There are renewed efforts underway to encourage the government to put more teeth into its telework initiatives. Despite over a decade of increasing adoption, telework remains the exception in most federal agencies. Overall, the government lags well behind private industry in terms of adoption, experts say.

Most recently, Congress has been getting serious about making federal agencies expand the telework opportunities for their employees. The House of Representatives last month approved a provision in a fiscal 2006 appropriations bill for certain federal agencies requiring those agencies prove more of their workers are teleworking or risk losing funding.

The driving force behind this push is Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.). Wolf is chairman of the Science-State-Justice-Commerce (SSJC) Appropriations subcommittee, which has jurisdiction over agencies including the Commerce, Justice and State departments, NASA and the entire federal court system.

Last year Wolf inserted language in a fiscal 2005 spending bill requiring that the departments of Justice, State and Commerce, along with the Small Business Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission, certify that their eligible workers are permitted to telework or each forfeit $5 million at the end of the fiscal year. These agencies also are required to designate a “telework coordinator” to oversee their telecommuting programs and make quarterly status reports.

This year Wolf inserted language in the SSJC appropriations bill requiring that those agencies show an increase in the number of federal workers telecommuting in fiscal 2006 or forfeit $5 million each. In addition, NASA and the National Science Foundation also will now be required to certify that telecommuting opportunities are made available to eligible workers.

“Some agencies are doing better than others when it comes to providing opportunities for their employees to telework, but we still have a long way to go,” Wolf said in a statement. “As I have said before, I do not like having to be so heavy handed and threaten to withhold funding, but if that is what it is going to take to get more people teleworking, then that is what I will continue to do.”

Multiple studies have shown the benefits of telework, including happier and more productive employees, reduced traffic, environmental savings and business continuity-related opportunities, according to Wolf. “The federal government should be leading the way when it comes to teleworking instead of being pushed in to it," he said. "There simply is just no magic in strapping ourselves in a metal box every day and driving ourselves to the office only to sit behind a computer or talk on the phone for eight hours."