Congressional Democrats are pressing the Trump administration to detail how it will protect federal workers from the coronavirus as it reopens federal agencies.
In a pair of letters dated April 27 but not made public until Tuesday, Senate Democrats posed a series of questions about how the government will reopen to Michael Rigas, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, and Russell Vought, acting director at the White House Office of Management and Budget.
The Democrats also repeated complaints from last week that the administration has been stonewalling Congress on its plans.
“OPM has refused to provide regular and timely briefings to this Committee regarding its work to support the federal workforce,” said a letter that six Senate Democrats on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee sent Rigas. “This is particularly important now in response to the coronavirus pandemic.”
In the last month, Jonathan Blyth, the head of OPM’s congressional affairs shop and the former chief of staff at the agency, has twice declined congressional requests for information, citing “a very dynamic situation with our response to covid19.”
In a written statement, an OMB spokesperson said Tuesday, “It’s no surprise Senate Democrats continue to play politics, but the fact is agencies have been given clear and consistent guidance throughout this crisis to maximize telework, and they are now working to return to normal operations as conditions warrant across each state.”
The Homeland Security Committee letter requested more details on how OPM has worked to protect federal contractors as well as federal employees to make sure they have enough personal protective equipment, or PPE. “Which agencies are providing PPE to their frontline employees?,” the letter asked. “Which are not, or have directed their employees to secure their own PPE?”
The six Democrats who signed the letter were Sens. Gary Peters of Michigan, Tom Carper of Delaware, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, Kamala Harris of California and Jacky Rosen of Nevada.
In the second letter, addressed to Rigas and OMB’s Vought, Sens. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Patty Murray of Washignton, Peters and 19 other Democrats pressed for more information on how the Trump administration will maximize telework options and evaluate when it’s safe for federal employees to return to work.
“Astonishingly,” the letter said, “some federal employees who have jobs that can be done remotely are still not able to access telework,” citing a news report that clerical workers in the Justice Department’s Executive Office of Immigration Review were not permitted to telework “even after one had COVID-19 symptoms.”
The lawmakers criticized a memo issued by OPM earlier this month that said its plans to reopen the federal government will parallel President Donald Trump’s Opening Up America guidelines. The guidance encouraged federal agencies to “to allow Federal employees and contractors to return to the office in low-risk areas.”
“Public health experts have … warned that there is still not sufficient testing, tracing, or personal protective equipment to know what, where, and when it is safe to relax certain social distancing and quarantine guidelines,” the letter said. “As the number of coronavirus cases and the number of deaths — including deaths of federal employees — continue to rise, it is imperative that all federal employees are appropriately protected.”