. I want to thank our panels again for the presentations today. Mr. Washington, in your testimony, you have your agencies have had duringhe pandemic, i appreciated hearing about this do find it strange your agency and insisted on earringsefore the committee and person, which im not sure the message you want to send during this rise and covered cases. My first question, before the pandemic, your agency repord moving away from telework because it couldnt evalue the impact of telework on plic services and didnt have metrics in place to ensure acuntability. Today your agency is working to put these controls into place and our reports that employees are successfully decreasing claims wle in this telework situation. Could you tel me, what have they learned about telework in recent months to change directions dramatically . How does this inform their decisions to move forward . That is a great question. As i menoned in my testimony, telewo is not onesizefitsall. We obviously have a core Public Service function but that manifests itself in many different kinds o work. Prior to the pandemic, we reevaluated our Telework Program to focus on accountability and ensure we could address our Public Service challenges. I think we all recognize the social Security Administration is serving 10000 rire every day, medicare claims, retirement benefi and Public Service has always been so fundamentalo oumission so in the evaluation of our Telework Program, we did not have historically adequate metrics and Adequate Program evaluations, eh who took the agency must determine eligibility based on Public Service needs, availability and the abity to ensure acuntability. Thank you. I ve a followup question as well. One of the challenges of the pandemic is recognizing some jobs cant be done fully or partially in telework. Early in the pandemic, calling constituents having a hard time getting Social Securityrk cards replaced at the local offices. Online only services can be particularly dficult in rural areas or areas withccess to a computer is limit are you collecting and consideng be back as youeview the shift in telework . Thank you. It is a Perfect Question to post because i am in technology. We are looking at new ways to use technology. I mentioned nonportable work which is not portable because there is not technology where we have not late in technology to support that but that is not, it is really from the Lessons Learned from trying to serve the American Public remotely and specifically in regards to Social Security cards, we looking at the use of technolo technology, Video Technology and the ability to rather than inspect for example, drivers license confirmed drivers license features for Data Exchange. So we could use a combination of Data Exchange and Video Technology to handle Social Security cards, the technology is there week, until the pandemic, we werent looking at it. We are looking at it now very, very seriously. Thank you. I appreciate that. My next question is for missus rose. The Health Administration factors have to be ony,ve site t some portion of their jobs can be done remotely. Employees shared with our committee they are not being granted permission for partial telework and even more concerning, some employees are not asking supervisors telework over fears of retaliation. Are they working to overcome longstandingrejudice against teleworks all employees were eligible to do so for at least a portion of the job . What mechanisms are they using to allow employees to ruest telework and report concerns about telework without fear o retaliation . Thank you so much for the question. Im happy to report that 99 of the employees at this time are eligible for telework 98 of our employees are teleworking almost every day and that includes safety inspectors and other employeewho work in the field performing enforcement and inspection duties. We have encouragedafety inspectors and other field employees to telework tohe maximum extent feasible. There are portions of the jobs that easily translate to ato remote telework site for a home site the portions of the job requires them to continue to remain in the field. We make sure they have ppe they are properly equipped and trained they he to go into public areas to perform inspection and enforcement duties but we are working ver hard to make sure those portions of the jobs that dont require them to be on site for done remotely, safely and with social distancing. We need, on a regular recurring basis with Union Representatives to discuss concerns and issues, secretary for administration and Management Meeting on weeklyou basis with leadership and representatives of our be unit to address the concerns were showing today and make sure we have solutions and work cooperatively with the union for those solutions. Appreciate that. We may follow once we have heard from some employees as well. I have one question for mr. Washington. In may, transportation chief Information Officer quoted in an article that your agency is h seen an increase in productivity across the workforce. How are you measuring these increases in productivity to what do you attribute the increases to . Thank you so much for that question. We do believe productivity has increased of the department of transportation under the remote environment and we are very proud the department ofre transportation employees have risen to the occasion. Oneo example, we will metrics fr assessing productivity so we did a survey to survey our managers and we are proud to report 55 of them felt their work unit was more effective during the covid19 pandemic that is one metric we used, our survey. We also note in congress approving the cares act, they were able to obligate the funding to the state holders over 24 billion ahead of the statutory deadline to the numerous examples of productivity enhancements as a result of the remotenvironment of the department of transportation we ctinue to assess the. Thank y so much. Mr. Chairman, i apologize and yelled back. If you want to do a second round as well . Yes, i will. Great. We will make sure we reserve that. I know we have senator rosen joining us in a moment. Let me ask a few questions until they can join us remotely. Hes been left out in this conversation, i dont want you to feel left out but i want to be able to zero in on what they have established. Look at the issue of telework for a long time, you submitted to us some of the things youve done in the study but theres one statement that stuck out to me on it. The statement said this about Performance Management, agencies shouldld establish guidelines to minimize adverseo, impacts that telework and have on non teleworkers. Provide some clarity on these guidelines to minimize efforts impacts that telewor have on non teleworkers. Did you mean . Than you. We dont want to have disagreements between those who can telework and those who cannot. For example, by forcing those in the offe to take up response abilities of those teleworking whether it means physically moving documents or t doing work th cant be done remotely. You want to make sure if there are times that someone is not teleworking needs to stand in for someone who is, that there is equity in that and responsibiliti are shared ross those who telework and those who dont. Let me provide a little color to this ande asking this question. Several years ago, i was visiting one of our agencies anc i will leave the agency out, but i was visiting the agency and it uts a friday and i was Walking Around in a particular entity and they need to be able to help with it and in the dialogue, i ard repetitively it is friday the halff our people are he, they are teleworking today but i know theyre just not working today and they were angry just about every cubicle i went t q heook the day off but they say ey are teleworking. When i read tha statement, thought i personallyeard that where individuals felt they were carrng the burden. In the last severalonths, just about everybody h been teleworking. There is notn option here back and forth but in the days ahead, lo forward to the time we have vaccine review, option a good. What would youou recommend here . Was picking up from people not teleworking was a sense that the people who were teleworking were not being held account that the same metrics were being used for them productivity as it was for those in the officecs productivity. Thank you for that. One of the key practices we emphasize is that ther performance to treat teleworkers and non teleworkers the same need rated on the same competencies and judge accordingly. One of the issues is that telework requires a different way of managing staff as opposed to managing by observation, need to manage by results. We were also suggest that someone who has a performance issue, you are likely to have that performance issue with them regardless of whether they are teleworking or in the office. Finally, if there are concerns that someone you cannot observe is not working, i argue that is not telework but its a trust issue. That goes back to holding them accountable for the results time frames and work products they e supposed to produce rerdless if they are working. Thank you. A similar question, apartment labor, or your managers able to ld teleworkers to account to check in on the evaluate and have metri performances is not new to the department of labor. You done this work for a long time and you have a lot of them that telork some days it in the office some days. Boundaries do they haven their management capabilities in the Office Versus telework . Thank you. We worked very hard with managers and supervisors to make sure they feel equipped supported to manage in the environment. As you have acknowledged, it is different to supervise someone remotely and is someone you can see physically throughout the workday and check in on periodically. Vi Leveraged Technology replicate as much of a real Life Experience as possible just as we doing today with a partially virtual hearing. We find it works very well. Ur Performance Management system, four years has been metrics based and we really work hard to make sure all employees performanceen plans are linked o Departmental Agency operating plans and contain quantifiable measures. Im delighted to report we just completed our 2020 performance and have noticed no appreciable decrease in productivity or achievement against the operating plan metrics the whole time weve been teleworking. It is also interesting to note, and i think this goes back a little bit to perception versus reality, not a day goes by that i dont have managers and supervisors tell me how amazed and delighted they are all well 99 telework is working. I always ask, what did you expect . They stop and say well i dont know but i am just surprised and happy that is going so well. The training, the support and performance elements we are holding seem to bee working. Both of you deal wit a lot of private information. More than other entities do obviously every agency does some butou deal with a lot for your entities. Not only from your employeesry dealin with that laptop and home environment rher than a more ctrolled Office Environment, there is yet a issues there but als, the are individuals trying to get access to your. I have the same calls into my constituent services and caseworkers, those calls a coming in saying im trying to get a Social Security card replaced and i cant get anyone there. We have an extra horrible we are still ting to get real id stuff worked out and it has made it much more complicated in physically putting documents in the mail maing them to you has been ahallenge for the department of labor it had individuals that have contacted me and said we love the flexibility we have because we have employees weve hired remotely and were not having to physically handle their documents thi year, given authorityo virtually look at the license virtually look at uae birthertificate for an i9 and how do w keep that . There is really two sides. The dialogue for the customer taxpayers to say how can they continue to get that flexibility into the agency . And they continue to maintain private infmation is private andib secure . I will let you take this first. Thank you, senator. Certainly we do hold very private information of the megan public and very valuable information. While telework isnd not new for us, technology does give us opportunities to ensure continued production of the information. First, i think we are one of the first agencies to implement this for our employees and contractors so we have logical and physical access to personal identity densification first. Our Network Monitoring is similar too but not the same as the pandemic. When i say that, when you take a workforce that is connected to ae wall and into the internet, there are specific challenges there. E. We were able to pit and change the way we do things like scanning. We also look at, from an integrity standpoint, we have a longstanding process for monitoring transactions that take place within our systems to make sure that no one, employees or them, accessing to the information they have. Security policy is very clear, we do not allow bring in devic devices, they are not allowed to print at home, weve done extensive telework training and cybersecurity training and we think that has probably improved our security while we have these chlenges. Any thoughts y have the taxpayer themselves and their items to submit other statutory limitations or is it Just Technology limitations . There are some limitations some statutory, some regulatory but technology can overcome some of those challenges. As i mentioned in my response, we are looking at exchanges to verify identity of documents they do not have to be physically reproduced. You want to make a comment on this as far as protecting private information and also given the flex ability to individuals to submit information . Thank you. We have incremented many of these same security protocols the social Security Administrations were using identification. We do not permit Sensitive Data tor be accessed on anything government provided dol, computers and people must use tokens to log into our networks we feel we have an environment and we work closely with our colleagues in the Information Technology office to make sure the environment stays safe and secure. We have on board and over 1000 people out virtually since the pandemic started and we have gotten extremely positive feedback from all the users, the people being on board, supervisors and managers welcoming new employees in. People have commented on the facility and ease of the application on boarding process because we have converted all of those paper based forms of processes to the computer. We provide the oathof office virtually and we will probably continue that process with Lessons Learned beyond the pandemic. It has been so successful and it has made facetoface contact with people who are remotely duty stations much more effective and vibrant. Were going to come back to that as well. Ms. Rosenberg, one thing i noted regarding policies is that they vary across agencies and even sometimes within offices inside agencies. It makes it confusing for federal employees and challenging for congress to track. Are there recommendations that you would make to congress to better standardize Agency Policies and the policies as we look at how we work in a post pandemic world . . Thank you, senator. Thats a very good question. So, one of our key practices is that eligibility be based on being approved on an equitable basis and that is the criteria of being such as the suitability to remote environments and employees performance. I think the key is to ensure that agencies have concrete Eligibility Criteria that are based on those types of things and applied consistently across the agency. I would say that it would make sense that there would be fun variation against agencies and their missions differ in type of work differs and of course, some positions are less suitable for remote or telework than others. Thank you. Miss rosenberg, given the broad success of telework how are you approaching plans to put employees back on site once the Public Health emergency is over and what data are you examining to ensure that onsite work is stays essential . We have worked very hard and longer, senator cinema on art reconstitution plans and art reopening plans as it were. We will take a phased approach and we will follow state and local guidelines in doing that and follow the government prescribed dating criteria to bring people back and we have already put safety procedures and protocols in place in all our Government Office space things that include the wearing of masks in public and common spaces and we put in plexiglass barriers and shields so that people who face the public in the office are protected and the public is protected and we have set up seating schematics so that people in cubicle form are not working on top of each other or directly next to each other so we will continue to leverage telework within onsite presence in order to maximize social distancing and what traditionally has been fairly close working spaces with cubicles and the movement away from traditional for wall offices so we have gotten a lot of information about safety and security out to our workforce already. Everything is posted on our intranet wety will continue to work with our labor unions and our employees as we move back into a more traditional work postures soap people feel safe, secure and protected and, in fact, are safe, secure and protected. Wothank you. Another question for you. Your agency is unique and then not only were you transitioning your old employees but you are also releasing guidance before broader lady and privatesector guidance is not your area a vector tease but i would like to follow up with your agency on tithis topic. Yet, guidance on telework external has been provided and it is my understanding by our wage and Hour Division that we would be happy to get you that affirmation. I appreate that. Focusing on the department of labors workforce, can you share any instances where work you initially thought had to be done in an office space ended up being compatible with telework and are any of these instances parelative to changing labors d views of determining telework eligibility. We had higher percentage of people whose jobs were not considered telework egible under the telework enhancement act prior to the pandemic and our managers and supervisors have worked to see how those positions can be reformatted and how duties and responsibilities can be reallocated and how technology can be leveraged for example, using data on forms that used to be paper and that have now been converted to digital so that we could send re of our employees home to work during the pandemic and we have very few drives that require an in office, onsi presence, jobs like receptionists, jobs lik mail clerks, jobs like building engineer and even with those positions weve tried to find duties and response abilities that are discrete and unique and , compatible to moving into a remote wor environment, even if it is parttime. Thank you. Mr. Washington, and your testimony you ned that your agency w considering a new remote work policy before the pandemic and looking ahead i think as we all are to a nonpandemic situation what advantages were robust in the ork policy bng to your agency and what areas d you foresee in implenting such a policy . Thank you, senator for that estion but we were considering even prior to the pandemic a remote policy and we are continuing to assess that but one of the rationale for i was help us with thebility to recruit and retai talent. What we found particularly in the National Capital area where we compete for hr specialists and acquisition specialists and ci see my colleague at labor nodding her head d that has been a challenge but we are hoping if we can broaden the applicant pool nationwide then we can really recruit and retain employees at a better rate so that it really improves our attrition so that is our rationale and we are continuing to assess that and we learned over the last few months so we are trying to make that Business Case before Going Forward with our remote policy. We are benchmarking with the private secretary and our stakeholders and counterparts at other federal agencieswi as wel. Thank you. Mr. Chairman, that concludes my round of questioning and thank you for holding the steering again. I learned so much. Thank you, thank you for your participation in the hearing as well and your engagement on this. I want to continue to process and want to talk to all four of you on this one issue and it is about hiring. It is a shift of perspective because many f of the telework individuals are laypeople that are connected to the office and telework one day a week, two days a week, three days a week but during the officer may be in the office once a month or whatever it may be but theres a physical connection and theres a paradigm shift o in the conversation to say we now lean that we can not only telework but we can do that month after month after month and it begs the basic question why couldnt you hire someone in oklahoma to be able to do a task for an agency thatc is based in washington dc and what the difference between washington dc, Northern Virginia, oklahoma and arizona are bringing people on board and the practical there is not one. It also opens up a significant job opportunity to lets say,o spouses of our military which often are working in very remote areas by definition their post is very far from another area and very few Jobs Available and they could work and deferment of transportation and a telework situation even if they arent beatable, nebulous oh, where there arent as many Jobs Available in that area because its a remote training area. So, that is whether you are Border Patrol and assigned to the northern border of north dakota in your remote area and your spouse and you dont have many options, whether Military Spouse or whatever but this opens up operations for the spouses to help federal families, not to mention a lot of other people that will work on other areas. I want to drill down and be as specific as you can. What would private view, either in the regular space or the statutory requirements, for just impractical engagement from not hiring people that you literally never planned to meet or if you do plan to meet and may be an annual meeting at some point in the future but you are talking about onboard supervising working at a distance with no intention that they will drive in once a week to be able to and what would prohibit that . Mr. Washington, your first. Thank you for your comments and that is so interesting that you mentioned Military Spouses but i just had that conversation with a colleague a couple weeks ago because with a lot of Military Spouses you bring the person on board and train them and their excellentmployees and then theeteran is deployed somewhere and you dont want to lose your investment so we been flexible evenre pandemic at the departmen of transportation with allowing employees to, you know, transition and work remotely and we are hoping as a result a lot of lesns learned from the Health Emergency managers would be more receptive so i think its more of a cultur change and we are compiling the data, assesng metrics toe know that Business Case to a moreigorous remote work policy but a lot of it is culture change. Those nothing revelatory staff that mean you cannot do that today or post pandemic that you can do that in a decision you want to make . Im not regular torrey of statutory barriers in fact, it could be cost savings. The employee is working in oklahoma or rural area where the cost of living locality pay is cheaper and there could be cost savings associated with that. I would think the same thing. Im grateful to say that oklahoma has a much lower cost of living then Northern Virginia. Hiring people out of Northern Virginia rather than hiring people out of oklahoma are so many other great states scattered around the country there is a cost savings there and plus theres a ready workforce that may be interesting to take that on and another group of people you could recruit from. Talk to me about this on the hiring side of this and why would that work and what are the barriers that you see. It absolutely would work and does work and we already had started making that shift at the Labor Department just as the Transportation Department had pretty was a a paradigm shift managers and supervisors and had a moment like this is working well and now suddenly i havent applicant pool that is the United States not just washington dc metro area and we are routinely announcing jobs at this time for all locations, not just the washington dc station or Chicago Illinois duty station but considering everyone in the country and in the office of Human Resources itself about a third of my staff is 100 remote telework and that will continue permanently beyond the pandemic because of where they are located and where they are working. I just had an employee in my office whose husband was posted to germany and she was going to accompany him to frankfurt obviously and she is still working for us. I am happy to report and will continue to work for me fulltime for his entire three year assignment in germany. A it is the best and we have found that employees outside the washington dc area stay longer. They are happy to stay working with the agency the recruited them and hired them in the employment and the government in washington tends to be a revolving door and we just steal people from each other and it goes around anded around and around. Im delightedre we can now acces a much bigger applicant pool of very qualified people. Thank you. Thank you, senator. I think looking across government we know the Trademark Office has been doing this for years and i dont believe there were any regulatory or statutory barrierst to permanently outstation having a work from anywhere situation. I think we have learned Social Security that whether it be creating security credentials, laptops, cell phones, providing traininger that work can be done remotely in the workforce can be remote ands we have been addressing challenges, publicservice challenges on her 800 number and we have new 800 number agents that received all of their equipment, security credentials, ooarding, orientation and training retely and they are working from home. Let me find this question and not just your agency but washington dc i one of most expensive realstate areas in the country and is there a potential this coulde a costsaving issue that agencies could, if they work to the process determine i dont need as big of a ftprint here in washington dc to be able to he on people 20 or 40 in the agency that could be hired anywhere in the world and is that something you wou see that would be a change in shift in dc as well as how w manage things. As much a gsa question but i have gao in front of me andm asking you first. I think there is the potential for cost savingsnd i think in two ways one is that individual salarie are based on their official duty station and its their officia duty station is their homer telework location that is a less expensive area tn salaries could be reduced and there also could mean savings for agencies and inow gao moved to expanded telework they enabled us to reduce our footpnts both in our regional offices and rede the amount of these states as well as when the high quartered building its enabled us to rent out part of our Headquarters Building to other agencies as they left people for physical space in the building. Senator rosen, i see that you are there now as well and i love you to join in the conversation and let me open this up to for questions. Thank you, senator. Im happy that you held a second hearing on telework because our federal workforce particularly coping with the stresses of the pandemic [inaudible] and deliver em to the American People in a way that is bestnd im glad we are coming together in a bipartan way to figure out how we do this. I want to talk aboutin cybersecurity because with millions of federal and private Sector Workers mag getting the Office Environment to their hom office because of covid19 i maintainybersecurity while teleworking while it is imperave for National Security really small organizations in particular face challenges like resource constraints to protecting themselves to increasingly sophisticatedyber that by ran somewhere but we know how destructive that can be and how that is for companies when thatappens so to address this vulnerability just this very afternoon i introduced along with bartisan legislation along with senat moran that in correlation with the ftc to publish aetwork of telework related cybersecuri best practices for small organizations including small sinesses, nonprofits and small gornmental jurisdiction so it could be our School District and weve had issues with ran mewhere and of course, in my state and across the country. However, large federalgencies are facing unprecedented time and cybersecurity challenges [inaudib] ms. Rosenberg, could you tell us what you assessed to be the mos significant and most prevalent challenge the federal agencies may be facing when their implementation telework for the latest cybersecurityca practices and you know, they insist that we put out guidelines and done a lot of work on that so how can we make sure that those are reaching particularly with federal workforce . Thank you, senator. What i could say to you is we have ongoing work in our Information Technology and Cybersecurity Team has initiated work that is looking at what federal agencies experiences have been in implementing it Telework Solutions in the pandemic and to what extent the selected agencies address federal Information Security by implementing those solutions. That work is so in its initial phases but the team expects to issue something this summer. Thank you. Anyone else want to talk about the cybersecurity praices and the challenges youve had or how we can help these respond and overcome those cybersecurity challenges that to protect personal information, particularly social secury and administration. Senator rosen, if i may, im jim borland, social secury demonstration. Thank you for the question. I want to emphasize something that senatorarper said earlier that our agency has a very close and productiv working relationship obviously we need to separat security is of critical importance to protecting the personal information and Social Security as one of the largest repositories of that information in governmt. We have found the concept of having sosa too be so helpful because they have the ability to do threat assessments a intelligence gathering tt even as a Large Federal Agency would take many resources and be duplicative so once we get a nding operational directive from sis we know its been thorouly researched and give us advice as to what to do and our role is t get it done and to in that regard the advice and direction that we get from sisa really has a major role to play in improvi and sustaining the strong cybersecurity postures. Fantastic. I cant see everyone there and if there is anyone else, i do have one other question in my remaining time and of course, the general public are depending on our federal agencies for our vital services, Social Security and our va benefits and so many things they will benefit from in the long run. Maintenance of our public lands, even. Particularly at a time when reliable information about Public Health and safety is so important we have to have the public trust are federal agencies to offer Fact Services and responses so everyone would like to address this and how can you talk about you let the net the pandemic challenges for neproviding Customer Service, especially that aspect of your agencies who are missing are missing out on the face to face adaptations did you have to make and really i know there are benefits but what are we missing or how can we help you do better because things get lost in translation so if you want to thank you, senator. Id be happy to. When the pandemic was declared by the World Health Organization we pretty quickly swung to maximized telework but we also made the decision to close our offices. As i mentioned in my opening remarks we saw the population as particularly vulnerable to covid19 and because of the nature [inaudible] the need to protect that not only our employees but the public as well and we made the decision to close our offices but swung immediately to a Public Information campaign to make sure the local communities new outhat while the physical buildings were closed that our employees were working and they could reach the phone number for their local Social Security office and if you have a lames representative you work with you can reach that claims representative. Our 800 Number Service had some different challenges in ones we were able to overcome pretty quickly but we had a situation where we had a legacy telephone platform and only 25 of our employees work and not tele service but we quickly reengineered a solution that wouldllow the 800 number employees to use the system used in our field offices so we could quickly telework and able of all our 800 number agencies but im happy to say we ended our fiscal year and we met our average speed of answer double for our 800 number and its not as we wanted to be but we will keep working are to continue to provide Better Service to the public. Thank you. I know my time is just about up but i know its speaking for my own experience whenever we try to do something with Customer Service it is nice to be able to get to a person and then if you have to call back again to be newith also security that the tability and continuity with te same person is important dissolving a case without having to re litigate and have it as satisfaction for everyone. I appreciate it and i yield back my timet, senator. Senator rosen, thank you. I doy want to ask a couple more questions here. We talked before about onboarding and those Lessons Learned honestly thats one of the challenges weve all discussed and its very different dynamic onboarding enmeone you never met and your manager is not interacting with on au daily basis and the challenge you have typically when you land in the middle as you and i have both said the cubical farm and dont how to fill out a certain form or through a certain process so you turn to the person next to and they help you through that. You dont have that at this point when youre working remotely and you dont know the people that you work around and you dont know who else to call on the teamm thats also doingw the same job to help you in the process and you dont even know your manager and your manager doesnt know you. What lessons have you learned at this point and i be interested in the other three of you if you have specific ideas on , men touring, helping people in the earliest days to be a productive valued part of a team and what lessons youve learned and this because if we will start hiring people no matter where they live then we take what we learned duringhi this time and accelerate that in a broader perspective. Anyone can answer that question if you have additional insight, jump in but i would like mr. Go first. Thank you, senator langford. That isin such an important poit and a vital lesson learned. We knew very early on that we would have two state very engaged with our employees if we are not going to be physically colocated with them. We provided training to managers and supervisors on how to manage and supervise a number environment and quite frankly we have really leveraged Information Technology to every extent possible to try to replicate a realtime facetoface experience for our employees and for our supervisors. We are using programs like teams and skype so that people can have conversations in person, digitally and see one another because that reallya makes a difference in getting to know someone. Weve also tried to replicate some of our morale boosting experiences in a virtual environment and we are going to launch our secretaries honor Award Ceremony tomorrow and it will be conducted completely virtually but it will be streamed out so that all our employees can participate and send congratulations to their colleagues just as they would if we were having the ceremony in our auditorium. It takes a lot of effort and you have to rethink the way you do things but technology has given us the ability to be almost as good as him being there if we try and use it. Thank you. Could i ask a followup question as well. Sure. As you gather these information and new trainings and new training model goals are they sharing that with each other or is every agency developing their own structure and their own idea because everyone is ramping up this time so how much collaboration is their agency to agency to say we found this module to be good for training for employees and this to be good for onboarding we found this metric to be good for measuring performance and evaluating this in a remote setting so im just asking the question, if collaboration is happening at this point im not expecting us to be perfect but were all trying to figure out but has that started and if so, what does it look like . Please report it has started and we have weekly tico collaborative calls thato all te excited Branch Agencies participate in and we have not done as much sharing of Lessons Learned as i think we will coming out of this because, as you have acknowledged, were trying in the thick of it and arcome to each other on a casebycase individual basis and we know each other and its a Small Community and the collaboration vehicle is there to make more use of it as we gain more experience and have time to share Lessons Learned. That would be helpful. We can participate in that and want to help in the process and senator sinema and i have been engaged as is the rest of the committee but i dont want to have or make contractor put together a good training module and sell it to you sell it to youf and sell it to you and yog and suddenly the taxpayer is not getting good bang for the buck because one contractor created something thats good and now they are selling it all over the place to everyone when we could actually buy that license once and use governmentwide if we choose to on that. Mr. Washington, anything to add to this . One additional thing, we have identified a sponsor for any news that have new staff before they come aboard so they can have the resources to reach out to and the sharing of the best practices and the collaboration is been integral to our success is to permit of transportation and we have 54000 employees all over the country so the pandemic hit we started anweekly meetings with our hr director and they were able to raise challenges and talk about best practices so tt has been integral to our success. Good. Mr. Boling, anything to add . Its a a Technology Solution that we found particularly yhelpful but its a rudimentary one andd persistent and in other words, giving folks a place to check in during the day and to ask questions and to touch base and we found it to be very effective in keeping those connections that we are all used to from our physical work space and perpetuating them. We also make widespread use of video and video teleconferencing for meetings and four, i think, many people have forgotten to have their telephones because theyre so used to clicking on someone and calling them so there are lots of Great Technology out there but the important part of the use of technology is the human aspect of it and that Human Connection that is why we are building towards video as well as audio to make that Human Connection and weve all been isolated a long time and its frankly, good to see my colleagues from time to time. I cant begin to tell you the number of times ive heard in the last few months when iran into someone in person at some spot that their First Response is itt so nice to see a person. Thats where i get that but mr. Rosenberg, anything to add to this as well . I would echo the sentiments that my colleague said maintaining that social connectionnd being creative in a way youo it is important and i thinkhe one thing i would adds that as part of the medication is that employees need to change or time and so you need to adapt as the employs need our changing and i think weve learned tha as th pandemic has lasted longer then anyone had hopedhat we had to adjust the typef resources we provide to staff and how we outreach to them and the situations facing change. I appreciate that very much andsi youre right, this is lasd much longer than any of us had thought or hope but by dissing the are remember our tconversation set by easter and fill in the blink after that we do not realize it would be easter 2021 when we were saying it but it is just the reality of where we are today. I have about nine hours more of questions for each of you but you will be glad to know the vote has been called and we cannot do nine hours more of questions with you but we appreciate your insight and let me ask one favor of all of you. As you work to the process you will bump into regulation and statutory prohibitions of things that you think this really needs to be done. This is the committee that will work on those things. When you run into the statutory problems and issues or regular tory issues wouldwo you please make sure you actually you share msem with us and not assume congress doesnt care to hear this but we do. Were just not to the same thing youre doing all day every day we will not see it at the same level you are. When you see those statutory barriers or you see a real tory barrier that needs to be addressed please make sure you share it with our committee. We will continue to be when work on this because this is aat paradigm shift when we work with the government paid were opening a much larger pool of individuals eligible to work with us and with greater flexibly on the tasks we have prayed we will always have in person and we should always be here in washington dc with our agency heads and all those things to be able to interact with the facetoface meetings and need to occur. But we have millions of people around the country that would love to be able to serve the country by serving in one of these agencies. I would love for them to have the opportunity to be able to do that as well and to compete and end up on summons list as the wellqualified candidate that happens to live in oklahoma and maybe get the opportunity to compete for those tasks as well could i look forward to ongoing dialogue about these issues and im please make sure you continue to be able to keep the communication going with our team as we pull together different ideas. Senator sinema and i have started the conversation about legislation that may be needed or helpful in this process as well but as you have ideas intellectuallyeg obtain ideas me sure they get shared with us in a timely basis. That concludes todays hearing andve i am very grateful again r there witnesses that are here ad for the time you been able to share with us but thank you for that. Hearing will remain open for 15 days until the close of business on thursday december 3 which is hard to believe 15 days from now we are into december but we are. There will be for the submission of statements and questions for the record. Thank you again for a much for your continued service as you gone for a very long time and we look forward to getting to Work Together with this. This hearing is adjourned. [inaudible conversations] thank you for your preparation on it. It really is a paradigm shift for all of us. My fear is that when people get back, and the synergy will go right back to where we were. Anything we can do to accelerate this to say okay, weve got a bigger pool and its been a dialogue for years of how to do it and now we got to figure out how to do it immediately. Its ironic that it took Something Like the pandemic [inaudible] you were decreasing the number of people that tela worked and [inaudible] [laughter] most of your telework was one or two days. I love the expanded applicant pool. Its amazing. We will have a fight on that but long term that be a battle but my prediction is theres awe whole bunch of votes that come april or may when they get into a traffic jam driving to the office and say why are we doing this . Exactly. I could have done my without being in this traffic jam. In fact, i did for the last correct, and evil go look for another place and we will lose good people or we can find a way toto manage this. Thank you for thinking ahead on this and please keep the collaboration going. Sharing training tools or modules is important. [inaudible conversations] [laughter] than they will resell the whole thing over again. We found this works and its helpful and we could certainly save the taxpayer money. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. [inaudible] [inaudible conversations] the White House Coronavirus task force is holding a press briefing this afternoon. Cspan2 will have live coverage at 4 00 oclock p. M. Eastern as the Task Force ChairVice President mike pence talks to reporters. Youre watching cspan2 your unfiltered view of government. Created by americas Cable Television comedy as a Public Service and brought to today by your television provider. Three nominees to the federal Election Commission testified at their Senate Confirmation hearing. Shauna broussard, sean cooksey and alan dickerson. The nominees said they had no reason to doubt the legitimacy of the 2020 election. If confirmed, the ftc would once again have a quorum to conduct business and this is one hour and a half