Provision in House bill would boost telework efforts at agencies

The Commerce, Justice and State departments, along with the federal judiciary, would have to implement policies promoting telecommuting for 100 percent of their workforce within six months of lawmakers' passage of a House appropriations bill.

Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., a long-time advocate of telecommuting, included that language in the House Appropriations subcommittee conference report, saying the committee "expects the departments, the Judiciary, and the Small Business Administration to be in full compliance with this timetable."

The subcommittee's report stressed advances in information technology and the growth of high-speed Internet access, including wireless devices, as among the reasons for the federal government to adopt more widespread telecommuting policies.

"Management considerations, such as productive and satisfied workers; environmental considerations, such as reduced traffic congestion and improved air quality; and quality of life considerations, such as accommodating the short- or long-term health needs of employees, require the establishment of telework programs," the report continued.

Although the report praised the Patent and Trademark Office for successful implementation of a teleworking policy permitting 2,000 employees-25 percent of its total employees-it criticized many departments for failing to designate a telework coordinator.

The bill includes funding for each of the departments under the subcommittee's jurisdiction to implement telework policies and report to the subcommittee on its use of the funds. And it repeated the fiscal year 2003 requirement for a telework coordinator.

"The committee understands that 110 trademark examining attorneys, or 44 percent of the examining corps, are working from home," it said, while praising the agency for extending it to approximately 700 patent examiners.

Launched in 1997, the PTO's program allows lawyers to work from home via computers and Internet connections. The agency expanded the program in 2001 with the introduction of "hoteling." Attorneys that need to work in the PTO's Arlington, Va., offices, reserve desks in advance, enabling approximately five workers to share one office, a patent official said.

"Except for a couple of hours a week, they work from home full time, so they share offices and save over a million in a year" in real estate costs, said agency spokeswoman Brigid Quinn. The program has been quicker to take hold in the trademark side of the PTO because database for examining prior patents are more complicated and difficult to access online, she said. The demands of security and confidential are also greater in patent-pending applications than in those of trademarks.

Hailing from Washington's distant suburbs, Wolf has vigorously promoted telecommuting with other D.C. area representatives. He was responsible for telecommuting goals to the fiscal 2001 transportation appropriations bill, which established a four-year timetable designed to keep pressure on the government to expand telecommuting.