According to Iowa GOP senator Joni Ernst, some federal employees who were forced to go back to work rather than work from home showed up at work only to protest being there.
“We actually had workers that showed up at the office to protest having to come back to work at the office,” she told Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. “So we’re finding all kinds of things with the DOGE work, the SQUEAL work that I have done for ten years, and thank goodness we have President Trump and DOGE, the Office of Government Efficiency, that’s finally cracking down on these types of activities.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
You can’t make this up…
Federal employees showed up to the office — not to work — but to protest returning to work.<a href="https://twitter.com/DOGE?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@DOGE</a> and I are fighting to get Washington working for YOU! <a href="https://t.co/qrriphp0Fn">pic.twitter.com/qrriphp0Fn</a>
&mdash; Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) <a href="https://twitter.com/SenJoniErnst/status/1910000000177758594?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 9, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
The day President Trump was inaugurated, he issued a presidential <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/return-to-in-person-work/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> that stated:
<blockquote>
Heads of all departments and agencies in the executive branch of Government shall, as soon as practicable, take all necessary steps to terminate remote work arrangements and require employees to return to work in-person at their respective duty stations on a full-time basis, provided that the department and agency heads shall make exemptions they deem necessary.
</blockquote>
Last Thursday, Ernst delineated some of the shocking remote-work abuses she had been made aware of, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PelATbSTI8" target="_blank" rel="noopener">telling</a> a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing:
<blockquote>
A Veterans Affairs manager responsible for scheduling veterans appointments posted on social media that he was “phoning it in from a bubble bath” while calls to the VA have gone unanswered. An Army veteran gave up on getting mental healthcare from the VA because after years of trying to get an appointment, he met with a therapist who “spent the appointment singing the praises of remote work with a cat draped around her neck.” He said that it was such a disaster that “now I’m just on my meds doing my best.” A HUD employee was arrested for drunk driving at 3:30 in the afternoon on a Friday and may have been paid for time spent sitting in jail, HUD had no idea until I told them.  For more than three years, a Social Security employee was running a home inspection business. Meanwhile, his mother was responding to his emails.
</blockquote>

Senators Meet For Their Policy Luncheons On Capitol Hill

‘You Can’t Make This Up’: Ernst Says Remote Workers Came Back Only To Protest Returning To Office

Joni Ernst

Remote Work

The Biden administration reportedly hid a 2022 report from the Defense Department that stated seven military members might have contracted COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, as early as October 2019.
The <a href="https://freebeacon.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/2019-World-Military-Games-Report-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">December 2022 report</a> from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness examined “the number of United States athletes and staff who attended the 2019 World Military Games and became ill with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-like symptoms during or shortly after their return to the United States.”
It added, “The Department of Defense (DoD) has concluded through correspondence with the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and United States of America Medical Director in charge of the safety and health of the participants in the 2019 World Military Games, that 7 Service members who attended the games exhibited COVID-19- like signs and/or symptoms during the timeframe of October 18, 2019 through January 21, 2020. The COVID-19-like symptoms could have been caused by other respiratory infections. All 7 Service members&#8217; symptoms resolved within 6 days.”
“The December 2022 report, which the Biden administration was required by law to release to the public over two years ago but didn’t, reveals for the first time that seven U.S. military service members contracted COVID-19-like symptoms during or after their participation in the World Military Games in Wuhan in October 2019—contradicting the Biden administration’s public claims in 2021 that there was no evidence that any American participants contracted the virus at those games,” <a href="https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-administration-concealed-congressionally-mandated-report-on-earliest-suspected-american-covid-cases/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Washington Free Beacon</a>, which broke the story, noted, adding, “The revelation adds to a mounting body of evidence that the virus was circulating in Wuhan for months before China disclosed it to the world in December 2019 and further bolsters the growing consensus that it could have leaked into the human population from a Chinese lab.”
The report was not made public until last month when the Trump administration uploaded it to the Department of Defense website.
“The U.S. team used chartered flights to and from the games via Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Washington was one of the earliest states to show a spike in COVID-19,” The American Prospect<a href="https://prospect.org/coronavirus/did-the-military-world-games-spread-covid-19/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> reported</a> in June 2020.
In May 2020, The Daily Mail <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8327047/More-competitors-reveal-ill-World-Military-Games.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that athletes from different countries suspected they might have contracted COVID-19 at the 2019 World Military Games. French pentathlete Elodie Clouvel said she and her partner Valentin Belaud contracted COVID-19 at the Games. Italian fencer Matteo Tagliariol claimed everyone in his Wuhan apartment got “symptoms that looked like those of Covid-19.” Jacqueline Bock of the German volleyball team said, “After a few days, some athletes from my team got ill. I got sick in the last two days. I have never felt so sick. Either it was a very bad cold or Covid-19. I think it was Covid-19.”
“Taxpayers deserve to know the truth about COVID-19 origins, but the Biden administration concealed this information from the American people for years,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) told the Free Beacon. “This report should have been made public immediately and not restricted to Washington insiders. If Americans visiting Wuhan were potentially infected with the COVID-19 virus in October 2019, those claiming the pandemic began in a wet market just two months later would be completely off base.”

7th CISM Military World Games

Biden Admin Reportedly Hid Report That Service Members May Have Gotten COVID In Wuhan — In Oct 2019

Athlete

Biden Administration

China

COVID

COVID-19

World

Wuhan

Wuhan Institute of Virology

The now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) paid Ukrainian models and designers to go to Paris Fashion Week and other frivolous luxuries, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said Wednesday.
Ernst revealed that USAID did not report the expenditures in public databases and tried to block her staff from seeing them, claiming they were classified. In reality, she said, they were not classified, merely embarrassing for how wasteful they were.
Ukraine&#8217;s leader Volodymyr Zelensky has demanded billions from American taxpayers, raising the specter of gruesome deaths and suffering. But &#8220;staff learned that the aid intended to alleviate economic distress in the war-torn nation was spent on such frivolous activities as sending Ukrainian models and designers on junkets to New York City, London Fashion Week, Paris Fashion Week, and South by Southwest in Austin, Texas,&#8221; a memo obtained by The Daily Wire said.
Ukrainian recipients of &#8220;Competitive Economy Program (CEP)&#8221; funds included, the memo said:
• A modern women’s attire company ($150,000) 
• A trade mission for a fashion design house ($128,000) 
• A photographer for fashion design publications ($126,000) 
• A purveyor of contemporary knitwear ($161,000) 
• A luxury bridal brand ($84,000) 
• Marketplace for designer artisanal pieces inspired by folk crafts ($84,000)
Money going to Ukraine also went to a vineyard ($89,000), an &#8220;artisanal fruit tea company&#8221; ($104,000), a &#8220;custom carpet manufacturer&#8221; ($2 million), a confectionary company ($678,000), a dog collar manufacturer, and a designer of upscale furniture.
Ernst said that for years, USIAD had treated her efforts at congressional oversight with open hostility. She <a href="https://www.ernst.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/senator_ernst_letter_to_secretary_rubio.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> to Secretary of State Marco Rubio this month that the agency &#8220;has engaged in a demonstrated pattern of obstructionism&#8221; in which they refused to say how they were spending money. When they begrudgingly let congressional overseers see their finances, bureaucrats watched the investigators and not only barred them from copying the records, but even restricted their note-taking.
Ernst, the chair of the Senate Small Business Committee, said USAID would only allow her staff to review documents &#8220;in a sensitive compartmented information facility (SCIF) at USAID headquarters. These requirements were all presented to my staff under the false pretense that this data was classified.&#8221;
&#8220;From my staff’s review of the data on USAID assistance to businesses in Ukraine thus far, it seems clear why USAID is trying to withhold information from Congress. Based on the in-camera review, it appears that over 5,000 Ukrainian businesses received U.S. taxpayer funded assistance through the Competitive Economy Program (CEP), Investment for Business Resilience (IBR), Credit for Agricultural Producers (CAP), and Agriculture Growing Rural Opportunities (AGRO) programs with awards of up to $2 million each.&#8221;
She found that USAID was also allowing NGOs to keep more than 25% of grants for themselves, to pay for &#8220;indirect costs&#8221; such as office rent, and that it claimed it would be against the law for it to provide her information necessary to evaluate whether that was appropriate.
Zelensky is <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zelensky-to-visit-white-house-to-sign-new-mineral-deal-with-u-s">set to visit</a> the White House Friday to sign a new mineral deal with the United States.

Ukraine President Zelensky

USAID Secretly Funded Luxuries For Ukrainian Models, Senate Probe Finds

Ukraine

USAID

Elon Musk said early Monday morning that he had received President <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a>’s approval to eliminate the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).
Musk made the comments during a discussion on X with Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) as they talked about the work of what Trump has called the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). The website for USAID, which spends tens of billions of dollars every year on various programs around the world, appears to have been shut down on Saturday. 
“It became apparent that it&#8217;s not an apple with a worm in it,” Musk said. “What we have is just a ball of worms. You’ve got to basically get rid of the whole thing. It’s beyond repair.”
Musk said that he discussed USAID, which he referred to as a &#8220;hornet&#8217;s nest,&#8221; with Trump multiple times “in detail and he agreed that we should shut it down,&#8221; saying that none of the reforms he was pushing for “could be done without the full support of the president.”
Musk added that Trump said &#8220;yes&#8221; several times after being asked if he was certain he wanted to shut down USAID. 
“So we’re shutting it down,” Musk said. 
“It is also incredibly politically partisan and has been supporting radical Left causes throughout the world, including things that are anti-American which is insane,” he added. 
In recent years, USAID has pushed programs like &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/usaid-introduces-new-framework-to-promote-comprehensive-sexuality-education-abroad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">comprehensive sexuality education</a>&#8221; abroad and spent nearly $2 billion <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-report-shows-how-much-money-u-s-government-spent-on-promoting-covid-vaccine-abroad" target="_blank" rel="noopener">promoting</a> the COVID vaccine around the world.
Ernst said that any program administered by USAID that may actually benefit America should be moved under the jurisdiction of the State Department. 
During the same discussion, Musk said that the unelected bureaucracy entrenched throughout the federal government was the fourth branch of government, and the most powerful.
After the discussion with Ernst, Musk made several posts on X continuing to attack USAID.
“We spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper. Could [have] gone to some great parties. Did that instead,” Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886307316804263979">said</a>.
In another post, Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1886102414194835755">said</a> the agency was a “criminal organization” and that it was “time for it to die.”    
Trump told reporters Sunday night that his administration was working on getting political radicals out of the organization. 
“It’s been run by a bunch of radical lunatics. And we’re getting them out,” he said. 
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
President Donald Trump: “It has been run by a bunch of radical lunatics and we&#8217;re getting them out… USAID, run by radical lunatics&#8230; and then we&#8217;ll make a decision”
<a href="https://t.co/jppmfxAOp9">pic.twitter.com/jppmfxAOp9</a>
— America (@america) <a href="https://twitter.com/america/status/1886212598036598900?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
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USAID workers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/02/02/usaid-trump-musk/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">were told</a> Monday to work from home unless their job required them to be at the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. 
“Agency personnel normally assigned to work at USAID headquarters will work remotely … with the exception of personnel with essential on-site and building maintenance functions individually contacted by senior leadership,” an email to staff read. 
The email came after two top security officials were reportedly placed on leave after they refused to cooperate with DOGE over the weekend.

Donald Trump Watches SpaceX Launch Its Sixth Test Flight Of Starship Spacecraft

‘Beyond Repair’: Musk Says Trump Has Given The Go-Ahead To ‘Get Rid Of’ USAID

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Donald Trump

Elon Musk

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State Department

Sen. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/joni-ernst" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joni Ernst</a> (R-IA) said Tuesday evening that she has decided to vote to confirm Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense following his confirmation hearing earlier in the day.
Ernst made the remarks during an interview with Simon Conway on NEWSRADIO 1040 WHO.
&#8220;He was adequately able to answer all of my questions, he pointed out the woke issues at the Pentagon, and I think we are [at] a point where now we can start moving forward,&#8221; Ernst said. &#8220;People know where he stands on these issues, so I felt it was a good hearing.&#8221;
When asked if she would now vote to confirm Hegseth, Ernst responded: &#8220;Yes, I will be supporting President Trump&#8217;s pick for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth.&#8221;
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/">JOIN THE MOVEMENT IN ’25 WITH 25% OFF DAILYWIRE+ ANNUAL MEMBERSHIPS WITH CODE DW25</a>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
BREAKING: Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) announces that she is now voting to confirm Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense. <a href="https://t.co/wHsI4YVnNI">pic.twitter.com/wHsI4YVnNI</a>
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealSaavedra/status/1879310328540139565?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
Ernst was the main hurdle that Hegseth faced on the road to being confirmed as he first had to get voted out of the Senate Armed Services Committee before the full Senate could vote on whether to confirm him. 
Hegseth has faced scrutiny after a past misconduct, some of which he has owned up to while he has vigorously denied allegations made in anonymously sourced reports.

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Joni Ernst Announces She Will Now Vote To Confirm Pete Hegseth

Congress

Department of Defense

Pete Hegseth

Republicans will head into 2025 with the White House, control of both the U.S. House and Senate, and big expectations from voters to do something with it. Influential conservative activist Charlie Kirk says the party should make lawmakers that get in the way of the Trump agenda pay the price, but warned that the base will have to carefully pick its spots.
Kirk, 31, sat down with The Daily Wire at Turning Point USA’s America Fest in Phoenix, Arizona where he candidly broke down which Republicans are on his primary list. The Turning Point USA founder is a staunch Trump supporter who often speaks with the president-elect, and he is one of the top high profile conservative voices arguing that Republicans owe it to the American people to fall in line with Trump&#8217;s agenda.
&#8220;I find it very perplexing that Joe Biden gets all of his nominees and Republicans are happy to vote for many of them,&#8221; he told The Daily Wire. &#8220;Some Republicans give a harder time to Donald Trump&#8217;s nominees than Joe Biden&#8217;s nominees. There are Republicans that voted for Merrick Garland. There are Republicans that voted for [Alejandro] Mayorkas. There&#8217;s Republicans that voted for Lloyd Austin. No questions. And yet when it comes to Donald Trump&#8217;s nominees, it&#8217;s like the most challenging thing.&#8221;
Kirk said he has an exact &#8220;criteria&#8221; for Republicans that should be challenged through a primary in a way that won&#8217;t be &#8220;reckless or irresponsible&#8221; for the party.
&#8220;We&#8217;re gonna find Republican senators that have the following criteria. Number one, they&#8217;re in deep, deep, deep red states. So if we were to replace them, there will not be a general election issue, right? So we don&#8217;t want to try to go after someone like Thom Tillis, who I&#8217;m not a huge fan of, who might be in a razor thin race in North Carolina which would lose us a senate seat.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/charliekirk11?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@charliekirk11</a> says he has a criteria for which Republicans should face a serious primary challenge.
1) They represent a &#8220;deep, deep red state&#8221; 
2) A pattern of not listening to voters on core issues 
3) They don&#8217;t support Trump&#8217;s cabinet nominees <a href="https://t.co/IRXDBua9bM">pic.twitter.com/IRXDBua9bM</a>
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1873774698066248154?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 30, 2024</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Number two, we&#8217;re gonna find people that have a repeated pattern of not listening to the will of their voters on very core issues that matter to them, border, immigration, foreign aid, size and scope of government, and then of course, whether or not they voted for Trump&#8217;s impeachment and also Trump&#8217;s cabinet,&#8221; Kirk continued. &#8220;And the final thing is this: we want to try to create, not a lesson, but I guess that&#8217;s one way to say it, where senators get out of line, they will be removed.&#8221; 
One senator on his list is Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who was first elected in 2014.
&#8220;He voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump,&#8221; said Kirk. &#8220;People don&#8217;t remember that. Bill Cassidy voted for the impeachment of Donald Trump. He&#8217;s trying to play like he&#8217;s some sort of, you know, friend of Donald Trump now. He&#8217;s got to go. He has routinely been the biggest supporter of sending money to Ukraine despite our border being wide open, which is not popular with the voters of Louisiana. So he&#8217;s on the top of the list.&#8221; 
Cassidy, who has met with a number of Trump nominees in recent weeks, including <a href="https://x.com/petehegseth/status/1866988332292747431?s=46">Pete Hegseth</a> and <a href="https://x.com/kash_patel/status/1869834089961754716?s=46">Kash Patel</a>, met with Trump in June 2024 and <a href="https://www.cassidy.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/cassidy-releases-statement-following-meeting-with-president-trump/">issued a statement at the time</a> promising to work with Trump if he became the next president. In a a Saturday statement to The Daily Wire, a spokesman for the senator said, &#8220;Senator Cassidy continues to work for the state of Louisiana and for the United States. He looks forward to working with President Trump so that our country does great again over the next four years. This is what Louisiana voters care about.”
But not all the senators that have found themselves on the other side of the conservative base meet Krik&#8217;s criteria. Kirk and others are unhappy with Senator Joni Ernst of Iowa for her recent behavior towards Trump nominee Pete Hegseth, but she doesn&#8217;t fully meet their criteria for the primary list, particularly since she&#8217;s going to be in a competitive race.
&#8220;And here&#8217;s how it would work,&#8221; he noted, &#8220;if we were to remove Joni Ernst, the National Republican Senate groups would be like, &#8216;Oh, your fault.&#8217; They would rather make an example out of us try to make an example out of Joni Ernst. So we&#8217;re trying to be wiser than that.&#8221; 
<div id="attachment_850599" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/charlie-kirk-has-thoughts-on-which-republicans-need-a-primary-challenge/conservatives-gather-in-phoenix-for-annual-americafest-5" rel="attachment wp-att-850599"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-850599" class="wp-image-850599 size-large" src="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-2190485533-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-2190485533-864x576.jpg 864w, https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-2190485533-300x200.jpg 300w, https://www.dailywire.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/GettyImages-2190485533-768x512.jpg 768w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></a>PHOENIX, ARIZONA &#8211; DECEMBER 22: Turning Point USA executive director Charlie Kirk is silhouetted against a large video of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump during Turning Point USA&#8217;s AmericaFest at the Phoenix Convention Center on December 22, 2024 in Phoenix, Arizona.  (Photo by Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)</div>
The Turning Point founder also mentioned Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota, James Risch in Idaho, and Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, who is part of leadership.
&#8220;There needs to be consequences when you don&#8217;t listen to the will of the voters,&#8221; Kirk said. &#8220;So we&#8217;ll see how they vote for the cabinet. That will definitely play into this.&#8221;
&#8220;Bill Cassidy, there&#8217;s nothing he can do at this point,&#8221; he added. &#8220;He voted to impeach Donald Trump, of which we believe you need to be retired.&#8221; 
Rounds and Capito did not respond to requests for comment, but a spokesman for Risch told The Daily Wire: “Senator Risch will vote to confirm President Trump’s nominees, just as he did during President Trump’s previous term.”
Questioned on what role he believes Trump will play on all of this, Kirk said he doesn&#8217;t think Trump would actively campaign against incumbents, but that his silence could be just as impactful.
&#8220;I think his silence will be the most powerful thing,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Not endorsing a candidate will end up being an endorsement if that were to happen, because look, he has to still work with the US Senate. He&#8217;s got to get ambassadors through, he&#8217;s got to do stuff. I don&#8217;t imagine him endorsing challengers. Bill Cassidy, he might, I don&#8217;t want to speak for him or for his team, but someone who actually voted to impeach him, I think that would probably reach to a level where he might do something, but probably not.&#8221; 
&#8220;It&#8217;s gonna be primary season sometime soon,&#8221; he added with a grin. 
As for what role Turning Point would play in primary season, Kirk appeared energized and ready to go. He says his organization will play a &#8220;heavy role,&#8221; including drafting the candidates, invigorating the grassroots, raising money for independent expenditures, and ballot chasing. 
&#8220;Republican primaries are different than general elections,&#8221; he explained,  &#8220;Our ask is not something extreme, the Washington insiders are trying to say Turning Point is just trying to cause problems. Well, not really, they&#8217;re the ones that cause the problems for not listening to their voters. If you vote like Ted Cruz or vote like Mike Lee, we think you&#8217;re a hero. You decided to vote a certain way that is against what your voters want.&#8221;
&#8220;We just want a Republican Party that is as conservative as its voters,&#8221; he argued. &#8220;Some people would say, and it sounds good, &#8216;Oh well, Charlie, we just won a huge election. Why are you picking these fights?&#8217; That&#8217;s exactly actually why — because the people gave us a mandate and the senators aren&#8217;t listening to that mandate.&#8221;
&#8220;So it&#8217;s time for some sorting out,&#8221; he concluded.

US-POLITICS-TRUMP

Charlie Kirk Has Thoughts On Which Republicans Need A Primary Challenge

bill Cassidy

Charlie Kirk

James Risch

Republicans

Shelley Moore Capito

U.S. Senate

A top Senate waste-watcher says the Biden administration is in the process of signing more long-term agreements with federal employee unions letting them work from home.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, wrote to 24 agencies on Thursday demanding they cease efforts to bind President-Elect Donald Trump’s hands before he takes office in a month.
“I am calling on you to stop all collective bargaining or any other contractual arrangements related to telework for federal employees extending beyond the few weeks remaining in the Biden administration. Giving bureaucrats another four-year vacation from the office is unacceptable. Bureaucrats have had enough gap years—it’s time to get them back to work. Americans are tired of being put on hold by bureaucrats who are phoning it in,” she wrote.
She said a whistleblower told her that the Department of Housing and Urban Development is on the verge of signing a contract that would run through 2029, &#8220;the top four priorities of which are, in order: solidifying telework and remote work privileges, limiting accountability through hamstringing employee performance review processes, maximizing use of taxpayer-funded union time, and lastly, permitting the use of agency facilities for union offices.”
The National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) is frantically working to unionize lawyers at the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division and Environment and Natural Resources Division, explicitly using the potential of continuing to work from home to gain buy-in, she added.
A union representing hundreds of Bureau of Land Management employees who work at its headquarters are also “scrambling” to sign a deal with the Biden administration, with a union head calling on Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to do a deal before Biden’s term ends.
Ernst cited The Daily Wire’s report highlighting the circumstances behind the Social Security Administration signing a telework deal through 2029, which suggested that it was not a compromise between management and labor, but rather a deal worked out between people who were both sitting on the same side of the table.
Martin O’Malley, the agency head appointed by Joe Biden, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/social-security-head-drank-with-union-members-before-giving-them-telework-through-2029" target="_blank" rel="noopener">partied with the union at a junket in Florida</a>, signed the contract days later, then immediately resigned his post to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee — being owed favors from politically connected unions could help him attain the DNC chair. 
The contract shows that the work-from-home agreement was structured as a settlement resolving years-old allegations of racism, meaning O’Malley could have signed it previously — but chose not to take away his own management prerogative, only those of his successor.
Ernst said other agencies have also recently finalized such deals. On December 3, 2024, the National Park Services (NPS) signed a contract with two unions representing Washington, D.C.-based employees that would also, coincidentally, run through the entirety of the Trump administration. One of the unions said to expect “virtually all NPS positions” to be “eligible for telework,” with no requirement to come in more than once a week.
An American Federation of Government Employees union representing 1,000 employees of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission earlier this year signed an agreement stretching into 2030, with the union highlighting that employees would only need to come to work one day a week. The agency is among those who are also on a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-look-to-hire-up-to-1200-new-dei-bureaucrats-before-trump-takes-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">last-minute hiring spree</a> loading up the federal agency with DEI employees, searching for a &#8220;recent graduate&#8221; to pay $88,926 as a  “diversity data analyst.”
Ernst said government employee union leaders are ungrateful and insatiable. The union representing employees at the Department of Labor — which is headed by the fiercely pro-union Julie Su — is fighting with Su, saying her request that employees come to work half the time is draconian, engaging in “a fruitless 11-hour mediation session.”
Taxpayers actually pay for employees to do union work,  like advocating for contracts, instead of their actual jobs. For many years, the Office Personnel Management published data about how much money was spent on taxpayer-funded union time, or “official time,” but the Biden administration stopped that transparency practice.
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The latest available figures are from 2019, when agencies spent $135 million paying employees who were actually conducting union work, plus $25 million in office space and other goods.
Ernst said that after repeated inquiries, HUD gave limited, more recent data, showing that it paid employees for between 27,000 and 41,000 hours of union work per year. “Among the HUD employees who did claim [Taxpayer-Funded Union Time], one was paid for sitting in a jail cell, another is running a real estate business in Florida, and a third is supposed to be in Colorado but allegedly routinely goes on paid vacations, including spending a week on the beach in Puerto Rico,” Ernst wrote.
In the letters sent to two dozen agencies, she demanded that they not sign union contracts tying Trump’s hands, that they provide final and draft copies of union agreements, and that they produce data about taxpayer-funded union activity. In a statement, she said, “The entire concept of public service is being perverted by public employee union bosses who forget the obligation of government workers is to serve the American people, not themselves.”
“The one government employee who won’t have to worry about coming back into the office ever again after January 20, 2025, is President Biden. But as for the millions of others on the public dole, they work for taxpayers … and soon, for President Trump, not the president of a labor union,” she said.
Ernst worked with inspectors general to conduct a large-scale investigation that found that federal employees never returned to the office after the COVID pandemic. It found that only 6% of federal employees report to work in person every day, that one-third are still <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/only-6-of-feds-work-from-an-office-full-time-and-some-arent-working-at-all-audit-finds">fully remote</a>, and that the government spends $16 billion a year on office buildings with a 12% occupancy rate. She said some of the employees who are &#8220;working remotely&#8221; aren&#8217;t doing much at all, which she said has contributed to citizens receiving a frustrating lack of services.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/government-unions-top-workers-rights-official-mistreated-employees-probe-finds">Government Union’s Top Workers’ Rights Official Mistreated Employees, Probe Finds</a>

Federal Employees Hold Rally Calling For End Of Government Shutdown

Feds Scheming More Long-Term Union Contracts Before Inauguration, Senator Says

Joe Biden

Labor Unions

Colleges and universities that did not work to stop campus anti-Semitism will face consequences under the Trump administration and Republican-dominated Senate, Senator Joni Ernst told The Daily Wire. 
“The new Senate Republican majority is going to work with the Trump administration to enforce the law in the face of campuses that have fanned the flames of hate through inaction,” the Iowa Republican told The Daily Wire. “Elite universities have made their bed, and they’ve got to lie in it, but not on the taxpayers’ dime.”
Anti-Semitic incidents have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/anti-semitic-incidents-up-500-on-campuses-since-october-7-report">increased</a> by over 500% since Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israeli civilians. Ernst is one of several senators who have raised the alarm about the harm anti-Semitism has had on Jewish students. She says the Biden administration has repeatedly ignored her.
“The Biden administration ignored my repeated calls for action and sat on its hands as anti-Semitic violence exploded on college campuses across the country,” said Ernst. 
In contrast, President-elect Donald Trump has threatened both public and private universities with repercussions for enabling hatred and promoting a diversity, equity, and inclusion agenda. 
“My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that if you do not end anti-Semitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support,” <a href="https://www.campusreform.org/article/trump-warns-universities-lose-accreditation-let-anti-semitism-run-wild-flashback-/26813">Donald Trump said</a> in a September speech.
He added that Jewish Americans must have “equal protection” and that the United States government will not “subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers, and we’re not going to do it, certainly [not] on American soil.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
“My first week back in the Oval Office, my administration will inform every college president that, if you do not end antisemitic propaganda, they will lose their accreditation and federal taxpayer support.”
Donald Trump couldn’t be clearer
“We will not subsidize the creation… <a href="https://t.co/kRZXnDqQJ5">pic.twitter.com/kRZXnDqQJ5</a>
— Aviva Klompas (@AvivaKlompas) <a href="https://twitter.com/AvivaKlompas/status/1857278750351565103?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 15, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script> 
In May 2023, Trump <a href="https://djt.nucleusemail.com/amplify/v/rJ2WZsxaFX?hids=xo6SL5E&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=ncl_amplify&amp;utm_campaign=230502-agenda47_protecting_students_from_the_radical_left_and_marxist_maniacs_infecting_educational_institutions&amp;utm_content=ncl-4xNNDchTdJ&amp;_nlid=4xNNDchTdJ&amp;_nhids=xo6SL5E">outlined his plan</a> to reform the college accreditation system, aiming to hold accreditors accountable in order to “reclaim our once great educational institutions from the radical Left.”
“The accreditors are supposed to ensure that schools are not ripping off students and taxpayers but they have failed totally,” he said. “When I return to the White House I will fire the radical left accreditors who have allowed our colleges to become dominated by Marxist maniacs and lunatics.”
He said he would direct the Department of Justice to pursue federal civil rights cases against schools engaging in radical discrimination, and will fine schools up to the amount of their entire endowment if they continue such policies.
“And schools that persist in explicit unlawful discrimination under the guise of equity will not only have their endowment taxed, but through budget reconciliation, I will advance a measure to have them fined up to the entire amount of their endowment,” Trump said.
The risk of repercussions is not just for public schools, as private schools often receive large amounts of government funding. Harvard University, which <a href="https://brandeiscenter.com/harvards-federal-funding-likely-isnt-in-danger-but-its-leverage-for-lawmakers-to-push-changes-amid-controversy-boston-globe/">received</a> $676 million in federal research funding in 2023 alone, is currently the subject of a bipartisan congressional investigation into campus anti-Semitism.
Harvard is ranked fifth in federal funding among elite private schools, according to the Boston Globe, receiving $3.27 billion between 2018-2022. Stanford received the most at $7 billion, and Columbia University came in at second with $5.9 billion.
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter size-large wp-image-842371" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-847x576.png" alt="" width="847" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-847x576.png 847w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-300x204.png 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-768x522.png 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-1536x1045.png 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2024/12/ernstpiecephoto-2048x1393.png 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 847px) 100vw, 847px" /></div>
Columbia University stands to lose up to $3.5 billion a year — up to 55 percent of its university’s operating budget — if such policies are enacted, The Free Press<a href="https://www.thefp.com/p/trump-presidency-may-cost-columbia"> reported</a>.
Law professor Mark Goldfeder, who testified before Congress on campus anti-Semitism, said Trump’s plan has the ability to transform higher education for the better.
“The President’s plan to reform higher education by taxing private university endowments that have been flooded with money from authoritarian middle eastern regimes, and using that cash flow to create a new nonpolitical American Academy that offers a world class education free of charge, is classic Trump,” Goldfeder said.
Goldfeder pointed out that many of America’s top universities take money from or have associations with authoritarian regimes such as Qatar. Between 2001 and 2021, Qatar was one of the biggest donors to American universities, giving $4.7 billion, <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/awash-in-qatari-money-have-us-campuses-become-incubators-for-dohas-interests/">according to a 2022 study</a>. Georgetown University alone received $870 million from Qatar since 2005. The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/georgetown-qatar-conference-will-feature-terrorist-linked-speakers">previously reported</a> on Georgetown hosting terrorist-linked speakers at a conference in September.
“Trump is going to build a new ivory tower, and he is going to make Qatar pay for it,” Goldfeder added.
The Daily Wire has also <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-dark-relationship-between-u-s-universities-and-the-anti-american-school-controlled-by-terrorists">reported</a> on Harvard partnering with Birzeit University, located near Ramallah in Judea and Samaria (also known as the West Bank), which could also spell trouble for the Ivy League. Birzeit is home to an overwhelmingly Hamas-affiliated student government and its chairwoman has denied Hamas’ brutality and rape on October 7. Birzeit University&#8217;s official account <a href="https://archive.ph/eRaU6">also called for</a> “glory to the martyrs” days after the attack. 
“Birzeit University has a well-documented history of discriminating against Jews and Israeli students, while welcoming suspected terrorists and Hamas supporters with open arms,” said Ernst. “Harvard University’s relationship with such an institution speaks to its shameful embrace of anti-Semitism. The American people deserve to know if Harvard has sent even a penny of the tax dollars it receives to this school that fuels hate and violence.”

Universities That Ignored Anti-Semitism Will Face Consequences Under Trump, Ernst Says

American Universities

Anti-Semitism

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo has ordered staff to work overtime so they can spend cash as quickly as possible before Donald Trump assumes the presidency, which a Republican senator called &#8220;extremely concerning.&#8221;
“I’d like to have really almost all of the money obligated by the time we leave,” Raimondo told <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/20/raimondo-commerce-trump-legacy-00190538" target="_blank" rel="noopener">POLITICO</a>, in reference to the $53 billion microchip program, which Congress passed as a part of the CHIPS Act. Raimondo set a &#8220;clear deadline&#8221; and asked her staff to work weekends to accomplish it, she said.
Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus, criticized Raimondo in a Wednesday letter.
&#8220;Shoveling out heaps of taxpayer dollars as fast as possible, with little to no oversight, is part of the reason the United States government is nearly $36 trillion in debt today,&#8221; she wrote, saying $280 billion in COVID money may have gone to fraudsters under similar spend-it-as-fast-as-you-can circumstances.
Ernst said the department had spent as much CHIPS money in the last month as it had since the beginning of the program, and asked Raimondo to &#8220;immediately suspend the shopping spree and discontinue awarding new grants until a new secretary is confirmed.&#8221;
She asked if the department is cutting corners by doing away with typical contracting rules to get money out the door, and inquired about how it is communicating with the Trump transition team about the work.
Raimondo&#8217;s goal would require doing multi-billion dollar deals with Intel, Micron, Samsung, and SK Hynix, according to POLITICO. So far, only two deals have been done, and there have been delays and culture clashes.
The deals have been bogged down in part due to Democrats pushing diversity and union policies.
An April column in <a href="https://thehill.com/opinion/4517470-dei-killed-the-chips-act/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the Hill</a> said it is not normally hard to convince companies to take &#8220;multi-billion dollar subsidies,&#8221; but blame lies in large part with  &#8220;frustration with DEI requirements embedded in the CHIPS Act&#8230; The law contains 19 sections aimed at helping minority groups, including one creating a Chief Diversity Officer at the National Science Foundation.&#8221;
It contains &#8220;requirements that chipmakers submit detailed plans to educate, employ, and train lots of women and people of color, as well as &#8216;justice-involved individuals,&#8217; more commonly known as ex-cons.&#8221;
Republicans have fought to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-bill-aims-to-remove-woke-regulations-from-chips-act" target="_blank" rel="noopener">remove</a> provisions that aren&#8217;t focused on helping the U.S. build chips as efficiently as possible so the country is not dependent on imports for a key resource.
Raimondo isn&#8217;t the only Biden administration official attempting to tie Trump&#8217;s hands. On his way out the door, recently departed Social Security Commissioner Martin O&#8217;Malley signed a deal with his agency&#8217;s union giving employees telework <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/social-security-head-drank-with-union-members-before-giving-them-telework-through-2029" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through 2029,</a> The Daily Wire reported.
Raimondo has fashioned herself the &#8220;Sec of Tech&#8221; and said that Commerce&#8217;s work will be key on issues like artificial intelligence. But she has also raised eyebrows as a Cabinet secretary more willing than most to play politics — sometimes, seemingly, at the expense of a focus on her job.
After Trump narrowly avoided assassination, she said, &#8220;Let&#8217;s <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-calls-to-extinguish-trump-for-good-after-assassination-attempts" target="_blank" rel="noopener">extinguish</a> him for good.&#8221;
When the Department of Labor revised its job creation estimates and acknowledged that the numbers were 800,000 jobs worse than they had previously stated, Raimondo said &#8220;I don’t believe it because I have never heard Donald Trump saying anything truthful.” When her interviewer pointed out that they were official statistics from the Biden administration, the Commerce Secretary said &#8220;I don&#8217;t, I don&#8217;t, I’m <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-suggests-trump-made-up-numbers-that-bidens-labor-dept-released" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not familiar</a> with that.&#8221;
Raimondo was a surrogate for Vice President Kamala Harris during the latter&#8217;s presidential campaign. As the International Longshoreman&#8217;s Union threatened to shut down the U.S. economy if their demands for a massive pay raise were not met — a massive commercial crisis — Raimondo said she had &#8220;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/watch-commerce-secretary-gina-raimondo-says-shes-not-very-focused-on-dock-worker-strike" target="_blank" rel="noopener">not been very focused</a> on that,&#8221; and instead launched into a critique of Trump.

Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo Testifies Before Senate Commerce Committee

Commerce Secretary Orders Staff To Spend Cash Before Trump Takes Over

Department of Commerce

Technology

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said on Monday that she had a good conversation with President-elect Donald Trump&#8217;s nominee for Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, as he continues to meet with Republican senators.
&#8220;I appreciate Pete Hegseth&#8217;s responsiveness and respect for the process,&#8221; Ernst said after the meeting. &#8220;Following our encouraging conversations, Pete committed to completing a full audit of the Pentagon and selecting a senior official who will uphold the roles and value of our servicemen and women — based on quality and standards, not quotas — and who will prioritize and strengthen my work to prevent sexual assault within the ranks.&#8221;
&#8220;As I support Pete through this process, I look forward to a fair hearing based on truth, not anonymous sources,&#8221; she added.
Hegseth has faced scrutiny after a settlement surfaced last month involving a woman who alleged that he raped her several years ago in a hotel — an accusation that he vehemently denies.
He has faced other accusations of misconduct, which he also disputes.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
🚨 ERNST out with a statement on HEGSETH
She says “as I support Pete through this process…” but doesn’t clearly indicate she is voting for his confirmation. <a href="https://t.co/LFe91x5OmX">pic.twitter.com/LFe91x5OmX</a>
— Aishah Hasnie (@aishahhasnie) <a href="https://twitter.com/aishahhasnie/status/1866222281615200632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 9, 2024</a></blockquote>
Hegseth briefly spoke to reporters after the meeting, saying that their meeting was &#8220;very good.&#8221;
&#8220;The more we talk the more we&#8217;re reminded of as two combat veterans how dedicated we are to defense,&#8221; he said. &#8220;She has been dedicated to making the Pentagon work for warfighters for a long time.&#8221;
Trump <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-pete-hegseth-never-flinched-over-risk-of-leaving-high-paying-job-because-he-loves-america">said</a> during an interview over the weekend that Hegseth did not care about risking his high-paying job in the media to serve in the U.S. government because he wanted to serve his country.
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“I told him — so he’s making a lot of money at Fox, [his family is] doing very well,” Trump said. “And I said, ‘You know, if for some reason you don’t get this thing, you’re not going to be able to go back. And all that money you’re making, you can kiss it goodbye.’ He said, ‘This is all about America.&#8217;”
“You know he didn’t say, ‘Well, let me think about it. Let me discuss it,&#8217;” Trump continued. “That’s a very big, risky thing he’s doing. When he goes and he says, ‘I’m going to give up, you know, millions of dollars in order to possibly become the secretary of defense,’ a lot of people would say, it’s a great position, there’s probably almost no greater position, but a lot of people would say, ‘I have to think about it.’ He said, ‘I don’t have to think about it.&#8217;”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/desantis-to-join-trump-at-army-navy-football-game-amid-cabinet-speculation-report">DeSantis To Join Trump At Army-Navy Football Game Amid Defense Secretary Speculation</a>

Hill

Ernst Says She Supports Hegseth ‘Through This Process’ Of Being Confirmed

The GOP-led <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/congress" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Congress</a> and President-elect <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/donald-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Donald Trump</a> will &#8220;demand&#8221; that federal employees return to their desks, House Speaker <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mike-johnson" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mike Johnson</a> (R-LA) declared on Thursday.
Johnson made the prediction on Capitol Hill, where he and other lawmakers were meeting <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/vivek-ramaswamy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vivek Ramaswamy</a> about the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/department-of-government-efficiency-doge" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)</a> that Trump has appointed them to lead.
&#8220;One of the first things that I think you’ll see is a demand from the new administration and from all of us in Congress that federal workers return to their desks and get back to the work that they’re supposed to be doing. I think that is common sense,&#8221; Johnson told reporters.
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Speaker Mike Johnson: &quot;One of the first things that I think you&#39;ll see is a demand from the new administration, and from all of us in Congress, that federal workers return to their desks.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/ZJ4XwE9S6y">pic.twitter.com/ZJ4XwE9S6y</a>
&mdash; The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) <a href="https://twitter.com/TPostMillennial/status/1864750313279762941?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 5, 2024</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;What you’re going to see here — the overriding theme here — is a return to common sense and a return to accountability and efficiency in government,&#8221; he added. &#8220;I think that’s going to serve the people well. There’ll be a lot — there’ll be a lot more to tell you all in the days ahead.&#8221;
When asked about labor unions pushing back against efforts to get workers back into the office, Johnson referred to a Senate investigation.
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Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is leading the Senate DOGE Caucus, released a <a href="https://www.politico.com/f/?id=00000193-974e-d608-ab9f-d74fd2690000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">60-page report</a> that found 6% of federal employees work from an office full-time, a third are fully remote, and some aren’t actually working when they &#8220;work from home,&#8221; The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/only-6-of-feds-work-from-an-office-full-time-and-some-arent-working-at-all-audit-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> earlier on Thursday.
&#8220;There was a report that came out today. I don’t know if you all have seen it, but someone did a little survey of how many federal employees are actually working in the office,&#8221; the speaker said. &#8220;By one estimate, it may be about 1% if you don’t count the security personnel that are covering these buildings. That is absurd, and it’s not something the American people would stand for.&#8221;
Musk responded to Ernst&#8217;s report on X.
&#8220;If you exclude security guards &amp; maintenance personnel, the number of government workers who show up in person and do 40 hours of work a week is closer to 1%!&#8221; Musk <a href="https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1864702585313349962" target="_blank" rel="noopener">exclaimed</a>. &#8220;Almost no one.&#8221;
Ramaswamy <a href="https://x.com/VivekGRamaswamy/status/1860451886777630790" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in a post to X a couple of weeks ago: &#8220;Most federal workers don’t physically show up, yet the cost of maintaining &amp; providing energy for govt office buildings is $15BN/year (not counting billions more spent on office furnishings). The government owns 7,967 vacant buildings. This is nuts. Sounds like a job for DOGE.&#8221;

Speaker Mike Johnson

‘Return To Common Sense’: Speaker Johnson Says Feds Returning To Their Desks Is A Top Priority

Mike Johnson

Vivek Ramaswamy

Only 6% of federal employees work from an office full-time, and a third are fully remote. And some aren’t actually working when they “work from home,” a Senate investigation found.
“Washington is still operating as if it’s March 2020,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), the chair of the Senate DOGE Caucus and the report&#8217;s author, wrote.
&#8220;Just three percent of the federal workforce teleworked daily prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today, six percent of workers report in-person on a full-time basis, while nearly one-third are entirely remote,&#8221; the report states.
Government office buildings have an occupancy rate of only 12%, yet the government spends $16 billion a year to operate them. Even the head of the General Services Administration, which manages federal real estate, works from home in Missouri.
“You may be more likely to see a ghost than a bureaucrat haunting the halls of some government buildings in Washington, D.C. these days,” Ernst continued.
Office buildings are so empty that the water supply at the office of the Environmental Protection Agency — which is tasked with ensuring clean drinking water — was left stagnant for so long that it developed dangerous bacteria, according to the audit. But unions have demanded that full individual workstations for each employee be maintained for the rare occasions they are used, in addition to demanding that members be allowed to work from home.
Elon Musk, co-chair of the incoming Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, has signaled that federal employees should have to work from the office — and those who don’t want to can quit, resulting in a leaner government.
President Joe Biden used his 2022 State of the Union to say that federal employees must return to the office, and his chief of staff repeatedly demanded that cabinet officials follow through because “there’s <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/01/19/zients-biden-cabinet-return-to-office" target="_blank" rel="noopener">no substitute</a> for face-to-face.” Yet the Biden administration signed a contract, in the waning days of his presidency, with the Social Security Administration&#8217;s (SSA) union locking them into telework <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-12-03/biden-administration-locks-in-wfh-policies-for-some-federal-staff-ahead-of-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener">through 2029</a>.
That’s despite the fact that administration just completed a <a href="https://www.henselphelps.com/project/social-security-administration-ssa-arthur-j-altmeyer-modernization/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">$120 million office renovation</a> on a massive SSA headquarters that is 91% unused. One SSA employee ran a personal home inspection business for three years while supposedly doing his job from home, having his mother occasionally send emails from his computer
“Apparently, the president of a public employees union, not the President of the United States, is currently deciding personnel policy for the U.S government,” Ernst wrote.
Federal employees get paid more when their offices are in high cost-of-living areas. But at some agencies, up to 80% of teleworking employees now live in lower cost-of-living areas, while still collecting the higher pay. Some agency heads have told Congress that they have implemented policies requiring employees to come to work a few days per pay period, but reports from the ground suggest that’s not actually enforced.
More than 90% of Department of Housing and Urban Development employees work from home and are not required to come to the office more than once a week. One HUD employee — a former union president — allegedly got a DUI while supposedly working from home. Remote work enabled another woman to hold <a href="https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/dc-official-who-had-second-job-resigns/3688421/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two</a> six-figure government jobs at the same time, with each employer thinking she was working full-time.
The Patent and Trade Office considers itself a pioneer in teleworking, having widely done so since the 1990s. But in one nine-month period, it paid at least $8.8 million in hourly wages that “teleworking” employees didn’t actually work, its inspector general found.
The federal government doesn’t have widespread systems monitoring whether employees log in to their computers, or from where, each day, Ernst said. When the Department of Health and Human Services did look at employees’ computer logins, it found that up to 30% of “teleworkers” on any given day were not actually working during the COVID pandemic, when the health department was presumably needed.
The VA’s website advertises to prospective employees: “At VA, you can break away from the traditional 9 to 5, 40-hour workweek without sacrificing the opportunities and benefits that come with job security.” Despite an epidemic of veteran suicides, one-third of calls to a mental health hotline for veterans went unanswered in Atlanta, with “no sense of urgency.” Therapists didn’t show up for appointments with veterans, while the Veterans Affairs manager responsible for scheduling the appointments posted a photo online showing he was “working” from a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-workers-ignore-bidens-call-to-stop-working-from-home-and-some-might-not-be-working-at-all" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bubble bath</a>.
The report said that only two of 76 local offices actually picked up the phone at the IRS, whose inspector general said “maximizing telework in response to the pandemic &#8230; may have contributed to declines in productivity.” The Biden administration has also made a massive number of new hires at the IRS, even though it’s not clear the existing employees are working to their potential.
Ernst said, “If bureaucrats don’t want to return to work, make their wish come true.”
She proposed that the government be required to sell off any real estate that is not being fully used, and that agencies should also be relocated across the country to lower-cost areas that have a connection to the work being done—with the Department of Agriculture, for example, being in farm country. The Strategic Withdrawal of Agencies for Meaningful Placement (SWAMP) Act, and several other pieces of proposed legislation, would do that.

Stock photo of an empty office building

Only 6% Of Feds Work From An Office Full-Time — And Some Aren’t Working At All, Audit Finds

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