S.Amdt. 2111

SA 2111. Mr. ROMNEY (for himself and Mr. Manchin) submitted an
amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill S. 4638, to
authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for military activities
of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military
personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes; which
was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:

At the appropriate place, insert the following:

SEC. ___. TELEWORK.

(a) In General.--Chapter 65 of title 5, United States Code,
is amended--
(1) in section 6502--
(A) in subsection (b)(2)--
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking ``and'' at the end;
and
(ii) by adding at the end the following:
``(C) provides that, subject to subsection (d), an employee
may not telework for more than 40 percent of the work days of
the employee per pay period;
``(D) shall be reviewed on an annual basis by, and be
subject to the annual approval of, the head of the executive
agency; and
``(E) provides that the executive agency, by using remote
technical means or other appropriate methods, will monitor
and evaluate the applicable employee when the employee is
engaged in telework;''; and
(B) by adding at the end the following:
``(d) Adjustments to the Permitted Number of Telework
Days.--With respect to the limitation under subsection
(b)(2)(C), the head of an executive agency may--
``(1) further limit the number of work days per pay period
that an employee of the executive agency may telework based
on the specific role of the employee or other circumstances
determined appropriate by the head of the executive agency,
including--
``(A) the frequency with which the employee needs to access
classified information;
``(B) whether the employee is newly appointed; and
``(C) whether the employee occupies a managerial position
within the executive agency; or
``(2) waive that limitation with respect to an employee of
the executive agency if--
``(A) the employee is a spouse of--
``(i) a member of the Armed Forces; or
``(ii) a Federal law enforcement officer;
``(B) the employee occupies a position--
``(i) the duties of which require--

``(I) highly specialized expertise; or
``(II) frequent travel; or

``(ii) for which finding qualified candidates is
challenging; or
``(C) inclement weather or other exigent circumstances
prevent the employee from reaching the worksite of the
employee during a pay period.''; and
(2) in section 6506, by adding at the end the following:
``(e) Executive Agency Reports.--
``(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
enactment of this subsection, and annually thereafter, the
head of each executive agency shall submit to the Committee
on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of the Senate
and the Committee on Oversight and Accountability of the
House of Representatives a report that describes, for the
period covered by the report, the following:
``(A) What metrics and methods the executive agency uses to
determine the productivity of employees who telework.
``(B) What barriers, if any, prevent the executive agency
from enforcing the limitation under section 6502(b)(2)(C) and
any initiatives of the executive agency to address those
barriers.
``(C) Any negative effects of telework, including whether
telework results in increased costs, security
vulnerabilities, lower employee morale, decreased employee
productivity, or waste, fraud, or abuse.
``(D) Any actions taken by the executive agency (or a
detailed justification for any lack of action) in response to
any findings of, or recommendations made by, the Inspector
General of the executive agency with respect to telework.
``(2) GAO report.--With respect to each report submitted by
the head of an executive agency under paragraph (1), the
Comptroller General of the United States shall submit an
accompanying report that evaluates the accuracy and
thoroughness of the report submitted by the head of the
executive agency with respect to the matters required to be
included in the report of the executive agency under that
paragraph.''.
(b) Effective Date.--The amendments made by subsection (a)
shall take effect on the date that is 180 days after the date
of enactment of this Act.
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