I 

118TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 139 

To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study of the impacts 

of expanded telework and remote work by agency employees during 

the COVID–19 pandemic and a plan for the agency’s future use of 

telework and remote work, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JANUARY 9, 2023 

Mr. COMER (for himself, Mr. DONALDS, Mr. BIGGS, and Mr. CLOUD) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Accountability 

A BILL 

To require Executive agencies to submit to Congress a study 

of the impacts of expanded telework and remote work 

by agency employees during the COVID–19 pandemic 

and a plan for the agency’s future use of telework and 

remote work, 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 ‘‘Stopping Home Office 

5 Work’s Unproductive Problems Act of 2023’’ or the 

6 ‘‘SHOW UP Act of 2023’’. 


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•HR 139 IH

1 SEC. 2. REINSTATEMENT OF PRE-PANDEMIC TELEWORK 

2 POLICIES, PRACTICES, AND LEVELS FOR EX3 ECUTIVE AGENCIES. 

4 Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment 

5 of this Act, each agency shall reinstate and apply the 

6 telework policies, practices, and levels of the agency as in 

7 effect on December 31, 2019, and may not expand any 

8 such policy, practices, or levels until the date that an agen9 cy plan is submitted to Congress with a certification by 

10 the Director of the Office of Personnel Management under 

11 section 3. 

12 SEC. 3. STUDY, PLAN, AND CERTIFICATION REGARDING EX13 ECUTIVE AGENCY TELEWORK POLICIES, 

14 PRACTICES, AND LEVELS FOR EXECUTIVE 

15 AGENCIES. 

16 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 6 months after the 

17 date of enactment of this Act, the head of each agency, 

18 in consultation with the Director, shall submit to Con19 gress— 

20 (1) a study on the impacts on the agency and 

21 its mission of expanding telework by its employees 

22 during the SARS–CoV–2 pandemic that commenced 

23 in 2019, including an analysis of— 

24 (A) any adverse impacts of that expansion 

25 on the agency’s performance of its mission, inVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:25 Jan 17, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H139.IH H139

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•HR 139 IH

1 cluding the performance of customer service by 

2 the agency; 

3 (B) any costs to the agency during that ex4 pansion attributable to— 

5 (i) owning, leasing, or maintaining 

6 under-utilized real property; or 

7 (ii) paying higher rates of locality pay 

8 to teleworking employees as a result of in9 correctly classifying such employees as 

10 teleworkers rather than remote workers; 

11 (C) any degree to which the agency failed 

12 during that expansion to provide teleworking 

13 employees with secure network capacity, com14 munications tools, necessary and secure access 

15 to appropriate agency data assets and Federal 

16 records, and equipment sufficient to enable each 

17 such employee to be fully productive; 

18 (D) any degree to which that expansion fa19 cilitated dispersal of the agency workforce 

20 around the Nation; and 

21 (E) any other impacts of that expansion 

22 that the agency or the Director considers ap23 propriate; 


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1 (2) any agency plan to expand telework policies, 

2 practices, or levels beyond those in place as a result 

3 of section 2; and 

4 (3) a certification by the Director that such 

5 plan will— 

6 (A) have a substantial positive effect on— 

7 (i) the performance of the agency’s 

8 mission, including the performance of cus9 tomer service; 

10 (ii) increasing the level of dispersal of 

11 agency personnel throughout the Nation; 

12 and 

13 (iii) the reversal of any adverse im14 pact set forth pursuant to paragraph 

15 (1)(D); 

16 (B) substantially lower the agency’s costs 

17 of owning, leasing, or maintaining real prop18 erty; 

19 (C) substantially lower the agency’s costs 

20 attributable to paying locality pay to agency 

21 personnel working from locations outside the 

22 pay locality of their position’s official worksite; 

23 and 

24 (D) ensure that teleworking employees will 

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•HR 139 IH

1 munications tools, necessary and secure access 

2 to appropriate agency data assets and Federal 

3 records, and equipment sufficient to enable each 

4 such employee to be fully productive, without 

5 substantially increasing the agency’s overall 

6 costs for secure network capacity, communica7 tions tools, and equipment. 

8 (b) LIMITATION.— 

9 (1) IN GENERAL.—An agency may not imple10 ment the plan submitted under subsection (a)(2) un11 less a certification by the Director was issued under 

12 subsection (a)(3). 

13 (2) SUBSEQUENT PLANS.—In the event an ini14 tial agency plan submitted under subsection (a)(2) 

15 fails to receive such certification, the agency may 

16 submit to the Director subsequent plans until such 

17 certification is received, and submit such plan and 

18 certification to Congress. 

19 (c) DEFINITIONS.—In this Act— 

20 (1) the term ‘‘agency’’ has the meaning given 

21 the term ‘‘Executive agency’’ in section 105 of title 

22 5, United States Code; 

23 (2) the term ‘‘Director’’ means the Director of 

24 the Office of Personnel Management; 


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1 (3) the term ‘‘locality pay’’ means locality pay 

2 provided for under section 5304 or 5304a of such 

3 title; and 

4 (4) the terms ‘‘telework’’ and ‘‘teleworking’’ 

5 have the meaning given those terms in section 6501 

6 of such title, and include remote work. 

Æ 


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