A surge in the spread of the novel coronavirus has left many questioning decisions to reopen federal offices and military installations across the country, and employees and lawmakers are warning that agencies are not taking proper steps to ensure the safety of employees.
A group of Democratic senators in the national capital region on Thursday sent a letter to Michael Rigas and Russel Vought, the acting directors of the Office of Personnel Management and Office of Management and Budget, respectively, imploring them to continue instructing agencies in the area to allow for maximum telework. At the outset of the pandemic federal agencies across the country sent huge numbers of workers home to perform their duties remotely, but in recent weeks agencies have increasingly started calling them back to their offices.
The Defense Department, for example, entered into “phase two” of its reopening plan at the end of June. That enabled up to 80% of employees who typically report to the Pentagon to return to their offices. Since that time, Defense has reported a 35% spike in coronavirus cases among its civilian workforce. That is roughly double the rate of increase in the United States.
As of last week, Assistant Secretary of Defense Thomas McCaffery said the department had not yet seen a surge in illness and hospitalizations. He noted there were “upticks in the civilian sector,” but suggested those were tied to regions that were seeing outbreaks in the larger population. Thomas Muir, director of the department’s Washington Headquarters Services, said last week that cases in the Washington region were trending downward, leading to the decision to call employees back to their offices. He said prior to the current surge in cases, the Pentagon was repor ..
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