Teleworking bill passes House

Prince William County, Va. - The savings in time and money to area residents could be significant with the passing of a new bill that might very well change the way federal workers do business.

The Telework Improvement Act, sponsored by Congressmen Gerald E. "Gerry" Connolly, D-11th, Frank Wolf, R-10th, and John Sarbanes, R-Md., and co-sponsored by Rob Wittman, R-1st, directs every federal agency to appoint telework managing officers and implement telework plans for people to work form home or a teleworking center near their homes.

Connolly said that in addition to increasing productivity and improving air quality by taking as much as 4 percent to 6 percent of cars off the metro region's roads per day, teleworking would stabilize gov-ernment service and help with national security in case of natural or man-made disaster.

"This is critical for federal operations. Every federal agency now has to have a continuity of opera-tions plan in place," Connolly said in a statement on the floor of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, just before House members passed the bill 290 to 131.

"For national security reasons and in service to the taxpayers we serve through the federal agencies, we must have a vigorous telework program in place," Connolly said.

In a Wednesday press release, Connolly cited the 2010, back-to-back winter snow storms that brought things to a halt across the region as an indication that teleworking would work for the area.

Federal workers kept the government running through teleworking and saved $30 million a day in what would have been lost productivity if not for teleworking, the release stated.

Connolly said the savings would offset any initial costs of getting started.

"I would argue there are no net costs to this bill," Connolly said. "We know that the productivity gains and savings are considerable and more than wipe out any potential implementation costs."

Wittman echoed Connolly's comments and said that among other things, the bill would promote competitive hiring and retention and increase emergency preparedness.

He called the bill, "a step forward to getting vehicles off the roads in our region, enhancing produc-tivity, reducing costs and ensuring continuity of operations within the Federal government."

Wittman often encounters traffic in his daily commute to his home in Montross in Westmoreland County.

"Telework is something that really appeals to me. I think telework is really an important opportunity to get traffic of the road," he said.

Wittman said it's his understanding that productivity goes up among those who telework because they spend less time on the road.

Connolly,  the former chairman of the Fairfax Board of County Supervisors, introduced teleworking in Fairfax roughly seven years ago.

Current Fairfax Chairman Sharon Bulova said it works.

Bulova echoed the idea that last winter's snowstorms—called "Snowmaggedon" by some— were an eye-opener on the effectiveness of teleworking or telecommuting.

"One of the things that really pointed out the success of telecommuting was Snowmaggedon last winter, when we were shut down except for the fact that so many of our employees had the equipment installed in their homes and had the ability to work from home and be able to communicate with each other," Bulova said.

While Bulova said that not all jobs are conducive to teleworking, many are.

"Why not make that opportunity available to employees," she said. "For many jobs that people do, telecommuting offers an efficiency for them."

Connolly said the immediate goal is to get 20 percent of the commuting population off the roads at least once a week.

"If we could reach 20 percent of our daily commuters, or 2.5 million people teleworking at least one day a week, we could take four to six percent of the cars off the road every day," Connolly said from the floor of the House.

Wittman said the bill would have a "significant impact" if federal workers take advantage of teleworking for 20 percent of their time as the bill allows.

"If it's fully utilized it could be even more than that looking at the number of people that come up here to Washington," Wittman said. "the key is to get that 20 percent fully real-ized."

The U.S. Senate passed a similar bill in May.

 http://www2.insidenova.com/isn/news/local/article/teleworking_bill_passes_house/60760/