The Senate Homeland Security Committee holds a hearing to discuss pending legislation.
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:
https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript
Stay Connected
Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes
Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes
More From Forbes: http://forbes.com
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We are holding over one bill, S-4294, the Cross-Border Aerial Law Enforcement Operations Act,
00:07which we will consider at a future committee markup. I note the presence of a quorum,
00:14and I'd first off like to just thank Ranking Member Paul and his team for working together
00:19with us on this markup. We have a lot to get through today, but Ranking Member Paul,
00:26would you like to make an opening comment? No. We will now proceed to the legislation. The first
00:32item will be consideration of S-2492. I ask unanimous consent that the committee consider
00:40the Carper substitute amendment to S-2492 as the underlying bill. Seeing no objection, so ordered.
00:49Is there any further debate or discussion on final passage? Seeing none, the question is on final passage of S-2492.
00:59As amended, the clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. No, just kidding.
01:04I'm the Carper bill. Senator Hassan.
01:19Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Enthusiastic. Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy.
01:27Senator Blumenthal. Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul.
01:35I think we finally found something that we have complete and utter bipartisan support,
01:39and that's ending payments to dead people. Emphatic yes. Senator Johnson.
01:45Oh, aye by proxy. Senator Lankford. Senator Romney. Senator Scott. Senator Hawley.
01:58Aye by proxy. Senator Marshall. Senator Peters. Aye.
02:15Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 10 and the nays are 0. On the vote by
02:19proxy and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 11,
02:24nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We'll now proceed to the
02:28consideration of H.R. 6249. If there's no further debate or amendment, the question's on final
02:35passage of H.R. 6249. The clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan. Aye.
02:42Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Aye. Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy.
02:50Senator Blumenthal. Aye. Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul. Aye. Senator Johnson. Aye by proxy.
03:00Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye. Senator Hawley. Aye.
03:08Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
03:11Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 11, the nays are 0. On the vote
03:21by proxy and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 11,
03:26and the nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We will now proceed to
03:30consideration of H.R. 5528. I ask unanimous consent that the committee consider H.R. 5528
03:36as the underlying bill without objection so ordered. If there is no further debate or
03:43or an amendment, the question now is on final passage of H.R. 5528. The clerk will call the
03:48roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan. Aye. Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Aye.
03:58Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy. Senator Blumenthal. Aye. Senator Butler. Aye by proxy.
04:05Senator Paul. Present.
04:10Senator Johnson. Aye by proxy. Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye.
04:19Senator Hawley. Aye. Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
04:31Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 10, the nays are 0. On the vote
04:35by proxy and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 10,
04:39the nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We will now proceed to
04:46the consideration of S. 4181. I ask unanimous consent that the committee consider the Peters
04:51Substitute Amendment as modified to S. 4181 as the underlying bill without objection so ordered.
04:58Does any member wish to offer an amendment or speak? Seeing none, the question is now on final
05:05passage of S. 4184 as amended. The clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassen. Aye.
05:13Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Aye. Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy. Senator Blumenthal.
05:22Aye. Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul. Present. Senator Johnson. Aye by proxy.
05:31Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye. Senator Hawley. Aye.
05:40Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
05:43Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 10, the nays are 0. On the vote by proxy
05:47and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 10,
05:51and the nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We will now proceed to
05:55consideration of S. 4305. I ask unanimous consent the committee consider the Peters Substitute
06:01Amendment to S. 4305 as the underlying bill without objection so ordered. Seeing none,
06:08S. 4305 is the underlying bill without objection so ordered. Seeing no member wishing to offer an
06:14amendment or speak, the question now is on final passage of S. 4305 as amended. The clerk will
06:24call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan. Aye. Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen.
06:32Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy. Senator Blumenthal. Aye. Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul.
06:42Senator Johnson. Aye by proxy. Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye.
06:52Senator Hawley. Aye. Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
06:57Aye. Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 10, the nays are 0. On the vote by
07:04proxy and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 10,
07:08the nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to, and we will now proceed
07:12to consideration of S. 4066. I ask unanimous consent the committee consider the Peters
07:16Substitute Amendment as modified to S. 4066 as the underlying bill without objection so ordered.
07:24And seeing that no member wishes to offer an amendment or debate, the question now is on
07:29final passage of S. 4066 as amended. The clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan.
07:37Aye. Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy. Senator Blumenthal.
07:47Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul. Present. Senator Johnson.
07:54Aye by proxy. Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye. Senator Hawley. Aye.
08:07Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye. Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present,
08:15the yays are 10, the nays are 0. On the vote by proxy and for the record only,
08:18the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 10, the nays are 0,
08:21and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We will now proceed to consideration of S. 3015.
08:28I ask unanimous consent the committee consider the Lankford Substitute Amendment as modified
08:34to S. 3015 as the underlying bill. Seeing no objection, so ordered. Does a member wish to
08:41offer an amendment? If there's no further debate or amendment, the question now is on final passage
08:50of S. 3015 as amended. The clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan. Aye.
08:57Senator Sinema. Aye by proxy. Senator Rosen. Aye. Senator Ossoff. Aye by proxy. Senator Blumenthal. Aye.
09:08Senator Butler. Aye by proxy. Senator Paul. No. Senator Johnson. Aye by proxy. Senator Lankford. Aye.
09:18Senator Romney. No.
09:23Senator Scott. Aye. Senator Hawley. Aye. Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
09:36Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 9, the nays are 2. On the vote by proxy
09:40and for the record only, the yays are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yays are 9, the nays are 2,
09:45and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We'll now proceed to consideration of S. 4043.
09:51I ask unanimous consent the committee consider the Peters substitute amendment as modified to
09:56S. 4043 as the underlying bill. Without objection, so ordered. Does any member wish to offer an
10:02amendment?
10:12Seeing no amendment being offered.
10:23Senator Romney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. My amendment number 4 to 4043
10:32calls simply for the supervisory staff to monitor those that are teleworking to make sure they're
10:41doing something. So it's not saying what the monitoring has to be. It could be a call. It
10:46could be just an email at the end of the day. What did you accomplish today? It could be
10:50any number of things. But the idea of people teleworking and having no report whatsoever,
10:56no monitoring whatsoever, doesn't make a lot of sense. People could be at home. I could
11:02run off and do other things during the day and not perform any work. So it's just saying that
11:08that we need to make sure that people are actually doing the job if they're teleworking.
11:13So some kind of monitoring. It's not specific, doesn't describe what the monitoring has to be.
11:18Could be as simple again as just reporting on what they accomplished during the day,
11:22but some kind of monitoring. Well, Senator Romney, I certainly share your interests and
11:30concerns that we have to provide accountability to teleworking employees and would want to work
11:36with you on this because I think it is very important for us to know that information.
11:39But as this amendment is right now, I think we also need to balance this oversight with guardrails
11:45around what type of monitoring agencies would conduct. And I think without proper guardrails,
11:51it could result in employers misusing this authority and infringing on privacy and civil
11:56rights. But I'm not opposed at all to what you're trying to accomplish. And I would hope to work
12:01with you as we go forward to actually move the intent of the amendment, but do it in a way that
12:10we're protecting privacy issues if need be. I find that a little unusual in that every employer
12:18has a responsibility to oversee the work of the people that are assigned to work for them.
12:22It doesn't infringe their privacy or certainly their civil rights if you employ someone to
12:28monitor whether they're actually doing the job. Yeah. And I agree there's a broad scope for that.
12:33We just want to make sure if there are guidelines we need to put in place, we're happy to work with
12:37you. And it may go forward as is, but we'd just like to talk with you more about this particular
12:42amendment before we move it forward after it passes the hearing committee.
12:47I support the amendment. And I think government doesn't have a good reputation for getting the
12:52most out of their employees anyway. Without the profit motive, without the ability to fire
12:56employees, it's very difficult to think anybody working from home is actually going to do their
13:00job. In the finance industry and in lots of industry, every minute of every day is monitored.
13:06You get assessed on how many, they know how many phone calls you've made. They know exactly what
13:10you're saying to the clients. In fact, they're recorded because some of its legal financial
13:14transactions you're making on the phone and they listen to every minute. And that's not a violation
13:18of the worker. The worker agrees to work for a company that's going to monitor it. But no company
13:23in their right mind would let you work from home without, particularly if it's all on the phone,
13:27without monitoring what's being said and recording it, listening in on it. And so to encourage
13:32telework as some of these bills are doing without significant controls, at least what goes on in the
13:38private sector would be a big mistake. Mr. Chairman, if I could also speak in favor of
13:45this amendment. I want to make it clear I'm against telemedicine or teleworking from home.
13:51I'm just against it overall at the government level. I don't think there's any way that these
13:56folks are accountable. More and more folks back home, whether it's, you know, with the problem
14:01farmers working with NRCS, where FSA is not the local officers, it gets clogged at the USDA level.
14:08And they won't even tell us how many of their people are working from home. There's no
14:12accountability out there. What the problem with all this is that what we're doing today is it
14:16doesn't go far enough. If we were up here cleaning house, the first people I would fire, just like
14:21what Walmart is doing in the private sector, Walmart is firing a bunch of people that are
14:26working from home. Because guess what? If you're working from home, you'll probably, your job isn't
14:30that important in the first place. I cannot believe, in my guesstimations, I bet 80 percent
14:36of government employees in D.C. are working from home. It's a shame. It's a travesty. It's a waste
14:42of taxpayers' dollars. And I appreciate Senator Romney bringing this amendment forward.
14:48Thank you, Member Paul. I think it was Senator Marshall who brought this up in one of the
14:52hearings. We were talking about infant formula, and they had banned or closed down this company.
14:58I think you asked the question to the head of the FDA, the CDC, all these heads of agencies,
15:03how many of them were in the office. None of the heads of agencies had been in the office in a
15:07month. And they didn't have their agents working either because everybody was working from home,
15:11and yet we closed down the only infant formula place in the whole country without having people
15:16to work because everybody's working by phone. So there are some real dangers to letting your
15:20federal government become teleworkers. Senator Hessen.
15:25Thank you, Mr. Chair. Look, I am respectful of what Senator Romney is, I think, trying to achieve
15:32here. I do think that this amendment would need to be more carefully crafted. I will also say,
15:38though, that day in and day out, workers for state, federal, local government do their jobs
15:45well above and beyond the call of duty. Not everybody does, but that's true in the private
15:49sector too. I think painting all public employees with this broad negative brush is unfortunate.
15:57As somebody who has teleworked herself and was judged by the quality of my work and the outcomes
16:01that I produced, I find it hard to believe that we have to necessarily micromanage the accountability
16:09here. Federal supervisors have obligations to make sure that their employees are doing their work,
16:14and they should. But let's just refrain a little bit from painting all public employees
16:23with the same broad brush. Many of our federal employees went well above and beyond during COVID
16:30to serve the public, and I think it's important to recognize that. Thank you.
16:34Mr. Chairman. Senator Romney. I'm certainly willing to recognize that many federal employees do a
16:39wonderful job, but I certainly recognize that, as in the private sector, there are some that don't.
16:45There are some that take advantage of lax oversight to get away with murder, not literally,
16:49but figuratively. I can't imagine a private sector employer having large numbers,
16:56in our case thousands upon thousands of workers, and not in some way monitoring what they're doing
17:01and what they're accomplishing. A number have spoken of the need for supervisors to
17:07know how the employees are doing. That's all I'm asking. I'm just asking for us to monitor
17:11whether people are actually doing work when they're working from home. It's not saying what
17:17they have to do precisely, how they have to monitor, but some evaluation of whether people
17:22are actually working. I think there's a belief on the public at large, whether it's true in this
17:28room or not, but the public at large, the federal employees may not all be working that hard.
17:33When they see office buildings that are less than 30 percent occupied, federal office buildings,
17:38they say, hey, what's going on? Why did you build these buildings if people aren't going
17:42to be in there working? And they know that if they want to get a question from an agency,
17:46sometimes it takes them days to be able to get through the line necessary to talk to somebody.
17:52So helping restore confidence on the part of the public in the federal workforce would be
17:59enhanced by saying, yeah, we're going to monitor, evaluate how well people are doing when they're
18:04working from home, because there's a belief on the part of a lot of people that's just not being
18:09done. Thank you, Member Paul. So in the private marketplace, the way it works is people oversee
18:19because you have to make a profit, and profit sort of guards for efficiency, and it brings in all
18:23these guardrails for it. Government doesn't have those, so for government not to have the incentive
18:29of profit and then no guardrails, you've got a real problem, and all government employees aren't
18:35bad. I'm one, but I mean, so all government employees aren't bad, but there are examples
18:40of real malfeasance that if nobody's watching, really bad things can happen. I just remember
18:45one example I think is worth putting into the record. This guy was the assistant to the head
18:49of the EPA, and for years he would tell his employer when he was coming to work, he would say,
18:54well, you know, I also work for the CIA, and there will be times I will have to be missing from my
18:59job. Swear to God, nobody ever checked the guy. He did this for years and years. Finally, we had a
19:06shutdown, and they had to judge who was essential and who was unessential, and they got to looking
19:11at the records, and the guy hadn't been in the office in six months or a year, and he said he
19:15was on a CIA mission. Someone finally had the wherewithal to call the CIA, and guess what?
19:20He had never worked for the CIA. I'm guessing was sitting by the pool drinking a beer, you know,
19:25whatever, or at some resort somewhere. He stole millions of dollars. I think he finally got eight
19:29years in prison, so it kind of worked, but it took years to catch him, so if someone says they're on
19:34the phone, and they're working eight hours a day, someone ought to know if they're on the phone. I
19:39mean, you can't have teleworkers without having a monitor. You really have to know every minute
19:43they're on the phone. They'd have to give a report on what they're doing. Someone would have to be
19:47able to listen in independently any time when they're doing work on the phone,
19:51and it's a little difference between having a manager having more leeway and having somebody
19:55at the beginning level that's working eight hours on the phone taking customer complaints or
19:59complaints. They have to be monitored. Unmonitored, you are basically just printing money and throwing
20:04it away, and so if you guys vote this down, I think it really shows you don't have a real concern
20:11for the money that's being spent. I mean, somebody has to do something. You can't just let people
20:15work at home without oversight. Mr. Chairman? Senator Marshall. Final comment. However good
20:21of a job they're doing at home, I think they would do a better job if they're in the office
20:26communicating with the staff around them, and certainly as a manager of these people,
20:32it'd be much easier for me to manage them, and I would be more efficient as well. I think
20:36American taxpayers are paying good money, incredible benefits for these federal jobs,
20:42and they owe something to give it back as well, that they need to earn that money just like
20:47everybody in the private sector does. Thank you. The intent of this legislation, let's be clear,
20:55is about transparency so that we do have accountability because we all agree you
21:00have to have accountability. You're paying people a day's wage. You expect a day's work
21:04out of those individuals. That's the intent of this bill. Senator Romney, I appreciate what
21:09this language as well. I told you I fully support the intent of what you do because we have to make
21:14sure people are indeed doing the work that they're been assigned to do. So I think we have a general
21:19agreement. It's just about drafting and how this particular amendment is drafted. What I would
21:24suggest is we could hold this bill over from today, not vote on it today, and your team and
21:30my team and everybody else who has opinions on this, which seems to be quite a few of us,
21:36as you know, we usually like to move bills here with as much consensus as possible.
21:41That has been the history of this committee, and I obviously respect the work you do and
21:48respect what you're trying to accomplish here. I will hold this bill over now and we'll put it up
21:53on the next markup, and I would hope to earn your support with language that you believe
21:58achieves your ends, which I agree we need to be looking at. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
22:06We will now proceed to consideration of S4035. I ask unanimous consent that the committee consider
22:13the Scott substitute amendment to S4035 as the underlying bill. Seeing no objection,
22:19so ordered. Does any member wish to offer an amendment? I just make a statement. Yes,
22:24Senator Scott. Okay. First, I want to thank Chairman Peters and my co-sponsor, Senator Carper.
22:30I want to thank Senator Carper for working with me on this important legislation as we
22:34work to get it through final passage. FEHB is the largest employer-sponsored health insurance
22:39program in the country. It needs to be reserved for those who are truly eligible. It's alarming
22:44that OPM is wasting $1 billion of taxpayers' dollars every year by failing to properly monitor
22:50the FEHB program, allowing fraud. That's $1 billion we spend on priorities to the American people.
22:56For the moderate cost of an audit of the program, we can save taxpayers billions going forward.
23:01God, the chairman and my colleagues agree this is common sense. By the way, I think
23:04in the private sector, we've all done this. I did it when I was governor of Florida,
23:07and we found a lot of savings. Thanks, everybody, for supporting this.
23:12Thank you. Thank you for the leadership on this, Senator Scott. Yes, Senator Carper.
23:19I want to thank Senator Scott for leading on this and giving me a chance to join him.
23:26Our friends over at GAO put out, at the beginning of every year, high-risk ways of wasting money,
23:32and this is almost always on that high-risk list. We've been chipping away at it, and we need to
23:36continue to do so. A guy named Gene Dodaro is the head of GAO. Whenever I meet and talk with him,
23:46this is something that usually comes up. I'm happy to join you in doing this, and this is
23:52something that needs to be done. Thank you. Thank you. Seeing no further discussion and no
23:58amendments being offered, the question is on final passage of S4035 as amended.
24:04The clerk will call the roll. Senator Carper. Aye. Senator Hassan. Aye. Senator Sinema. Aye,
24:10by proxy. Senator Rosen. Aye. Senator Ossoff. Aye, by proxy. Senator Butler. I'm sorry,
24:17Senator Blumenthal. Aye. Senator Butler. Aye, by proxy. Senator Paul. Aye. Senator Johnson. Aye,
24:26by proxy. Senator Lankford. Aye. Senator Romney. Aye. Senator Scott. Aye. Senator Hawley. Aye.
24:37Senator Marshall. Aye. Senator Peters. Aye.
24:40Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yeas are 11, the nays are 0. On the vote by proxy,
24:48and for the record only, the yeas are 4, the nays are 0. On this vote, the yeas are 11,
24:53the nays are 0, and the motion is agreed to. Motion is agreed to. We will now proceed to
24:57consideration of S3810. I ask unanimous consent that the committee adopt the Peters-Hawley
25:03substitute amendment as modified to S3810 as the underlying bill, as well as amendment,
25:09Peter's amendment number two is modified to update the bill title. Seeing no objection,
25:16so ordered. Senator Hawley. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to say thank you for
25:20partnering with me on this and working with me on it. I want to thank Senator Scott for his
25:24co-sponsorship. I'll be very brief. This bill is very simple. It just proceeds on the premise,
25:28the principle, that independent private consulting firms who are making a billion dollars, let's say,
25:35in contracts with the federal government, shouldn't at the same time be making money
25:39from our chief adversaries like China or Russia or North Korea. Unfortunately, there are many
25:45examples of this. The leading one is probably McKinsey, who has indeed made a billion dollars
25:51in federal government contracts, most of those with the Defense Department since 2008, and at
25:55the same time was advising the Chinese Communist Party on multiple projects, most egregiously
26:01the infamous Made in China 2025. In fact, I've got McKinsey's product that they contributed to
26:07this right here. I can't read it because it's in Chinese, but here it is. This bill would put a
26:13stop to that, Mr. Chairman, as I think is only fair and proper. I thank you again for your partnership
26:18on this. Seeing no further debate, the question is on final passage of S3810 as amended. The clerk
26:26will call the roll. Senator Carper? Aye. Senator Hassan? Aye. Senator Sinema? Aye, by proxy. Senator Rosen? Aye.
26:36Senator Ossoff? No, by proxy. Senator Blumenthal? Aye. Senator Butler? Aye, by proxy.
26:43Senator Paul? No. Senator Johnson? Aye, by proxy. Senator Lankford? Aye. Senator Romney? Aye.
26:55Senator Scott? Aye. Senator Hawley? Aye. Senator Marshall? Aye. Senator Peters? Aye.
27:03Mr. Chairman, on the vote of those present, the yays are 10, the nays are 1. On the vote by proxy
27:16and for the record only, the yays are 3, then, I'm sorry, the yays are 3, the nays are 1. On this vote,
27:20the yays are 10, the nays are 1, and the motion is agreed to. The motion is agreed to.
27:26So, we need to adopt Peters Amendment 2 as modified just to update the bill titles.
27:32This one here? Didn't I already do it? Yep. On S3810, I also ask unanimous consent the
27:39committee adopt the Peters substitute amendment as well, which I did before, as well as Peters
27:45Amendment Number 2 as modified to update the bill without objection so ordered. I did say that before.
27:52I want to thank my colleagues for your attendance today, for your hard work. That concludes the
27:59voting on the bills, but does any member wish to be recognized to speak? Senator Lankford?
28:04Oh, I'm sorry. Bill, thank you. Mr. Chairman, thank you for allowing me to be able to bring
28:11the Telework Reform Act bill up. Telework's not going anywhere. I know there's a lot of
28:16conversation about whether we're going to have telework or not have telework. We are going to
28:19have telework. That's going to happen. So, the issue is, do we allow agencies to be able to set
28:24their own rules and guidelines for it, or does Congress speak into this? Is this committee's
28:28responsibility to be able to speak into how work is done on the federal workforce, including now
28:33telework and now remote work as well? So, oversight is required, but we need some basic transparency
28:39of the process of how decisions are being made in agencies, and we need to determine. This bill
28:44that I'm bringing today actually deals with several things. One is, it requires a look to
28:48say, is there a potential value advantage, disadvantage on telework and remote work?
28:54It requires agencies to be able to look at and say which jobs are most prone to this that we
28:58could use for, and which jobs are not to be used for telework and remote work, so that we make sure
29:03that employees that need to be in the office are in the office. Those jobs that can be done by
29:07telework or remote work could be done that way as well. And then it also sets aside a way to be able
29:13to hire veterans, spouses of veterans, and spouses of federal law enforcement. These are folks that
29:20get moved all the time that are by request of us in the federal government in leadership to say we
29:25want them to be able to move every two to three years. Their spouses are not able to have a career,
29:30and they're often in very remote locations. This gives them the opportunity to be able to get
29:36those remote working jobs that are from different agencies, that while their spouse is on a federal
29:42law enforcement task somewhere in remote assignments or in the armed services in a remote
29:47assignment, that spouse could maintain a career, not just find a random job in each location,
29:53but actually build a career as well. We think that's incredibly important to be able to allow
29:57that. I do want to thank many members on this dais that have engaged in this, Senator Peters,
30:03Senator Sinema, but there's been lots of amendments and changes. We put the language out for us to be
30:07able to look at. This is an area that we need to talk about and that we need to come to some
30:12decisions on so that agencies have guidance from us on this. So thanks for the support of so many
30:17on this to be able to move it forward today. Thank you for your leadership on the Senator
30:21Lankford. Senator Carper. Yeah, my father used to tell my sister when he grew up, he said,
30:26just use some common sense. We do some boneheaded stunt. Your parents probably said that to you from
30:30time to time as well. Whenever, almost every time that Senator Lankford opens his mouth, I think of
30:36my father because you always demonstrate a lot of common sense and do so again here. The days that
30:43we're not in session, I try to go back and forth on the train almost every day that we are in
30:49session, but I feel lucky to do that. But the days that we're not in session, I will travel my state,
30:55my little state. We only have like three counties, about a million people. And I do customer calls
31:00to businesses, large and small. And when I ask businesses how they're doing, I ask them how
31:05they're doing, how we're doing, ask them what we can do to help. But almost without exception,
31:09they say their biggest challenge right now is finding people come to work who work or trainable,
31:15who will come to work, have a good work ethic and be available as needed. One of the things I've
31:24heard from years from constituents in Delaware and elsewhere is find out what works, do more of that.
31:32The other thing that I heard a lot from is why doesn't government act a lot more like a business?
31:37We all heard that. And businesses out there and where I live, one of the things that businesses
31:42are doing in order to meet their workforce needs is they're beginning to offer child care
31:46on site and in some cases paid for entirely, in some cases a shared expense. But I think that's
31:55one of the things we need to keep in mind. I'm really glad, I really admire the way you handled
32:00the concerns with us, our colleague from Utah, and give us a chance to work this out. This is
32:06important. I think if we, I like to say bipartisan solutions are lasting solutions. If we can find a
32:11bipartisan solution here, it'll be good, not just good for us, it'll be good for our country and
32:15those that we represent. But thank you very much. Very good. Thank you, Senator Carper. For the
32:21record, on final passage of S3810, Senator Ossoff was recorded as a nay by proxy. That should be
32:32changed to a yes by proxy for Senator Ossoff on final passage of S3810. Seeing no other member
32:42wishing to speak, this business meeting is now adjourned.
32:51you