A key Republican leader voiced his support for President-elect Donald Trump’s goal of requiring federal workers to return to near-empty government offices years after the COVID-19 pandemic led decisionmakers to implement “work-from-home” policies.
In an interview with Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow, House Judiciary Committee chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said that the vast federal workforce has become far less efficient because the outgoing Biden-Harris regime has refused to order the majority of them to return to their offices.
“I am sure you are in touch with the DOGE brothers; they don’t dance as well as the Blues Brothers but almost dance as well,” Kudlow began during a segment over the weekend. “Don’t you think government bureaucrats should show up, work in the bathtub, work on your gym, work on your abs, instead you should come to work, and lose your job.
“Cutting as much as you can, looking to reduce regulations which will help our economy take off along with the tax cuts you are talking about in the previous section, show up to work,” Jordan responded on Saturday.
“Of course, you are more productive when you show up for work; less than half the people who work in federal bureaucracy come to work in D.C.; they are working remote from Maryland or Virginia or wherever they happen to be. Everyone knows you’re more efficient when you do that, but we don’t have people doing so,” he added.
Jordan’s remarks come on the heels of a pledge by Trump to fire any federal worker who refuses to return to their office desk.
“If people don’t come back to work, come back into the office, they’re going to be dismissed,” Trump said during a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club and personal residence, USA Today reported last week.
He also vowed to legally challenge a recent years-long waiver granted to federal workers as a sop to their unions.
“Somebody in the Biden administration gave a five-year waiver of that, so for five years people don’t have to come back into the office,” he added. “It’s ridiculous. It was like a gift to a union, and we’re obviously going to be in court to stop it.”
The Social Security Administration and the American Federation of Government Employees union, representing over 40,000 workers, recently reached an agreement allowing most employees to continue working remotely two to five days per week.
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, aimed at reducing government spending, is expected to recommend ending remote work across the federal government. Musk has been a vocal critic of remote work, previously describing it as “morally wrong”
