II 

119TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 21 

To require each Executive department to establish policies and collect information regarding teleworking employees of the Executive department, and 

for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 7, 2025 

Ms. ERNST introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs 

A BILL 

To require each Executive department to establish policies 

and collect information regarding teleworking employees 

of the Executive department, 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 ‘‘Requiring Effective 

5 Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employees 

6 Act’’ or the ‘‘REMOTE Act’’. 

7 SEC. 2. UTILIZATION DATA AND REPORTING. 

8 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
2 

•S 21 IS

1 (1) AGENCY OFFICE.—The term ‘‘agency of2 fice’’ means any office space— 

3 (A) that is owned or leased by an Execu4 tive department; and 

5 (B) in which not less than 1 employee of 

6 the Executive department described in subpara7 graph (A), or a contract employee with respect 

8 to that Executive department, regularly per9 forms the duties of that employee or contract 

10 employee, as applicable. 

11 (2) BUDGET JUSTIFICATION MATERIALS.—The 

12 term ‘‘budget justification materials’’ has the mean13 ing given the term in section 3(b)(2)(A) of the Fed14 eral Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 

15 of 2006 (31 U.S.C. 6101 note). 

16 (3) COMPUTER NETWORK.—The term ‘‘com17 puter network’’ means software or a system— 

18 (A) that is operated by or for an Executive 

19 department; and 

20 (B) to which an employee of the Executive 

21 department described in subparagraph (A), or a 

22 contract employee with respect to that Execu23 tive department, is required to be digitally con24 nected in order to work on behalf of that Exec25 utive department, such as to access the email 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
3 

•S 21 IS

1 account, user account, or file systems provided 

2 by the Executive department to that employee 

3 or contract employee, as applicable. 

4 (4) CONTRACT EMPLOYEE.—The term ‘‘con5 tract employee’’ means an individual who— 

6 (A) is not an employee of an Executive de7 partment; 

8 (B) is an employee of an entity that has 

9 entered into a contract with an Executive de10 partment; and 

11 (C) works pursuant to the contract de12 scribed in subparagraph (B). 

13 (5) EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT.—The term ‘‘Ex14 ecutive department’’ has the meaning given the term 

15 in section 101 of title 5, United States Code. 

16 (6) LOGIN.—The term ‘‘login’’ means the act 

17 by which an employee of an Executive department, 

18 or a contract employee with respect to an Executive 

19 department, makes a digital connection to a com20 puter network with respect to that Executive depart21 ment. 

22 (7) NETWORK TRAFFIC.—The term ‘‘network 

23 traffic’’ means the volume and flow of data across 

24 and within a computer network. 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
4 

•S 21 IS

1 (8) TELEWORKING EMPLOYEE.—The term 

2 ‘‘teleworking employee’’ means an employee of an 

3 Executive department, or a contract employee with 

4 respect to an Executive department, who is— 

5 (A) working on behalf of the Executive de6 partment and not detailed to a different Fed7 eral entity; and 

8 (B) covered by a telework agreement. 

9 (9) WORKING REMOTELY.—The term ‘‘working 

10 remotely’’ means, with respect to a teleworking em11 ployee, that the teleworking employee is performing 

12 work duties on a computer while located physically 

13 outside of an agency office with respect to the appli14 cable Executive department (or, with respect to a 

15 contract employee, outside of office space owned or 

16 leased by the entity that employs the contract em17 ployee). 

18 (b) DATA COLLECTION.—The head of each Executive 

19 department shall— 

20 (1) not later than 180 days after the date of 

21 enactment of this Act, establish— 

22 (A) policies requiring the recording of the 

23 login activity of, and the network traffic that is 

24 generated by, each teleworking employee with 

25 respect to that Executive department; and 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
5 

•S 21 IS

1 (B) directives for managers of teleworking 

2 employees with respect to that Executive de3 partment to periodically review the network 

4 traffic generated by each such teleworking em5 ployee while that teleworking employee is work6 ing remotely; and 

7 (2) not later than 1 year after the date of en8 actment of this Act— 

9 (A) begin retaining the data described in 

10 paragraph (1)(A), which shall include, with re11 spect to each teleworking employee with respect 

12 to that Executive department who is working 

13 remotely— 

14 (i) the average number of logins made 

15 each day by the teleworking employee; 

16 (ii) the average daily duration of the 

17 connection by the teleworking employee to 

18 the applicable computer network; and 

19 (iii) the network traffic that such tele20 working employee generates while working 

21 remotely; and 

22 (B) establish a policy that the Executive 

23 department may dispose of data retained under 

24 subparagraph (A) not sooner than 3 years after 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
6 

•S 21 IS

1 the date on which the Executive department 

2 collects the data. 

3 (c) SWIPED DATA COLLECTION.—Beginning on the 

4 date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this 

5 Act, the head of each Executive department, with respect 

6 to each employee of the Executive department and each 

7 contract employee with respect to the Executive depart8 ment who regularly performs the job duties of the em9 ployee or contract employee, as applicable, at the head10 quarters building of the Executive department— 

11 (1) shall require that employee or contract em12 ployee to use a Personal Identity Verification Card 

13 or Common Access Card, as applicable, to make a 

14 login; 

15 (2) shall collect login data by that employee or 

16 contract employee using a Personal Identity 

17 Verification Card or Common Access Card, as appli18 cable, which shall include, with respect to the em19 ployee or contract employee— 

20 (A) the average number of logins made 

21 each day by the employee or contract employee; 

22 (B) the average daily duration of the con23 nection by the employee or contract employee to 

24 the applicable computer network; and 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
7 

•S 21 IS

1 (C) the network traffic that such employee 

2 or contract employee generates while working 

3 from the headquarters building; 

4 (3) shall retain data collected under paragraph 

5 (2); and 

6 (4) may dispose of data retained under para7 graph (3) not sooner than 3 years after the date on 

8 which the Executive department collects the data. 

9 (d) REPORT.—With respect to the first fiscal year 

10 that begins after the date that is 180 days after the date 

11 of enactment of this Act, and with respect to each fiscal 

12 year thereafter, the head of each Executive department 

13 shall publish the data collected pursuant to subsections 

14 (b)(2)(A) and (c)(2) in the budget justification materials 

15 of the Executive department in a format that, for the ap16 plicable fiscal year— 

17 (1) protects personally identifiable information; 

18 (2) compares the average login rates of tele19 working employees working remotely on each week20 day to the total number of teleworking employees 

21 approved to be working remotely on each weekday; 

22 and 

23 (3) compares the average login rates of tele24 working employees working remotely on each week25 day to the average login rates of employees working 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
8 

•S 21 IS

1 from the headquarters building of the Executive de2 partment. 

3 SEC. 3. CHIEF HUMAN CAPITAL OFFICER REPORTS. 

4 Section 6506(d) of title 5, United States Code, is 

5 amended— 

6 (1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as fol7 lows: 

8 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Each year, the Chief 

9 Human Capital Officer of each executive agency, in 

10 consultation with the Telework Managing Officer of 

11 that agency, shall submit a report to the Chair and 

12 Vice Chair of the Chief Human Capital Officers 

13 Council on agency management efforts to promote 

14 the efficient use of telework, which shall include a 

15 description of the adverse effects of telework policy 

16 on the performance of the executive agency, includ17 ing any increased incidences of disciplinary actions 

18 against employees of the executive agency.’’; 

19 (2) by redesignating paragraph (2) as para20 graph (3); and 

21 (3) by inserting after paragraph (1) the fol22 lowing: 

23 ‘‘(2) COLLECTION AND RETENTION OF REL24 EVANT INFORMATION.—Not later than 60 days after 

25 the date of enactment of the Requiring Effective 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
9 

•S 21 IS

1 Management and Oversight of Teleworking Employ2 ees Act, the Chief Human Capital Officer of each 

3 executive agency shall establish a policy that re4 quires any manager of an employee of the executive 

5 agency who teleworks who revokes the privileges of 

6 that employee to telework due to a reason specific to 

7 that employee to provide written information to the 

8 human capital office of that executive agency (which 

9 shall retain that information for a reasonable 

10 amount of time after the employee is no longer em11 ployed by the executive agency) and to the employee 

12 regarding the circumstances giving rise to that rev13 ocation, which shall include— 

14 ‘‘(A) the name, title, office, years of serv15 ice, official worksite, and annual rate of basic 

16 pay of the employee; 

17 ‘‘(B) the total number of days that the em18 ployee teleworked in the 6 work periods imme19 diately preceding the work period in which the 

20 revocation occurred, which shall include an 

21 itemized identification of each day on which 

22 that employee teleworked during those 6 work 

23 periods; 

24 ‘‘(C) a brief narrative summary of the cir25 cumstances giving rise to the revocation, with 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB
10 

•S 21 IS

1 detail sufficient to confirm the propriety of the 

2 revocation under the policies of the executive 

3 agency; and 

4 ‘‘(D) any steps the manager took to dis5 cipline the employee before carrying out the 

6 revocation.’’. 

Æ 


kjohnson on DSK7ZCZBW3PROD with $$_JOB