The top Republican in the Senate DOGE will send 24 letters — one to each head of a major federal agency — demanding a last-minute halt to work-from-home negotiations before President Biden returns to Delaware.
Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, chairman of the Senate GOP Policy Committee, made the request days after drafting 2025 legislation that would “decentralize” and move a third of the federal workforce out of Washington, D.C.
The bill's lengthy abbreviation makes clear that “Swamp drain law“.
Ernst said no government agency has half the office space more than two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, and she has previously called for the Biden administration to sell off unused properties to benefit taxpayers.
DOGE Caucus Leader Ernst is looking to move out of D.C. for a third of federal employees
Ernst explained in her letters that 90% of federal employees eligible for telecommuting are still working from home and that only 6% report working “on a full-time basis.”
Additionally, she wrote, public sector unions allegedly “dictate personnel policy” without regard to federal guidance issued by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), wasting time, space, and money.
“Union bosses are rushing to cut lavish, long-term, last-minute deals with the lame-duck Biden administration — extending beyond President Trump’s next term in office — ensuring that bureaucrats can stay home for another four years or more,” Ernst wrote in a letter. One prepared for Office of Personnel Management Director Robert Shriver III.
“It is clear that protecting public employees’ remote work privileges is a higher priority than appearing to serve American taxpayers,” she wrote, calling Biden’s acquiescence to union demands “shocking and unacceptable.”
It was, she noted, a similarly liberal president who had so strongly opposed the public employee union in the first place, as Democrat Franklin Roosevelt wrote in a letter to the union agent in which he declined a 1937 invitation to attend a national federal employee convention.
“All government employees must realize that the process of collective bargaining, as it is usually understood, cannot be transferred to the public service,” Roosevelt said.
TOP DOGE Senator Demands Answers on Disbursement Plan Before Trump Arrives
Fox News Digital previewed the new logo for the DOGE caucus as well as an email hotline for Americans to send in suggestions on government efficiency. (Fox News Digital)
“It has its own distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to the administration of public personnel affairs. The nature and purposes of government make it impossible for administrative officials to fully represent or bind the employer in mutual discussions with public employee organizations.”
“The employer is the entire people, who speak through the laws enacted by their representatives in Congress.”
Ernst noted that federal workers and their union representatives had forgotten Roosevelt's warning, citing a last-minute push to ratify collective bargaining agreements and telework concession agreements before President-elect Donald Trump could begin his oversight push through DOGE.
Ernst pointed to situations that she said show union bosses and professional agency management “have the government wrapped around their finger.”
In the messages, she included a photo of former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley while serving as head of Biden's Social Security Administration who was wearing a Captain America T-shirt alongside an alleged union official at a party.
Ernst cited news reports of O'Malley going to Florida to celebrate with union members before agreeing to a contract that prevents easy reductions in work-from-home capacity.
She said O'Malley spent the trip “singing” Irish ballads on his guitar and drinking alcohol.
“This friends-and-friends relationship between the Social Security Commissioner and the union leaders representing his workforce during what were supposed to be negotiations resulted in a contract incredibly skewed toward the union and against the interests of taxpayers and the agency’s mission.” He said.
In another case, she pointed to Housing and Urban Development employees who may not have been entitled to the TFUT or “taxpayer-funded union time” they applied for.
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Former Baltimore Mayor and former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley (Reuters)
One of these workers successfully claimed compensation while in prison.
Ernst required agencies to report data on TFUT claims and payments, unused or underutilized real property designated for use through collective bargaining, and any instances in which each agency allowed unions or their employees to use department property at a reduced rate or for free.
“Giving bureaucrats another four-year leave from the office is unacceptable. Bureaucrats have had enough gap years, and it's time to put them back on the job,” she said.
Fox News' Julia Johnson contributed to this report.
