I 

109TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 5163 

To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to conduct 

a pilot program to raise awareness about telework among small business 

employers, and to encourage such employers to offer telework options 

to employees, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

APRIL 6, 2006 

Mr. UDALL of Colorado introduced the following bill; which was referred to 

the Committee on Small Business, and in addition to the Committee on 

Energy and Commerce, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

A BILL 

To direct the Administrator of the Small Business Administration to conduct a pilot program to raise awareness 

about telework among small business employers, and to 

encourage such employers to offer telework options to 

employees, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Federal and Small 

5 Business Telework Promotion Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

2 The Congress finds that— 

3 (1) Federal, State, and local governments spend 

4 billions of dollars annually on the Nation’s transpor5 tation needs; 

6 (2) congestion on the Nation’s roads costs over 

7 $63,000,000,000 annually in lost work time, fuel 

8 consumption, and costs of infrastructure and equip9 ment repair; 

10 (3) on average, on-road vehicles contribute 34 

11 percent of nitrogen oxides emissions; 

12 (4) it is estimated that staying at home to work 

13 requires 3 times less energy consumption than com14 muting to work; 

15 (5) in 2000, it was reported that if an identified 

16 10 to 20 percent of commuters switched to tele17 working, 1,800,000 tons of regulated pollutants 

18 would be eliminated, 3,500,000,000 gallons of gas 

19 would be saved, 3,100,000,000 hours of personal 

20 time would be freed up, and maintenance and infra21 structure costs would decrease by $500,000,000 an22 nually because of reduced congestion and reduced 

23 vehicle miles traveled; 

24 (6) the average American daily commute is 49 

25 minutes for a 24-mile round trip (a total of 100 

26 hours per year); 


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1 (7) the increase in work from 1969 to 1996, 

2 the increase in hours mothers spend in paid work, 

3 combined with a shift toward single-parent families 

4 resulted in families on average experiencing a de5 crease of 22 hours a week (14 percent) in parental 

6 time available outside of paid work they could spend 

7 with their children; 

8 (8) today 60 percent of the workforce is in9 volved in information work (an increase of 43 per10 cent since 1990) allowing and encouraging decen11 tralization of paid work to occur; 

12 (9) telework reduces the volume of peak com13 muter traffic, thereby reducing traffic congestion 

14 and air pollution; 

15 (10) the Nation’s communities can benefit from 

16 telework, which gives workers more time to spend at 

17 home with their families; 

18 (11) it is in the national interest to raise aware19 ness within the small business community of 

20 telework options for employees; 

21 (12) the small business community can benefit 

22 from offering telework options to employees because 

23 such options make it easier for small employers to 

24 retain valued employees and employees with irre25 placeable institutional memory; 


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1 (13) companies with telework programs have 

2 found that telework can boost employee productivity 

3 5 percent to 20 percent, thereby saving businesses 

4 valuable resources and time; 

5 (14) individuals with disabilities, including dis6 abled American veterans, who own or are employed 

7 by small businesses could benefit from telework to 

8 their workplaces; 

9 (15) telework has the potential to provide more 

10 employment opportunities in rural communities; 

11 (16) estimates indicate that about 40,000,000 

12 Americans are currently teleworking; 

13 (17) teleworking is seen as a valuable tool in 

14 worker productivity and is of interest to the Federal 

15 workforce; and 

16 (18) the Government Accountability Office 

17 notes that 140,694 employees teleworked, rep18 resenting a 37 percent increase from 2003, a growth 

19 that demonstrates a steady escalation over time as 

20 the overall number of teleworkers in the Federal 

21 Government has grown since 2001 with 72,844 tele22 workers, in 2002 with 90,010 teleworkers, and in 

23 2003 with 102,921 teleworkers. 


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1 SEC. 3. REDUCTION OF EMPLOYEE VEHICLE FUEL CON2 SUMPTION BY FEDERAL AGENCIES. 

3 Section 543 of the National Energy Conservation 

4 Policy Act (42 U.S.C. 8253) is amended by adding at the 

5 end the following: 

6 ‘‘(f) REDUCTION OF EMPLOYEE VEHICLE FUEL

7 CONSUMPTION BY FEDERAL AGENCIES.— 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each agency shall take 

9 such actions as are necessary to reduce the level of 

10 fuel consumed by vehicles of employees of the agency 

11 (other than fuel used for military purposes), in con12 nection with the employment of the employees, by 

13 (to the maximum extent practicable) 10 percent or 

14 more during the 1-year period beginning on the date 

15 of enactment of this subsection. 

16 ‘‘(2) METHODS.—An agency may use such 

17 methods as the agency determines are appropriate to 

18 achieve the target established by paragraph (1), in19 cluding— 

20 ‘‘(A) telework; 

21 ‘‘(B) carpooling; 

22 ‘‘(C) bicycling and walking to work; 

23 ‘‘(D) fuel-efficient trip planning; 

24 ‘‘(E) public transportation use; and 

25 ‘‘(F) limiting travel days for vehicle travel 

26 outside the office.’’. 


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1 SEC. 4. SMALL BUSINESS TELEWORK PILOT PROGRAM. 

2 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator of the Small 

3 Business Administration shall carry out, in not more than 

4 5 of the Small Business Administration’s regions, a pilot 

5 program under this section to raise awareness about 

6 telework among small business employers and to encour7 age such employers to offer telework options to employees. 

8 (b) SPECIAL OUTREACH TO INDIVIDUALS WITH DIS9 ABILITIES.—In carrying out the pilot program, the Ad10 ministrator shall make special efforts to conduct outreach 

11 to— 

12 (1) businesses owned by or employing individ13 uals with disabilities, and disabled American vet14 erans in particular; 

15 (2) Federal, State, and local agencies having 

16 knowledge and expertise in assisting individuals with 

17 disabilities or disabled American veterans; and 

18 (3) any group or organization, the primary pur19 pose of which is to aid individuals with disabilities 

20 or disabled American veterans. 

21 (c) PERMISSIBLE ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out the 

22 pilot program, the Administrator may only— 

23 (1) produce educational materials and conduct 

24 presentations designed to raise awareness in the 

25 small business community of the benefits and the 

26 ease of telework; 


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1 (2) conduct outreach— 

2 (A) to small business concerns that are 

3 considering offering telework options; and 

4 (B) as provided in subsection (b); and 

5 (3) acquire telework technologies and equip6 ment to be used for demonstration purposes. 

7 (d) SELECTION OF REGIONS.—In determining which 

8 regions will participate in the pilot program, the Adminis9 trator shall give priority consideration to regions in which 

10 Federal agencies and private-sector employers have dem11 onstrated a strong regional commitment to telework. 

12 (e) REPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 2 years 

13 after the first date on which funds are appropriated to 

14 carry out this section, the Administrator shall transmit to 

15 the Committee on Small Business of the House of Rep16 resentatives and the Committee on Small Business and 

17 Entrepreneurship of the Senate a report containing the 

18 results of an evaluation of the pilot program and any rec19 ommendations as to whether the pilot program, with or 

20 without modification, should be extended to include the 

21 participation of all Small Business Administration regions. 

22 (f) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 

23 (1) the term ‘‘disability’’ has the same meaning 

24 as in section 3 of the Americans with Disabilities 

25 Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12102); and 


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1 (2) the term ‘‘telework’’ means the performance 

2 of any portion of work functions by an employee out3 side the normal place of business under cir4 cumstances which reduce or eliminate the need to 

5 commute. 

6 (g) TERMINATION.—The authority to carry out the 

7 pilot program under this section shall terminate 2 years 

8 after the first date on which funds are appropriated to 

9 carry out this section. 

10 (h) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is 

11 authorized to be appropriated to the Small Business Ad12 ministration $5,000,000 to carry out this section. 

Æ 


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