119-hr473

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 473 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 473

 To restore in-person work at Federal agencies to not less than pre-
 pandemic levels, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 January 16, 2025

 Mr. Comer (for himself, Mr. Higgins of Louisiana, Mr. Timmons, Mr. 
 Biggs of Arizona, Mr. Cloud, Ms. Foxx, Mr. Langworthy, Mr. Crane, Mr. 
 Palmer, Mr. McGuire, Mr. Grothman, Mr. Fallon, Mr. Burlison, Mr. 
 Sessions, Mr. Jack, Mr. Burchett, Ms. Boebert, Mr. Perry, and Ms. 
Greene of Georgia) introduced the following bill; which was referred to 
 the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To restore in-person work at Federal agencies to not less than pre-
 pandemic levels, and for other purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Stopping Home Office Work's 
Unproductive Problems Act of 2025'' or the ``SHOW UP Act of 2025''.

SEC. 2. REINSTATEMENT OF PRE-PANDEMIC TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND 
 LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE AGENCIES.

 Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, 
each agency shall adopt and apply telework policies, practices, and 
levels at the agency that are equivalent to, or otherwise permit no 
additional levels of telework than, those which were in effect on 
December 31, 2019, and may not expand any such policy, practice, or 
level until the date that an agency plan is submitted to Congress with 
a certification by the Director of the Office of Personnel Management 
under 

section 3.

SEC. 3. STUDY, PLAN, AND CERTIFICATION REGARDING EXECUTIVE AGENCY 
 TELEWORK POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE 
 AGENCIES.

    (a) In General.--Not later than 6 months after the date of 
enactment of this Act, the head of each agency, in consultation with 
the Director, shall submit to Congress--

    (1) a study on the impacts on the agency and its mission of 
 expanding telework by its employees during the SARS-CoV-2 
 pandemic that commenced in 2019 and maintaining such expanded 
 telework thereafter, including an analysis of--
        (A) any adverse impacts of that expansion on the 
 agency's performance of its mission, including the 
 performance of customer service by the agency;
        (B) any costs to the agency during that expansion 
 attributable to--
            (i) owning, leasing, or maintaining 
 underutilized real property; or
            (ii) paying higher rates of locality pay to 
 teleworking employees as a result of 
 incorrectly classifying such employees as 
 teleworkers rather than remote workers;
            (C) any degree to which the agency failed during 
 that expansion to provide teleworking employees with 
 secure network capacity, communications tools, 
 necessary and secure access to appropriate agency data 
 assets and Federal records, and equipment sufficient to 
 enable each such employee to be fully productive;
            (D) any degree to which that expansion facilitated 
 dispersal of the agency workforce around the Nation; 
 and
        (E) any other impacts of that expansion that the 
 agency or the Director considers appropriate;

    (2) any agency plan to expand telework policies, practices, 
 or levels beyond those in place as a result of 

section 2; and

    (3) a certification by the Director that such plan will--
        (A) have a substantial positive effect on--
            (i) the performance of the agency's 
 mission, including the performance of customer 
 service;
            (ii) increasing the level of dispersal of 
 agency personnel throughout the Nation; and
            (iii) the reversal of any adverse impact 
 set forth pursuant to paragraph

    (1)
            (D) ;
        (B) substantially lower the agency's costs of 
 owning, leasing, or maintaining real property;
            (C) substantially lower the agency's costs 
 attributable to paying locality pay to agency personnel 
 working from locations outside the pay locality of 
 their position's official worksite; and
            (D) ensure that teleworking employees will be 
 provided with secure network capacity, communications 
 tools, necessary and secure access to appropriate 
 agency data assets and Federal records, and equipment 
 sufficient to enable each such employee to be fully 
 productive, without substantially increasing the 
 agency's overall costs for secure network capacity, 
 communications tools, and equipment.

    (b) Limitation.--

    (1) In general.--An agency may not implement the plan 
 submitted under subsection

    (a)

    (2) unless a certification by the 
 Director was issued under subsection

    (a)

    (3) .

    (2) Subsequent plans.--In the event an initial agency plan 
 submitted under subsection

    (a)

    (2) fails to receive such 
 certification, the agency may submit to the Director subsequent 
 plans until such certification is received, and submit such 
 plan and certification to Congress.
            (c) === Definitions. ===
-In this Act--

    (1) the term ``agency'' has the meaning given the term 
 ``Executive agency'' in 

section 105 of title 5, United States 
 Code, except that such term does not include the Government 
 Accountability Office;

    (2) the term ``Director'' means the Director of the Office 
 of Personnel Management;

    (3) the term ``locality pay'' means locality pay provided 
 for under 

section 5304 or 5304a of such title; and

    (4) the terms ``telework'' and ``teleworking'' have the 
 meaning given those terms in 

section 6501 of such title, and 
 include remote work.
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