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Telework

Wolf's Telework Remarks before the House Subcommittee on Federal Workforce and Agency Organization
Wolf Encourages Administration to Make Telework a Priority

While we work on improving our area’s roads and mass transit systems, we must also address the other critical piece of solving the transportation crisis: taking cars off of the road. One of the most promising ways to do this is to encourage employers to allow their employees to work from home — telework — one or more days each week.

According to experts, 60 percent of jobs in our area are compatible with teleworking. Telework reduces traffic congestion and air pollution. It reduces gas consumption and our dependency on foreign oil. Telework is good for families -- working parents have flexibility to meet everyday demands. Telework provides people with disabilities greater job opportunities. It’s also a good way for retirees to pick up part-time work.

I put a new teleworking law on the books which will reduce traffic congestion as well as air pollution by rewarding employers for allowing employees to work at home. Those credits to employers could then be traded like a stock or sold for a cash value, similar to an already established pollution credits trading program in effect for traditional manufacturing and smoke stack facilities which can show reductions in air pollution under the Clean Air Act. It is completely voluntary, costs the taxpayers nothing, and will help prevent gridlock. This program will be implemented in our region beginning later this year with the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (MWCOG) leading the effort.

Serving on the House appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Treasury Department and general government functions, I have focused efforts on helping the federal government – the nation’s largest employer – to become more family-friendly and be a responsible employer so that it can continue to recruit and retain the most experienced, talented and skilled workforce to provide essential services to the American public.

With the Washington metropolitan area one of the worst areas in the entire nation for traffic congestion, allowing eligible federal workers to telecommute just one day a week would not only take cars off overburdened highways and side streets, it would conserve energy and reduce air pollution. Studies also have shown that telecommuting increases both employee productivity and morale and saves employer’s real estate costs. The federal government should be the leader in telework policy.


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