Senate Holds Hearing on Modernizing Telework for Feds, Using Private Sector Practices

In order to determine the best way to restructure federal work practices and redefine telework eligibility, a Senate Committee Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee invited a panel of private sector executives to share their thoughts. The panel included Seán D. Morris, Principal at Deloitte Consulting; T. Lane Wilson, Senior Vice-President and General Counsel at The Williams Companies; Michael Ly, Chief Executive Officer at Reconciled; and John Zanni, Chief Executive Officer of Acronis SCS.

On July 28, Senator James Lankford (R-OK), presided over the Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management hearing titled Modernizing Telework: Review of Private Sector Telework Policies during the COVID-19 Pandemic. He highlighted “a threefold increase in the number of companies offering remote work options between 1996 and 2016” and stated that “the pandemic has been a great disruptor but also shines a light on broken processes and shows an opportunity for real improvement.”

Also giving opening remarks was Ranking Member of the Subcommittee Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), who cosponsored the Emergency Telework Act of 2020 and said, “From the start of the coronavirus pandemic, it was clear that the public and private sectors needed to embrace telework wherever it was possible.”

One of the primary challenges with telework is working with school-age children at home. As Ly explained, “Having children now at home requires us to be very flexible with our employees and their work schedules so that they can both take care of their family's needs, their child's education as well as their work responsibilities.” He said, “defining the expectations an organization has for each employee and the outcomes that should result when a job is done well is key for the success of the remote employee.”

Another challenge with telework is that insecure cyber security networks may compromise the confidentiality of government employees and their professional discussions.

Zanni shared, “As COVID-19 spread, IT teams had the unenviable job of enabling secure telework capabilities at an incredible breakneck speed…. today's typical home includes a mix of work and personal laptops, smart phones and network-connected toys and appliances, all sharing access to a standard WI-FI router with basic security configurations.”

When asked by Chairman Lankford, Ranking Member Sinema, and members of the committee about the safety and compromising nature of telework, Zanni provided insight on how to telework safely. In order to diminish the dangers of remote work, he recommended that companies employ useful cyber hygiene practices and functions. For example, Zanni explained that his company adopted “zero trust architecture, leveraging next gen firewalls, segmented networks, multi-factor authentication and certificate-based VPN for access to sensitive resources” as a part of their cyber hygiene plan.

Another tip for improving cybersecurity while teleworking came from Morris, whose company employs a multi-layer security approach that includes machine learning. He said, “machine learning is starting to transform the way that we can interact with all of these layers of the network going forward and I think that's a game changer for agencies in general to better utilize.”

Over 20 Senate Democrats and Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) are supporting a provision that would push for maximum telework for federal employees. In a July 31 letter to Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), senators wrote, “All federal employees and contractors who can perform their duties remotely should be doing so.”

Senator Sinema emphasized during the hearing that, “future coronavirus relief legislation [should] include a long-term plan to invest in broadband infrastructure, ensure we have the appropriate regulatory framework, develop better coverage maps and utilize federal resources effectively.”