The House Oversight Committee will ask Martin O’Malley, Joe Biden’s head of the Social Security Administration, to testify on why he signed an agreement letting employees telework through 2029, just days before resigning his post.
“[T]he hearing will address existing agreements between federal agencies and federal employee unions that purport to prevent incoming executive branch officials appointed by President Trump from telling their own employees – and those of the American people – to show up to work,” Rep. James Comer (R-Kentucky), the chairman of the committee, wrote in a letter to O’Malley on Monday.
“You signed the SSA agreement with [American Federation of Government Employees] AFGE on November 27, 2024—after informing the press of your intent to run for chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC)—and just days before stepping down from your role at SSA,” the letter said, citing The Daily Wire’s exclusive reporting. The article found that instead of union and management being on opposing sides, O’Malley actually attended a November 12-15 union conference in Florida, where he drank and played guitar with union members who praised him, before signing the contract and then resigning his post on November 29.
Locking in telework at levels that originated during a global pandemic seemed to be outside of the interests of even the Joe Biden administration, which has repeatedly said that federal employees should return to the office in order to provide the best service to taxpayers. Locking in telework for five years also seems odd considering the Social Security Administration just spent $120 million renovating its headquarters, which is currently 91% vacant.
“Thus, you managed the SSA workforce for only a few days under a CBA that will tie the hands of your successor at SSA for the duration of the next Administration, and beyond. Your motive for signing such an agreement is unclear, nor is it clear why the public interest is served by having a departing official of a lame duck Administration determine the work arrangements to occur at an agency for years after he is gone. Democracy is best served when an incoming, duly elected President and his appointees are empowered to actually manage the workforce they are charged with overseeing. The SSA CBA seems intended to prevent just that,” the letter continued.
The letter suggested that O’Malley may have given away government favors in order to boost his personal ambitions to head the DNC, given that unions are influential in the party. The contract may have been bad for taxpayers who expect prompt service from Social Security, but it was “extremely popular with the AFGE members—who you partied with in Florida shortly before signing it—and with other public employee unions that form a core constituency of the DNC that you are now running to chair,” it said.
The letter said nearly all Social Security employees are eligible for telework and have been spending less than half their time in the office, even as metrics such as the speed of processing disability applications have gotten worse.
Unions could pose an impediment to Trump reforming the federal workforce, including bringing them back to the office. A Senate report found that up to 94% of federal employees are working from home.Federal office buildings have only a 12% occupancy rate, despite taxpayers spending $16 billion a year on the facilities. The working-from-home employees included a Social Security employee who was actually running a home inspection business on the clock. He had his mom send a few emails during the day from his computer, and he got away with it for three years.
“We believe your testimony will shed light on why so much of the federal workforce is currently at home, and federal agency offices are largely vacant. We also expect it will educate Members as to how federal collective bargaining law and practice has helped facilitate this situation,” Comer concluded.
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