OMB Officials Discuss Plan for Recalling Federal Employees

Officials at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) sat down with GovExec to discuss the plan for recalling federal employees to their offices. Officials indicate that the government will take a piecemeal approach based on different regions and agency needs.

According to a GovExec article citing conversations with White House and OMB officials, decisions regarding agency reopenings around the country will be made in close consultation with state and local officials.

“Federal offices closed due to the coronavirus will not operate “like a snow day,” the OMB official said, meaning they will not reopen all at once. Employees at the Defense Department, for example, who handle national security work and in some cases cannot access classified documents while out of the office, may be recalled more quickly than National Park Service personnel. The decisions will be driven by individual agency leaders, the official added, rather than centralized through the White House or the Office of Personnel Management,” GovExec reporter Eric Katz explains.

Reports from agency offices in Washington, DC seem to indicate offices will continue on “maximum telework” for several more weeks. While some parts of Maryland and Virginia are beginning to reopen, most of the counties surrounding the capital remain largely shut down. 

Some agencies have begun recalling employees based on mission critical needs.

For example, the Internal Revenue Service announced last month that they would be requested 11,000 volunteers to return to IRS facilities for mission critical work which can only be done on-sight.

In a statement released last month, Professional Managers Association President Chad Hooper explained, “The largest IRS facilities, to which these employees will return, have been unable to open tens of millions of pieces of correspondence which contain payments, tax returns, ID theft claims, and letters requesting assistance. For example, without knowing which of those envelopes contain valid ID theft claims, the IRS is unable to be certain those taxpayers received or will receive their CARES Act stimulus payment.”

Hooper continued, “Without the employees being called to serve, customer service operations would remain unmanned, mail rooms would become stockpiles for backlogged taxpayer issues, and fraudsters seeking to take advantage of COVID-19 chaos may succeed. The question is not if employees should return to do this work, it is determining the safest method for their return to take place.”

OMB and White House officials indicated to GovExec that they are encouraging employees to seek “creative solutions” to reopening their offices and also suggested a phased approach to reopening, enabling employees the most at risk of severe symptoms from COVID-19 to continue to work remotely as long as necessary.