From Shutdown Prospects To Anti-Telework Bills: 5 Things To Watch When Congress Returns

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Pending legislation could affect federal employees’ work-life balance, civil service protections, TSP investment options and more.

The Senate returns from recess on Tuesday and the House the following week. Lawmakers will be racing the clock to tackle big issues, such as finalizing agency spending bills. Here are five areas to watch as Congress returns, that could have big implications for federal employees’ paychecks, benefits and job security.

  1. Shutdown prospects. One of the top items on lawmakers’ agenda when they return will be funding the government for next fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., have said they’ve agreed to work on a short-term continuing resolution to keep the lights on while negotiations on longer-term spending are completed. House Freedom Caucus members have threatened not to support the CR unless it meets a list of demands on conservative policy issues, but McCarthy plans to use the need to fund investigations of Hunter Biden as leverage to avoid a shutdown.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act, signed into law in June as part of a deal to avoid a debt default, has a provision intended to discourage a shutdown. Under the law, Congress has until Jan. 1, 2024 to pass all 12 annual appropriations bills or a process would be triggered that could result in cuts to all agency budgets of 1% below this year’s levels.

  1. Anti-telework bills. The White House earlier in August called on agencies to “aggressively” reduce telework this fall, but Republicans aren’t taking any changes. The Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems Act (H.R. 139 and S. 1565) would require agencies to “reinstate and apply the telework policies, practices and levels . . . in effect on December 31, 2019” within 30 days of the bill’s enactment. If agencies want to expand telework beyond 2019 levels, they would have to submit an Office of Personnel Management-certified plan to Congress first.

The House narrowly passed the bill–dubbed the SHOW UP Act–in February, but the Senate version has not made it out of committee. House lawmakers are also attacking telework through appropriations legislation, attaching a rider to their version of the Financial Services and General Government spending bill that would direct agencies to return their telework policies to pre-pandemic levels within 30 days of the bill’s enactment, similar to the SHOW UP Act.  Click HERE to read more.