In recent years, both Congress and the Executive branch have increasingly promoted telework to help achieve important public policy goals. Among these are: protecting environmental quality and energy conservation by reducing traffic congestion and vehicle emissions; improving employees' work lives by allowing a better balance of work and family responsibilities and reducing work-related stress; and improving the Government's ability to recruit and retain a high-quality workforce in a competitive job market.

Executive Initiatives

The President's Council on Management Improvement began the Federal Flexible Workplace Pilot Project in 1990. The Project involved 1,000 participants in 15 agencies across the United States. OPM and the General Services Administration (GSA) co-directed the project and evaluated the results in 1993. A January 1993 OPM report on the results of the Pilot Project provided concrete reasons to support the continuation and expansion of flexible work places. The report noted improved productivity and morale, fewer employee sick days, and significant cost savings through reduced space and transportation costs. Other benefits described in the report included improved air quality due to reduced vehicle usage, reduced traffic congestion, and more time for employees to devote to their families and communities. A 1995 GSA report on the use of telework centers noted similar benefits from telework.

In 1993, a Presidential Global Climate Change Action Plan identified telecommuting as a technique to help meet environmental goals and enhance quality of life. As part of the Plan, the Department of Transportation (DoT) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were directed to implement a federal telecommuting pilot project, setting a goal of 1 to 2 percent of federal employees teleworking at their home at least one day per week. In 1994 and again in 1996, then President Clinton strongly encouraged federal agency and department heads to increase telework and other family-friendly workplace flexibilities. In January 1996, the President's Management Council introduced the National Telecommuting Initiative, which set out to increase the number of federal teleworkers to 60,000 by FY 1998.

A Presidential memorandum was issued in July 2000 to help increase Federal employment of the disabled through greater use of alternative work sites. President George W. Bush incorporated telework into his New Freedom Initiative introduced on February 1, 2001. The Initiative asks Congress to create a fund to help people with disabilities to buy equipment needed to telecommute. It also seeks to provide tax incentives to encourage employers to provide such equipment.

Congressional Initiatives

Over the past several years, Congress has increasingly sought to encourage more widespread use of telework. A 1990 telecommunications bill authorized federal agencies to spend money for extra telephone lines, related equipment, and computer connection fees for federal teleworkers. This temporary authorization was re-enacted annually thereafter and made permanent in 1996.

Congress authorized federal telework centers in the 1993 Treasury, Postal Service and General Government appropriations bill. In 1999, the Conference Report accompanying Public Law 105-277 required agencies to make at least $50,000 available annually to pay for telework at telework centers. Also in 1999, the House Workforce and Education Committee held a series of hearings that looked at the reasons telework was not more widely used by federal agencies.

Finally, and most significantly, Section 359 of the 2001 Department of Transportation appropriations bill (Public Law 106-346) required all Executive agencies to establish telecommuting policies. The law also directed OPM to ensure that this requirement was applied to 25 percent of the federal workforce by April 2001 and to an additional 25 percent in each subsequent year.

Post-Disaster Response

In the aftermath of September 11, telework has become an option of necessity for many employees and employers. Displaced workers in the New York area and at the Pentagon were left without offices. Road closings and increased security precautions exacerbated already severe traffic congestion. As a result, many federal managers began to take a fresh look at telework arrangements. Telework has been integrated into the Federal Government's Continuation of Operations Program (COOP), and agencies are including telework in their own agency COOP plans. In a recent Federal Preparedness Circular, dated April 30, 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency highlighted the importance of telework in emergency situations that require the use of alternative facilities.

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