Transcripts For CSPAN2 KEYED Senate Hearing On Pandemic Federal Teleworking 20240711

Welcome and thank you for being here this is a hearing for the Regulatory Affairs for the subcommittee modernizing the federal telework moving forward using the Lessons Learned during the pandemic something good to come out of this pandemic. This hearing is focused on what we can gain it has been a decade since the last significant piece of telework legislation the act of 2010 set the baseline standard for agencies to follow over the last ten years weve seen great advances in Technology Workforce expectations in the increase of cybersecurity threats and to take a little policies and strategies for the federal workforce acting as a magnifying gap on dash this Committee Held a hearing in july during the hearing we could gather Vital Information and also able to draw Lessons Learned of the federal workforce the strategy and policy and during the hearing we also gain some insight of the diet workforce is demanding with the environmental challenges we now face to create remote work policies and the highly qualified individuals since early march federal agencies up been forced to deal with complex problems like sober security and on a massive scale the pandemic has been extremely disruptive to all of our lives and hopefully we can use these challenging times to find longterm solutions to provide real value for federal agencies and employees there is very important telework questions i believe we need clarity on to have a clear path forward for example how do we best prepare employees during a future disaster to transition to a federal workforce policy how do we train managers to stay engaged with more workers and what could we have permanent telework to hire anyone anywhere in the country we want to make sure the cybersecurity threat is at the forefront of the conversations today we look forward to hearing from the frontline we heard anecdotal evidence with a Remote Workforce and today we have the opportunity to hear from the source what we learned in todays hearing has a more efficient flexible federal workforce i want to think the panel for taking time from their busy schedule to be a part of this as well appreciate the opportunity to pick your brain and the experience you have gained in the process watching the hearing what we call the hybrid hearing two of them are alive to our remote most individuals that are here will be remote for this hearing and everyone is spaced during this hearing as well and was social distancing in the time. I do want us to get this information on the record as well they to recognize the Ranking Member for opening remarks to thank you for holding this important hearing thank you for your leadership it has been a pleasure to work with you. From the American Federation of Government Employees i appreciate all of you today we hope that you would agree to join remotely because that would be a great message to show the committee in the country they are increing across the country to demonstrate r ability to work remotely and to adapt to the changing world. Its the hearing is important for a number of reasons that telework automatically means productivity my office has been working virtual since march every day the team is working and we found telework can increase productivity improve employee morale to care for their kids and loved ones. The key to develop the fective telework strategies so they have the toolshey need and they understand the policies unfolded look forward to our conversatn today on this topic wn they were about the problems and challenges and which ones remain. Its important to know the risks a according to a recent executive article more than 100,000 it nationwide have tested positive for covid many see alarming rises recently this week in arizona the percent has reached the highest level in three months in the number of the hotspots in the beginningf this week was 70 percent higher on november 1st. Well most federal employees continue to work from home such as agents and officers of postal workers and staff who caot do so. It is critical to minimize the number of people inhe federal buildings and with that i yield back and look forward to hearing from the witnesses today. Thank you. To proceed with testimony i do a quick introduction Michelle Rosenberg the acting director from gao to oversee the work on feral humane catal issues and throughout the tenure to be recognized with numerousealthcare team awards including Meritorious Service awards and the distinguished Service Award will be testifying first and joining us remotely. From t Us Department of f transportation bee with the Department Since 1981 in the current position with the areas of Human Resources and security and audit relations and acquisitions and maybe occurred the nasa for us next. What do you think . We will talk. Prior to his role the director of Human Resource management. Sidney rose is the chief Human Capital officer at the Us Department of labor shes been 40 years in federal service all spent in Human Resources related occupations responsible for the Human Capital policies and programs and key advisor on Employee Engagement efforts joining Us Department of labor in 2011 and previouslyerved at bls us patent and trademark office. Thank you for being here. Chamberland is the assistant Deputy Commissioner for it operations at the ssa leading daytoday management of the computing infrastructure previously served as the acting Deputy Commissioner for communications for adjudication and review. He served in various analytical technical positions over 15 years Us Department of agriculture and education in washington dc it is the customer the subcommittee to swear at all the witnesses that appear before us please rightand raise your hand. Is through the whole testimony together before the subcommittee is the truth th whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you god . All in its in the affirmative we are using a typing system as you go through the process we will try to stick j close for as much time as possible for conversation so with that i word recognize this rosenberg for yournv Opening Statement Ranking Member and members of the subcommittee and pleased to be here today to discuss federal telework it offers benefits to federal agencies and the workforce we can help with recruitment and retention of employees reduce the need for office space and provide an opportunity for family demand also the agencies can to accomplish their mission during periods of disruption and as you know during the covid19 pandemic that has allowed employees to work remotely to sustain Agency Operations and serve the American Public. Gao identifieded the process of nurturing guidelines the federal agencies should appointment a successful Telework Program. Regular attention to the key practices to Foster Program growth into participation for all that we identified first telework agreements to facilitate agency should have agreements are outlined the agreedupon Work Arrangements with managers and employees. The telework enhancement act ofn 2010 required agencies to have that agreement but the selected agencies did not have regular reviewer document the review of the telework agreement. Given those changes of responsibilitywsen its importat to regular theie review those agreements to ensure they support the Current Business needs if telework agreements are not upup to date agencies may be using an accurate data such as Space Planning and Technology Investment the second key practices training something senator lankford mentioned. Involving a different way with employees and as such there required to provide training to eligible employees it should cover the policies to provide the orientation and focus on telework with those it applications and Performance Management for 2017 review of selected agency Telework Program managers were generally not required to complete that training and as a result to approve or deny requests before they fully understood the telework policies and goals the third key practice its important for agencies to develop Program Evaluations to a tracking system to accurately determine the implementation of thes ud agencies they should use that evaluation to identify problems or issues in the progress to achieve goals agency should then develop an action plan but the assessments of the cost and benefits includingne cost savings can help decisionmakers to determine the overall effect andor value of telework. Mi but selected agencies have little data to support that is associated with their program. Opm indicated agencies improve their ability of cost savings but not all be poor cost savings information with the opm data were call in conclusion the telework key practices identified several which are required by statute to provide a roadmap for federal agencies to respectfully implement the Telework Program however we repeatedly found those challenges to implement programsagag aligned with those practices those challenges have a valuablee learning opportunity to modify Telework Programs improving the mechanics to benefits of agencies and federal employees and the public i am happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank y mr. Washington chairman langford and members of the subcommittee thank you for the oppounity to discuss federal telework during the 18 on half of the Us Department of transportation and the Deputy Assistant secretary for the administration for 29 years the department longstding support and encouragement for telework across the widespread operation improved stability when we quickly and seamlessly converted headquarters and Field Operations in midmarch to maximum telework to meet the covid19 Public Health emergency. This is critical flexibility to ensure america has the safest and most efficient modern Transportation System in the wor it boost economic productivity and Global Competitiveness and passes the quality of life in rural and urban communities telework allows the department to achieve important performance goals and improve the departments capability to support homeland and National Security requirements all whilsupporting the Work Life Balance outcome. Na and 2013 will before the onset of covid19,ot implemented the policy in accordance with the telework enhancement act of 2010. 19 the policy encourages the use of telework and includes notifying 100 percent of employees of the individual telework egibility status. That remains in effect today. Dot leaders encourage the use of telework to the mimum extent possible while maintaining assistant operations to ensure the telework proam dot conducts telework exercises to give employees and managers opportunities to practice working remotely and test the Information Technology those efforts resulted in additional investment of technologand innovation i including secure Virtual Private Networks and infrastructure dots transition to maximum telework was seamless with the onset of the Public Healthn emergency because of advanced preparation across dot monthly teleworkers incread from 13000 in february 230,000 in march without disruption to the agencys mission on network. Under normal circumstances, tically just under half of the dot to the workforce and about one quarter of employees monthly on average with the onset of the covid19 Health Emergency upwardsf 60 percent of the total workforce model the remaining position requires the physical presence with t core responsibilities such as air Traffic Controllers and thee faa and in the Development Corporation and merchant mariners in the mystery so perhaps one of the most viable Lessons Learned was the considerable degree of flexibility when levaging the telework policy work scheduling procedures and Human Resources flexibilities and authities and as a result some offices are viewing plans to reduce office for prayer by eliminating waste space to maximize wk and telework once the covid19 emergency hit emergency hits ends. Emergency hits consistentevel f opations and productivity during the emergency. Thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss some of the work during the Public Health emergency on behalf of the department ofransportation. Im happy to answer any questions that you may have. Mr. Chair man, members of thy subcommittee thank you for the invition to testify today. March 11th, 2020, the coronavirus was declared a pandemic by t world health organization. March 13th the United States declared the outbreak a National Emergency and by midmarch the department of labor entered a to the posture due Global Pandemic Health Emergency. As it became clear that the impact would require significant modifications to the departments operations, the office of Human Resource had the tools available to support the department in moving to a maximum posture modifying internal guidance as necessary. They issued hr guidance, increased Technical Assistance to employees a managers and responded to hundreds of inquiries from managers and employees on a fullange of resources i issued that included pay, leave, benefits, staffing work schedulesve and other workplace flexibilities. The rapidly develed guidance related to Emergency Paid Sick leave offered under the First Response act to ensure that our employees who were unable to work due to qualifying covid19 relatedho reasons as outlined in the regulaons are aware of their entitlements under the law. In importance with the pandemic guidance, the department allowed the eligible employees to work to the maximum extent possible in order to maintain operations as close to normal as possible while ensuring employee safety. Prr to and during the pandemic the eligibility of the Department Required they be suitable for the site and individual employees need the additional criteria required by the telework enhancement act, the policy and applicable collective bargaining agreements. Further individual participation is subject to supervisory approval based on factors such as the Business Needs of the office, the cost of an arrangement and availability of technology and equipment required to support the duties of the position. The services for the resources and Information Technology supported and facilitated the departments ability to quickly adapt to the posture of more remote work. They allowed them to expand the use during the declared pandemic and implement any necessary policy changes to support the shifts and Work Arrangements. Similarly the centralized delivery mod allowed the department to make the necessary policyhanges and resource investments to ensure they were able todequately support the shift to more remote work. The work participation requires the completion of interactive training available through the departments internal learning development system. Raadditionally, the department provides employees with Resources Available on our internet as part of a guidance and resource. The department issing the work to ensure its continuity of the central functions and to perform the bulk of its daytoday operations. They are very proud of their implement a robust policy in response to the pandemic. We believe the efforts to help the work forc workforce to achid maintainn productivity and to serve the departments mission n and the American Public. Thank you ain for the opportunity to address about the departments work, and i look forward to answering your questions. Methank y. Good afternoon. Chairman langford, members of the subcommittee. Thank you for inviting me to discuss the Social Security administration. Im the assistant Deputy Commissioner and deputy chief Information Officer for it operations. Social Security First began to offer remote work options around 20 years ago when technology was much different than the solutis we have today were not widely available. Our Online Services were limited and work was heavily paperbased. Since then weve implement Technology Solutions that have allowed us to be more financial replacing Desktop Computers to improve our businessontinuity. Weve also expanded the Online Presence to make itasier for customers to do business with us without having to comento our offices. For ouren employe we implemented Electronic Solutions that facilitate the Service Environments and for example, Technology Allows its employees to answer their Office Phones through their ltops. These decisions are practical and made good businessense when the unprecedented pandemic hit earlier this year those decisions to keep Service Going remotely ill be close to the office to the public we never stopped providing service with over 90 of our employees able to prote our employees and the public that we serve many of whom by definition of the work we do the goal is to serve the public at least as well as in person and right now not all of it is. We need employees on site for the base to base intviews and scan the mail documents into the systems so they can pcess them alwed us to address the challenges of sving the court remotely weve also been flexible of the policy in some cases allowing telephone stations as an alternative way to sign documents. Its not onesizefitsall. It doet lend ielf to the work for different jobs may have different work and in some cases none at all. Weve also confirmed the successful continuity of erations reqres that are built on modernized it infrastructure and weve been reminded we he more work to do to eablish a fully Robust Program basedn the accountabilitynd objective measures that make sense from the public w serve and for our emplees. Its developed a pressure test of the capabilities and its heing on focusing on where we can improve. I would like thank the public, employees and you. Looking forward to answering any questions that you may have. Thank you. We have a habit in our hearings that we hold our questions until the end and we defer to the other memberss to ask questions. This should be an interesting dynamic for the witnesses to be able to participate. You will have some that will call you by name or title i would encourage those joining us remotely to just jump in if you want to be able to ask a question and feel like you are in the room to be able to participate. Thank u so much for joining us today. I waca to start off with a question suggested to us by a member of our constituent Services Team back in delaware requires the inspection of the original person identification documents and in orde to process. They will undergo the iinspection. Ive heard from a number of our constuents that are concerned about mailing the original documents about the security of the documents senator carper let me first say we recognize the pandemic has service challenges for us. You are correct one of the is that we are protecting the integrity of the Social Security number very seriously and the limited ability to help set up appointments for individuals on the Public Health direction to limit the number of employees we have in the office and limited the number in the public that we provide in Person Service to. Two. In person appointments are available and we are fulfilling that requirement. We dont have a workaround i also want to say most americans who need a replacement card can use the my Social Security service and go online to Social Security. Gov, set up a my Social Security account and request a no change replacement rd online this is my first opportunity to testify. How is it going . So far, so good. I used to testify before the house and senateearings the department of transportation had successfully moved its Program Allows them to participate as you know when the next couple of months we will have a new administration with thousands of new employees serving in the federal government. It ensures they have the resources and support they need to be successful during this time and the second half of my question is do you have any recommentions across the government with regards to [inaudible] thank you for the question. At the offset of the pandemic we reached out right away on Human Capital to our stakeholders in the Information Technology. And we came up with a virtual onboard experience and as you stated, that really has allowed various senior levels of the document to participate. In fact, we successfully onboard iover 500 new dartment of transportation employees across the country and another thing that we have done recognizing the need e many of our employees are working in a remote environment, we have assigned a sponsor for all of our new employees so they can feel part of the tm and they can get best practices from long serving employees. So i think the collaboration between Human Capital, our stakeholders and Information Technologyrganization has been integral to rolling out the process so our employees across the country are getting that experience. Bthat would be my recommendatin tfor other federal agencies, te collaboration an partnership with the various elements of the organization. [inaudible] capabilities and leadership if you want to go far its incredibly valuable to provide the tools and Response Services and assessment capabilities. More needs to be done in the cybersecurity space. Im sorry, senator. You wanted to start with me. Information technology is not in my portfolio. However i do work very closely with our chief Information Officer to make sure as we onboard new employees and equip them to move into the environment that we are meeting all federal cybersecurity quirements. [inaudible]be we believe a lot of the investment and coordination andd centralization of a lot of our commodity sort of centralizing and gets rid of the duplicate of systems has put us in a better posture from a cyber perspective. We give weekly messages just reminders how to operate on the cybersecurity perspective and remote environment. We also have issued laptops to all of our remote employees and they have security Monitoring Software that alerts the user and the dot cyber officials of a threat is detected. We havent really noticed the increase of attacks during the pandemic. [inaudible] thank you, senator. Im going to go next to senator sinema for questions. First i want to thank the panelists again for their presentations today. Did note in your testimony you highlighted another success in expandingo the pandemic which i very much appreciated hearing about. My first question your agency reported that it was moving away from telework because it couldnt evaluate the services and it didnt have the metrics orin place to ensure accountability. Today your t agency is working o put these in place and the reports that employees are successfully decreasing the claims while in this situation can you tell us what have you learned about the telework in recent months [inaudible] as m i mentioned it isnt onesizefitsall. That manifests itself in many adifferent ways. Prior to the pandemic we focused ono accountability and to ensure we coulddi address our Public Service challenges i think we all recognized the Social Security administration serving 10,000 baby boomers that retire every day so the claims for medicare and Retirement Benefits and Public Service has always been so very fundamental to the mission. Ofbecause we do not have the historic metrics and as my colleague said to determine the eligibility based on the Public Service and availability to ensure. One of the challenges has been recommending some jobs cannot be done fully or even personally. In the pandemic there wasande am having a hard time getting Social Security cards replaced at the localfi field offices. It can be particularly difficult inin these areas where access ta computer is limited. How do you consider receiving feedback from the beneficiaries as you review the shift and accept the practices moving forward . Its an important question to am a technology guy and were looking at ways to use technology from trying to serve remotely and Video Technology a the ability to inspect the drivers license to confirm the drivers license features realtime so we could use a combination of the data exchan and Video Technology to handle Social Security workloads. The technology is there but until the pandemic we were not looking at it. I appreciate that. My first question is f msus rose. They hav to be on site but some portion of the job can be done remotely. Employees have shared they are not being granted permission for the partial work and even more concerning some are not asking over fear of retaliation. They can do so with a portion of the job. What mechanism are they using to allow them to request telework. Thank you so much for that question. Im happy to report that 99 of the employees at this time are eligible and up to 98 of our employees e are working every dy that it does include safety inspectors and other employees who work in the field performing enforcement and inspection duties. Weve encouraged safety inspectors and other field employees to work to the maximum extent feasible. It easily translates to the remote worksite or homesite and other portions of the job do require them to remain in the field. We make sure they are properly equipped and trained when they have to go into areas to perform inspections and enforcement duties but we are also working very hard to make sure the portion of the job that do not require them to be on site are atdone remotely, safely and with social distancing. We meet on a regularly occurring basis with the Union Representatives to discuss the issues and Management Meeting on ass weekly basis with leadership in the bargaining units to address the kind of concerns that you are sharing today and to make sure that we have solutions and that we work collaboratively with the union. I appreciate that and we may followow up with some of the concerns weve heard from employees as well. I have one last question from mr. Washington. In may the chief Information Officer was quoted in the federal article as seen in the productivity across the workforce. Howou are you measuring these increases in productivity and to what do you attribute those two . Thank you so much for that question, senator. We do believe the productivity has increased and we are proud of the Department Employees have risen to the occasion. To serve the managers we are proud to report 55 of them would have felt the work unit was even more effective during the pandemicrk so that is one metric that we used to survey but also i know when Congress Approves the cares act, they were able to obligate all the funding to the stakeholders there are numerous examples of the productivity enhancement as a result of the remote environment at the department of transportation. So we are continuing to assess that. Thank you mr. Washington. I have exceeded my time. I know the senator i senatorg us in just a moment. I dont want you to feel left out but i do want you toly be a little to zero in on some of the things established. Weve looked at this for a long time and youve submitted some of the things youve done in the study but theres one statement that stuck outao to me. You said this about Performance Management. Agencies should establishta guidelinesga to minimize adverse impacts that the work can have. So provideer some clarity for te adversempacts. What did you mean by that . Between those that can and those that cannot for example by forcing those that are in the office to take up responsibilities of those that are teleworking whether that means physically moving documents or doing work that cant be done remotely so you want to make sure if there are times someone needs to stand in that there is equity and the responsibilities are shared across those that work and those that dont. Let me provide a little color to this. Several years ago i was visiting one of the agencies and i will leave the agency out as i do this but i was visiting one of the agencies and happened to be on a friday just Walking Around the cubicle in that particular entity and just talking to different employees how is it going, how is the morale. What word you recommend that those that were not working when i being held to account on the same metrics were held for productivity for those that were actually in the office . Thank you for that one of the key process that we emasize is that the performancee the womens management to treat teleworkers and non teleworkers the same on the base on the same competencies and judgeded accordingly. It is a different way to manage staff by observation you need to manage my results also you have a performance issue with that would be regardless if they were teleworking are in the office. Finally there are concerns you cannot observe that is not a telework issue that is a trust issue and then that goes back to holding staff accountable for the timeframe and the work product they are supposed to produce regardless r. If the departmentro of labor managers able to hold them to account to check in on them for have those metrics performanceske this is not new to the department of labor youve done telework for a long time. What authorities or what boundaries do they have under management capabilities in the office for telework situation . We work very hard with management providers to make sure they feel equipped and supported to manage the environment and as you have acknowledged it is different to supervise someone remotely than someone you can see physically throughoute the workday and check in periodically we can Leverage Technology to replicate real Life Experience is much as possible we find that works very well. Our Performance Management system for years has been metric based and we really work hard to make sure all employees performance plans are linked to agency operating plans with quantifiable measures im delighted to report we just completed our 2020 performanceta here and have hanoticed no appreciable decrease in productivity or achievement against those operating metrics the whole time we have been teleworking. Is also interesting to know with perception versus reality managers and supervisors told me how amazed they are how well 99 percent it is working. I say what did you expect . They say i know but im just surprised and happy it is going so well go the trainees and the support and the peormance elements seem to be working. Anyone to this conversation both of you deal with a lot of private information more so than many other entities every agency does something you deal with a lot. Not onl from your employees on a laptop in a home environment rather a more controlled environment there are issues tt are there but also there are individuals trying to get access toou the calls commencing on trying to get a Social Security card replaced and i cannot get anyone there and people in oklahoma still tryi to get real id worked out and then physically putting documents in the mail and maing them to you has been a challenge for the department of labor ive had individualsg contacted me this week regardi the flexibility because employees we have hiredd remotely and we cannot physically handle their documes t but you virtually look at their birth certificate for the i9. So how do we keep that . There are two sides the dialog to the customer to the taxpayers to say how can they continue and to maintain of information and with the American Public and while telework is not new for us it does give us opportunities to ensure the continued protection for that information one of the first agencies to implement for employees and contractors and the Network Monitoring is similar to the same as the pre pandemic. When you take a workforce that is connected to the wall and immediately connected to the internet there is some specific challenges. We have a longstanding process that take place within our system that the public are misusing and for those that have extensive telework training in cybersecurity training for the Remote Workforce. And we think that has improved our security pture to be remote. Any thoughts for the taxpayer themselves in the digital items other statutory limitations th . Summer statutory summer regulatory that they can overcome those challenges as i responded earlier how to use dataal exchanges so they dont have to be physical. What about protecting private information and those to submit their information. And that the Social Security administration has in place and for those to be accessed with those computers and to log into the network so we have an environment and so that environment stays safe and secure we have unported over 1000 people virtually since the pandemic started and to get extremely positive feedback and those to welcome new employees a lot of people commented on the ease of the application with all of those processes to the computer. We have done away with a wet signature we are using digital signatures providing the oath of office virtually. We will probably continu the process beyond the pandemic it has been so successful and has made facetoface contact with people who will remotely do these station much more effective and vibranta. We will come back to that as well. Thank you mr. Chairman. One thing i have noticed across agencies and even with offices inside agencies. Are there recommendations you make for congress for Agency Policies looking at telework in the post telework . So one of the key process is eligibility be based on and with that feasibility from employee performance so that agencies have concrete eligibility criteria. And then with a variation among agencies and the missions differ with that work and others. Thank you. Given the success of telework during the pond jutland puttinghe pandemi them back on site once it is over. We are working on the reconstitution plans to take a approach to follow state and local guidelines and then to safety procedures and particles in place and all Government Office space and things that include the wearing of masks in public and common spaces with plexiglas barriers and shield so people who face the public are protected and the public is protected. So those that are not working on top of an each other and then to maximize social distancing in what had been fairly close working spaces with cubicles and a movement away from the traditional four wall office. And then everything is posted on the internet and we will continue to work with our labor unions and employees as we move back into a traditional war posture to make sure people feel safe and secureou and protected. Not only were you transitioning your own employees but also releasing guidance to the broader labor force i realize private sector guidance with that expertise but its for that topic. Guidance external to the federal government by the wage and Hour Division were happy to get you that information. Focusing on the workforce can you share where work you initially thought had to be done in the office space and not being compatible with telework . And to determine that eligibility. We have a higher percentage of jobs who were not considered telework eligible under the enhancement act and the managers and supervisors have worked to see how those positions and they can be reallocated and those that use to be paper and now converted to digital so we can nd more employees home to work during the pandemic. We have very few jobs that require the in office on site presence like receptionistmail clerks, building engineer and even with those positions we have try to find duties and responsibilities that are discrete a and unique incompatible to moving into a remote work vironment even if the time. In yourestimony you know that you are considering remote policies before the pandemic. And those which they bring to your agency and whatarriers do you foresee to implement such policy . We were considering agents prior to the pandemic with the remote policy and we continue to assess that. And then to the ability to recruit and retain what we found where we compete and it has been a challenge if we can have that nationwide we could recruit and retain employees at the federal rate so that is the rationale. We continue to assess that over the last few months. We try to make the Business Case before Going Forward with the remoteolicy where the benchmark and the private sector and counterparts and other federal agencies as well. That concludes my round off questioning thank you again for holding this hearing. Thank you for your participation and your engagement on this. Hiring is a shift in perspective because much telework these individuals are people connected to the office maybe there in the office once o a month there is a physical connection and a paradigm shift to say we have now learned we cannot only telework five days a week by month after month and begs the question why couldnt you hire someone in oklahoma to do a task for an agency based in washington dc . Was a difference between arizona or washington dc to bring people on board . There is not. Opens a significant job opportunity for spouses of military which often are working in very remote areas by definition the post is very far from another area with very few Jobs Available with the code work at department of transportation in a telework situation even in oklahoma where they are not as many Jobs Available in that area because it is a remote trainingng area. And you are so into the northern border in north dakota and military spouse. So be as specific as you can with you but you in the regulatory space with the statutory requirements for him practical engagement for not hiring people that you literally never plan to meet . Or if you do it would be an annual meeting something in the future and working at a distance that they would drive and once a week to ever connect with the office. And mentioning military spouses i just had a conversation wh a colleague. And then they train them and then and then flexible the pandemic and to remotely on but we will be. And with that Health Emergency and then compiling the data assessing metrics to feel that Business Case with the more work policy that is rigorous but that is culture change. You cannot do that today arpost pandemic you cannot do tha that . I a regulatory or statutoryod barriers. There could be a cost savings. If employee is working in oklahoma will area where the cost of living in locality pay is cheaper that could be costsaving. I was thinking the exact same thing i am grateful to say oklahoma has a much lower cost of living man northern virginia. Toay hiring people out of both virginia there is a cost savings there plus a ready workforce that they should take that on and another group of people can we come from. It would work in the does workat than just with the Transportation Department has it was apparent for managers and supervisors who have that eureka moment this is working really well now suddenly i have an applicant pool that is the entire United States not just united on washington dc metro area. Andd with that Chicago Illinois duty station and in the office of Human Resources about one third of my staff is 100 percent remote telework and that will continue permanently beyond the pandemic because of where they are located and working. I just had an employee in my office whose husband is posted to germany and she would accompany to frankfurt. She is still working for us and will continue to work fulltime fouryear assignment in germany. We have found those employees out of the area stay longer they are happy to stay working with the agency the recruited and we one hire them it tends to be a revolving door and we still people from one another and it goes around and around. So now im delighted we can access more closely people. Looking at across government the conference has been doing this for years because i believe there are any regulatory or statutory barriers and then have a work from anywhere situation. And then we have learned from the Social Security whether cell phones or laptops to provide training and it can be done remotely the workforce can be remote. We have been addressing Public Service challenges on the 800 number b and we received all of their equipment insecurity credentials with that orientation and training remotely. Natalie for your Agency Washington dc is one of the most expensive real estate areas in the country. Savingsld be a cost issue and then to hire people knowinthat i will assume 20 percent a or0 percent at thisoint for american citizens is that something you would see oa shift in dc as well . And that i he gao in front of me so i am asking you rst. And those individuals salaries are based on their station and for the salaries and also gave me savings agencies on fth. And then to the expanded teleworkllowing us to reduce the for partr regional office. And then allowing us to rent out parts of our headquarters to other agencies. Thank you senator high and happy you have a hearing on telework and to be coping with the services that Everybody Needs so im really glad we are coming together to figure out how we do this. And then to navigate the transition to the home because of covid19 and for the National Security it is imperative in particular with these challenges like resource constraints who know how destructive that could be. So with this former ability just this afternoon to be introduced with bipartisan legislation. And then to push our network of cybersecurity including Small Businesses and nonprofits and jurisdictions like school districts. So can you tell us where it is the most significant prevalent challenges the agencies are facing implementingca telework cybersecurity . The way. Guidelines will that these are reaching that workforce. Thank you reaching that workforce. Thank you if that Cybersecurity Team has initiated work from a federal agencies experience and to read experience with that security guidance and that is in the initial phases from something issued this summer. Anyone els or how we can respond with a cybersecurity challenges . Thank you for the question. And toave a close active working relationship and when it comes to protecting personal information we have found but then to be so incredibly helpful enter that threat assessment and intelligence gathering he has a large for your agency many resources and duplicative we know it is a real threat to give advice as to what to do and our goal is just to get it done. In that regard the advice and direction has a major role to play to sustain a strong cybersecurity posture. And one other question my remaining time they are detaining the federal Agency Services and so many things a word benefit so at that time with Public Health you tell the Public Health trust the agencies. Your response if anybody would like to address how you talk about meeting these challenges and with that agencys mission and with those adaptations you haveof to make so what can we help you do better . So when the pandemic was declared by the who to maximize telework and as i mentioned in my opening remarks we saw the population particularly vulnerable with covid19 and the nature of the work need to check the employees but immediately to a Public Information campaign to make sure local communities no that while physical buildings were closed employees were working to reach the local Social Security office if you have a claims rep you work with you can reach the claims rep and they had some different challenges once we were able to overcome pretty quickly but we had a situation and only 25 percent of our employees were quick to go to telework to allow the hundred number employees so they can quickly a telework are a hundred agents we met the average speed of answer on the whole is not as low as we wanted to be we want to providea better service. Speaking from my ownpu experiences continuity with the same person. You talk about with the challenges we have discussed is very different your manager is not interacting on a daily basis in the challenge you have when you land in the middle of cubicle farm if you how to do a certain process you turn to the person next to you and you dont have that at thisou point you dont know who else to call and its a seem to help in the process you dont even know your manager and your manager does not know you so what lessons have you learned if you have specific ideas about on boarding to mentor helping people in the earliest days toic be active in the team because of the star hiring people no matter wheree they live that what we learned during this time period with a broader, perspective we knew wed have to stay very engaged with employees if we were not be physically coal located with them. Whereye training supervisors how to manage in the Information Technology to every extent possible to replicate a realtime face to face experience for our supervisors we are using skype so people can have conversations in person digitally and see one another we also tried to replicate our morale boosting experiences we launch the ceremony tomorrow it will be conducted so that all employees can participate and send congratulations to their colleagues just as if we were having the ceremony in the auditorium it takes a lot of effort you have to rethink the way you do things that technology has given us theerha ability to be almost as good as being there if we try. As you gather this informationn are you sharing that w or because how much collaboration is there to say this is good for training and on board training and this metric is good to measure performance and evaluate in a remote setting . I dont exct it to be perfect what does that look like . I am pleased to report it has started those calls of all executive Branch Agencies participate we have not done as t much sharing Lessons Learned is coming out of this and talk on it casebycase and as we gain more experience. And then with the rest of our committee but what i want to have as a contractor going together a good training module sell it to you and you and yout tct and suddenly the taxpayer isnt getting bang for the buck because one contractor created something good now selling it to everyone when we covered by the license once. Additionally i would add we have identified the sponsor for any new staff even before they come aboard to have that as a resource to reach out to. Sharing best practices has been integral to our success at the department of transportation with 54000 employees on the pandemic it restarted weekly meetings with our hi directorsntt to talk abot best practices so that has been integral to our success. It is a Technology Solution we found helpful but it is persistent and then to check in during the day to touch base and asked questions we find it to be very effective to keep paying those connections we are used to with the physical workspace treat them with video teleconferencing and many people have forgotten how to use their telephones because they are used to clicking and calling. There is a lot of Great Technology out there but the important part that is that connection why we moved word video as well as audio. They have been isolated a long time and its good to see my colleagues from time to time. I cannot take the number of times i have heard the last few months running into someone in person they say is so nice to see a person is anhing youd like to add a quick. I eo the sentiments my colleague said to maintain that social connectedness the one thing i would add as part of this continuous communication is empyees need change over time so you need t adapt at the needs. Hange e pandemic has lasted longer than any of us have hod and we have had to adjust resources lo provide and that they are facing change. I appreciate that and you are right and i distinctly remember conversation saying byf easter and then we would fill in the blank we did not realize we meant easter 2021 but that is just the reality of today. I have nine hours worth of questions for each of you we will be glad to know the vote called but i very much appreciate yourt insight. Let me ask one favor as you works in the process but that of whatin you think needs to be done when you runnto a statutory please share them with us dont assume we dont care to hear about it were just not doing the same thing you are doing we dont see it at the same level. You see those statutory barriers where regulatory issue that needs to be addressed please share it back with a committee. , because it is a paradigm shift is a work as a federal government opening much larger pool of individuals to work with us with greater flexibility with the tasks we have will always have in person and should always be here with the agency heads to interact we have millions of people around the country that would love to serve their country by serving in one of these agencies and i would love them to have the opportunity to do s that as well and compete has a well qualified candidate that happens to live in oklahoma. So i look forward to ongoing dialogue about these issues and to keep the communication going with our team is altogether different ideas and for those that could be helpful in this process as you have ideas please make sure those are shared with us on a timely basis that concludes todays hearing i am grateful for the witnesses tt are here thank you for that and through the close of business its hard to believe 15 days from now we are into december thank you again for your continued service this hearing is adjourned this hearing is adjournedth. Thank you for doing this and all of your preparation. So whatever we can do to accelerate this to say we have other opportunities that are here and now to figure how to do that immediately. And then to force the issue that decreases the numberg of people. [laughter] it is just amazing. Longterm that will be a battle but my prediction is come april or may where we will figure out a way so thank you for thinking ahead on this. s and then they will refill the whole thing over again alld with. The presiding officer without objection. Mr. Mcconnell first, mr. President , as the Senate Reconvenes this afternoon, im especially happy to welcome back especially happy to welcome back stomach as the Senate Reconvenes im especially happy to welcome back senator grassley from quarantine working from home