IB 
Union Calendar No. 269 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 1722 
[Report No. 111–474] 
To improve teleworking in executive agencies by developing a telework pro-
gram that allows employees to telework at least 20 percent of the hours 
worked in every 2 administrative workweeks, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 25, 2009 
Mr. SARBANES (for himself, Mr. WOLF, Mr. CONNOLLY of Virginia, Mr. 
LYNCH, Mr. DAVIS of Illinois, Mr. MORAN of Virginia, and Mr. 
RUPPERSBERGER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform 
MAY 4, 2010 
Additional sponsors: Mr. WITTMAN, Mr. HIMES, Ms. ZOE LOFGREN of Cali-
fornia, Mrs. CAPITO, Mr. DOGGETT, Mr. CUMMINGS, Ms. NORTON, and 
Mr. TOWNS 
MAY 4, 2010 
Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House 
on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed 
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic] 
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 25, 2009] 
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A BILL 
To improve teleworking in executive agencies by developing 
a telework program that allows employees to telework 
at least 20 percent of the hours worked in every 2 
administrative workweeks, and for other purposes. 
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Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Telework Improvements 
Act of 2010’’. 
SEC. 2. TELEWORK. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Part III of title 5, United States 
Code, is amended by inserting after chapter 63 the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘CHAPTER 65—TELEWORK 
‘‘Sec. 
‘‘6501. Definitions. 
‘‘6502. Governmentwide telework requirement. 
‘‘6503. Implementation. 
‘‘6504. Telework Managing Officer. 
‘‘6505. Evaluating telework in agencies. 
‘‘§ 6501. Definitions 
‘‘For purposes of this chapter— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘agency’ means an Executive agen-
cy (as defined by section 105), except as otherwise 
provided in this chapter; 
‘‘(2) the term ‘telework’ or ‘teleworking’ refers to 
a work flexibility arrangement under which an em-
ployee performs the duties and responsibilities of such 
employee’s position, and other authorized activities, 
from an approved worksite other than the location 
from which the employee would otherwise work; 
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‘‘(3) the term ‘continuity of operations’, as used 
with respect to an agency, refers to measures designed 
to ensure that functions essential to the mission of the 
agency can continue to be performed during a wide 
range of emergencies, including localized acts of na-
ture, accidents, public health emergencies, and techno-
logical or attack-related emergencies; and 
‘‘(4) the term ‘Telework Managing Officer’ 
means, with respect to an agency, the Telework Man-
aging Officer of the agency designated under section 
6504. 
‘‘§ 6502. Governmentwide telework requirement 
‘‘(a) TELEWORK REQUIREMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than one year after 
the date of the enactment of this chapter, the head of 
each agency shall establish a policy under which em-
ployees shall be authorized to telework, subject to 
paragraph (2) and subsection (b). 
‘‘(2) AGENCY POLICIES.—The head of each agen-
cy shall ensure— 
‘‘(A) that the telework policy established 
under this section— 
‘‘(i) conforms to the regulations pro-
mulgated by the Director of the Office of 
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Personnel Management under section 6503, 
and 
‘‘(ii) authorizes employees to telework 
to the maximum extent possible without di-
minishing agency operations and perform-
ance; and 
‘‘(B) that information on the eligibility of 
employees to telework is included in descriptions 
of available positions and other recruiting mate-
rials. 
‘‘(b) PROVISIONS
RELATING
TO
CERTAIN
CIR-
CUMSTANCES.—Nothing in subsection (a) shall be consid-
ered— 
‘‘(1) to require the head of an agency to author-
ize teleworking in the case of an employee whose du-
ties and responsibilities— 
‘‘(A) require daily direct handling of classi-
fied information; or 
‘‘(B) are such that their performance re-
quires on-site activity which cannot be carried 
out from a site removed from the employee’s reg-
ular place of employment; or 
‘‘(2) to prevent the temporary denial of permis-
sion for an employee to telework if, in the judgment 
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of the agency head, the employee is needed to respond 
to an emergency. 
‘‘(c) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this chap-
ter shall— 
‘‘(1) be considered to require any employee to 
telework; or 
‘‘(2) prevent an agency from permitting an em-
ployee to telework as part of a continuity of oper-
ations plan. 
‘‘§ 6503. Implementation 
‘‘(a) RESPONSIBILITIES OF AGENCIES.—The head of 
each agency shall ensure that— 
‘‘(1) appropriate training is provided to super-
visors and managers, and to all employees who are 
authorized to telework, as directed by the Telework 
Managing Officer of such agency; 
‘‘(2) the training covers the information security 
guidelines issued by the Director of the Office of Man-
agement and Budget under this section; 
‘‘(3) no distinction is made between teleworkers 
and nonteleworkers for purposes of— 
‘‘(A) periodic appraisals of job performance 
of employees, 
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‘‘(B) training, rewarding, reassigning, pro-
moting, reducing in grade, retaining, or remov-
ing employees, 
‘‘(C) work requirements, or 
‘‘(D) other acts involving managerial dis-
cretion; 
‘‘(4) in determining what constitutes diminished 
performance in the case of an employee who teleworks, 
the agency shall consult the performance management 
guidelines of the Office of Personnel Management; and 
‘‘(5) in the case of an agency which is named in 
paragraph (1) or (2) of section 901(b) of title 31, the 
agency incorporates telework in its continuity of oper-
ations plans and uses telework in response to emer-
gencies. 
‘‘(b) PROMULGATION OF REGULATIONS BY OPM.—The 
Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall— 
‘‘(1) not later than 180 days after the date of the 
enactment of this chapter, in consultation with the 
Administrator of General Services, promulgate regu-
lations necessary to carry out this chapter, except that 
such regulations shall not apply with respect to the 
Government Accountability Office; 
‘‘(2) provide advice, assistance, and any nec-
essary training to agencies with respect to the re-
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quirements of this chapter, including with respect 
to— 
‘‘(A) questions of eligibility to telework, 
such as considerations relating to employee per-
formance, and 
‘‘(B) making telework part of the agency’s 
goals, including those of individual supervisors 
and managers; and 
‘‘(3) in consultation with the Administrator of 
General Services, maintain a central, publicly avail-
able telework website that includes— 
‘‘(A) any regulations relating to telework 
and any other information the Director considers 
appropriate, 
‘‘(B) an e-mail address which may be used 
to submit comments to the Director on agency 
telework programs or agreements, and 
‘‘(C) a copy of all reports issued under sec-
tion 6505(a). 
‘‘(c) SECURITY GUIDELINES.—The Director of the Of-
fice of Management and Budget, in coordination with the 
National Institute of Standards and Technology, shall issue 
guidelines not later than 180 days after the date of the en-
actment of this chapter to ensure the adequacy of informa-
tion and security protections for information and informa-
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tion systems used in, or otherwise affected by, teleworking. 
Such guidelines shall, at a minimum, include requirements 
necessary— 
‘‘(1) to control access to agency information and 
information systems; 
‘‘(2) to protect agency information (including 
personally identifiable information) and information 
systems; 
‘‘(3) to limit the introduction of vulnerabilities; 
‘‘(4) to protect information systems not under 
the control of the agency that are used for teleworking; 
and 
‘‘(5) to safeguard wireless and other tele-
communications capabilities that are used for tele-
working. 
‘‘§ 6504. Telework Managing Officer 
‘‘(a) DESIGNATION AND COMPENSATION.—Each agen-
cy shall designate an officer, to be known as the ‘Telework 
Managing Officer’. The Telework Managing Officer of an 
agency shall be designated— 
‘‘(1) by the Chief Human Capital Officer of such 
agency; or 
‘‘(2) if the agency does not have a Chief Human 
Capital Officer, by the head of such agency. 
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‘‘(b) STATUS WITHIN AGENCY.—The Telework Man-
aging Officer of an agency shall be a senior official of the 
agency who has direct access to the head of the agency. 
‘‘(c) LIMITATIONS.—An individual may not hold the 
position of Telework Managing Officer as a noncareer ap-
pointee (as defined in section 3132(a)(7)), and such posi-
tion may not be considered or determined to be of a con-
fidential, policy-determining, policy-making, or policy ad-
vocating character. 
‘‘(d) DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES.—Each Telework 
Managing Officer of an agency shall— 
‘‘(1) provide advice on teleworking to the head of 
such agency and to the Chief Human Capital Officer 
of such agency (if any); 
‘‘(2) serve as a resource on teleworking for super-
visors, managers, and employees of such agency; 
‘‘(3) serve as the primary point of contact on 
telework matters for agency employees and (with re-
spect to such agency) for Congress and other agencies; 
‘‘(4) work with senior management of the agency 
to develop and implement a plan to incorporate 
telework into the agency’s regular business strategies 
and its continuity of operations strategies, taking 
into consideration factors such as— 
‘‘(A) cost-effectiveness, 
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‘‘(B) equipment, 
‘‘(C) training, and 
‘‘(D) data collection; 
‘‘(5) ensure that the agency’s telework policy is 
communicated effectively to employees; 
‘‘(6) ensure that electronic or written notification 
is provided to each employee of specific telework pro-
grams and the agency’s telework policy, including au-
thorization criteria and application procedures; 
‘‘(7) develop and administer a tracking system 
for compliance with Governmentwide telework report-
ing requirements; 
‘‘(8) provide to the Director of the Office of Per-
sonnel Management and the Comptroller General such 
information as such individuals may require to pre-
pare the reports required under section 6505, includ-
ing the techniques used to verify and validate data on 
telework, except that this paragraph shall not apply 
with respect to the Government Accountability Office; 
‘‘(9) establish a system for receiving feedback 
from agency employees on the telework policy of the 
agency; 
‘‘(10) develop and implement a program to iden-
tify and remove barriers to telework and to maximize 
telework opportunities in the agency; 
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‘‘(11) track and retain information on all deni-
als of permission to telework for employees who are 
authorized to telework, and report such information 
on an annual basis to— 
‘‘(A) the Chief Human Capital Officer of 
such agency (or, if the agency does not have a 
Chief Human Capital Officer, the head of such 
agency), and 
‘‘(B) the Director of the Office of Personnel 
Management, for purposes of preparing the re-
ports required under section 6505(a), except that 
this subparagraph shall not apply with respect 
to the Government Accountability Office; 
‘‘(12) ensure that employees are notified of griev-
ance procedures available to them (if any) with re-
spect to any disputes that relate to telework; and 
‘‘(13) perform such other duties and responsibil-
ities relating to telework as the head of the agency 
may require. 
‘‘(e) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION REGARDING STATUS OF 
TELEWORK MANAGING OFFICER.—Nothing in this section 
shall be construed to prohibit an individual who holds an-
other office or position in an agency from serving as the 
Telework Managing Officer for the agency under this chap-
ter. 
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‘‘§ 6505. Evaluating telework in agencies 
‘‘(a) ANNUAL REPORT BY OPM.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the Office of 
Personnel Management shall submit to the Comp-
troller General and the appropriate committees of 
Congress a report evaluating the extent to which each 
agency is in compliance with this chapter with re-
spect to the period covered by the report, and shall in-
clude in the report an evaluation of each of the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(A) The degree of participation by employ-
ees of the agency in teleworking during the pe-
riod. In the case of an agency which is an Exec-
utive department, the evaluation will include the 
degree of participation by employees of each 
component within the department, including— 
‘‘(i) the total number of employees in 
the agency; 
‘‘(ii) the number and percentage of 
such employees who are eligible to telework; 
and 
‘‘(iii) the number and percentage of 
such employees who do telework, broken 
down by the number and percentage who 
telework 3 or more days per week, one or 
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two days per week, and less frequently than 
one day per week. 
‘‘(B) The method the agency uses to gather 
data on telework and the techniques used to 
verify and validate such data. 
‘‘(C) Whether the total number of employees 
who telework is at least 10% higher or lower 
than the number who teleworked during the pre-
vious reporting period and the reasons identified 
for any such change. 
‘‘(D) The agency’s goal for increasing the 
number of employees who telework in the next re-
porting period. 
‘‘(E) The extent to which the agency met the 
goal described in subparagraph (D) for its pre-
vious report, and, if the agency failed to meet the 
goal, the actions the agency plans to take to meet 
the goal for the next reporting period. 
‘‘(F) The best practices in agency telework 
programs. 
‘‘(G) In the case of an agency which is 
named in paragraph (1) or (2) of section 901(b) 
of title 31, the extent to which the agency incor-
porated telework in its continuity of operations 
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plans and used telework in response to emer-
gencies. 
‘‘(2) MINIMUM
REQUIREMENT
FOR
COMPLI-
ANCE.—For purposes of the reports required under 
this subsection, the Director shall determine that an 
agency is in compliance with the requirements of this 
chapter if the Director finds that the agency— 
‘‘(A) reported the requested data accurately 
and in a timely manner; and 
‘‘(B) either met or exceeded the agency’s es-
tablished telework goals, or provided expla-
nations as to why the goals were not met as well 
as the steps the agency is taking to meet the 
goals. 
‘‘(3) REPORTING PERIOD; TIMING.—The Director 
shall submit a report under this subsection with re-
spect to the first 1-year period for which the regula-
tions promulgated by the Director under section 
6503(b) are in effect and each of the 4 succeeding 1- 
year periods, and shall submit the report with respect 
to a period not later than 6 months after the last day 
of the period to which the report relates. 
‘‘(4) EXCLUSION
OF
GOVERNMENT
ACCOUNT-
ABILITY OFFICE.—The Director shall not submit a re-
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‘‘(1) the Committee on Oversight and Govern-
ment Reform of the House of Representatives; and 
‘‘(2) the Committee on Homeland Security and 
Governmental Affairs of the Senate.’’. 
(b) TECHNICAL AND CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—(1) 
The analysis for part III of title 5, United States Code, 
is amended by inserting after the item relating to chapter 
63 the following: 
‘‘65. Telework .............................................................................................. 6501’’. 
(2) Section 622 of the Departments of Commerce, Jus-
tice, and State, the Judiciary, and Related Agencies Appro-
priations Act, 2005, as contained in the Consolidated Ap-
propriations Act, 2005 (5 U.S.C. 6120 note) is amended 
by striking ‘‘designate a ‘Telework Coordinator’ to be’’ and 
inserting ‘‘designate a Telework Managing Officer or des-
ignate the Chief Human Capital Officer or other career em-
ployee to be’’. 
SEC. 3. POLICY GUIDANCE. 
Not later than the expiration of the 120-day period 
which begins on the date of the enactment of this Act, the 
Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall issue 
policy guidance requiring each Executive agency (as such 
term is defined in section 105 of title 5, United States 
Code), when purchasing computer systems, to purchase 
computer systems that enable and support telework, unless 
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the head of the agency determines that there is a mission- 
specific reason not to do so. 
SEC. 4. TRAVEL EXPENSE TEST PROGRAMS. 
Section 5710 of title 5, United States Code, is amended 
to read as follows: 
‘‘§ 5710. Authority for travel expense test programs 
‘‘(a)(1) Notwithstanding any other provision of this 
subchapter, if the Administrator of General Services deter-
mines it to be in the interest of Government, the Adminis-
trator may approve the request of an agency to operate a 
test program under which the agency may pay through the 
proper disbursing official any necessary travel expenses of 
the employee in lieu of any payment otherwise authorized 
or required under this subchapter. Under an approved test 
program, an agency may provide an employee with the op-
tion to waive any payment authorized or required under 
this subchapter. An agency shall include in any request to 
the Administrator for approval of such a test program an 
analysis of the expected costs and benefits and a set of cri-
teria for evaluating the effectiveness of the test program. 
‘‘(2) Any test program operated under this section 
shall be designed to enhance cost savings or other efficiencies 
that accrue to the Government. 
‘‘(b) The Administrator shall transmit a description 
of any test program approved or extended by the Adminis-
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trator under this section to the appropriate committees of 
the Congress not later than 30 days before the program or 
extension takes effect. 
‘‘(c)(1) An agency operating a test program approved 
under this section shall annually submit a report on the 
results of the program to date to the Administrator. 
‘‘(2) Not later than 3 months after the conclusion of 
a test program approved under this section, the agency op-
erating the program shall submit a final report on the re-
sults of the program to the Administrator and the appro-
priate committees of Congress. 
‘‘(d) The Administrator may approve such number of 
test programs under this section as the Administrator con-
siders appropriate, including test programs which are car-
ried out on a government-wide basis, except that the number 
of test programs in operation at any time may not exceed 
12. 
‘‘(e)(1) The Administrator may not approve any test 
program under this section for an initial period of more 
than 2 years. 
‘‘(2) Upon a showing of enhanced cost savings, the Ad-
ministrator may extend an approved test program for an 
additional period not to exceed 2 years. 
‘‘(f) In this section, the term ‘appropriate committees 
of Congress’ means the Committee on Oversight and Govern-
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ment Reform of the House of Representatives and the Com-
mittee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs of 
the Senate. 
‘‘(g) The authority to conduct test programs under this 
section shall expire upon the expiration of the 6-year period 
which begins on the date of the enactment of the Telework 
Improvements Act of 2010.’’. 
SEC. 5. TELEWORK RESEARCH. 
(a) RESEARCH BY OPM ON TELEWORK.—The Director 
of the Office of Personnel Management shall— 
(1) conduct studies on the utilization of telework 
by public and private sector entities that identify best 
practices and recommendations for the Federal gov-
ernment; 
(2) review the outcomes associated with an in-
crease in telework, including the effects of telework on 
energy consumption, the environment, job creation 
and availability, urban transportation patterns, and 
the ability to anticipate the dispersal of work during 
periods of emergency; and 
(3) make any studies or reviews performed under 
this subsection available to the public. 
(b) USE OF CONTRACT TO CARRY OUT RESEARCH.— 
The Director of the Office of Personnel Management may 
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carry out subsection (a) pursuant to a contract entered into 
by the Director using competitive procedures. 
Amend the title so as to read: ‘‘A bill to require the 
head of each executive agency to establish and implement 
a policy under which employees shall be authorized to 
telework, and for other purposes.’’. 
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