Officials from the Marine Corps (USMC) and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) credited laying the mobility groundwork and hosting remote work drills, respectively, for helping the agencies prepare workers for the telework transition during the COVID-19 pandemic. […]

Sens. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., James Lankford, R-Okla., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., have introduced legislation that would require Federal agencies to maximize telework for Federal employees for the length of the COVID-19 public health emergency. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has made all levels of government radically change how they operate. From shifting their workforce to telework to delivering government services digitally, Federal, state, and local governments have had to pivot the way they work, while still delivering on their mission. […]

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., 20 Democratic senators plus Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, urged leadership to include maximum telework provisions for Federal employees and contractors in the next coronavirus relief package. […]

After moving to nearly 90 percent telework in April, the State Department has entered the second phase of its reopening plan. […]

Switching to telework for half of the workweek after the pandemic ends would save Federal employees up to $4,000 each year and the Federal government up to $11 billion annually, per a Global Workplace Analytics calculation discussed at the July 29 Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hearing on remote work. […]

Per new figures from the Office of the CIO, the Department of Defense (DoD) accommodated more than one million personnel on telework as of mid-June, compared to the 95,000 employees that worked remotely prior to the coronavirus pandemic. […]

To help secure the scattered telework environment, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) has switched to a zero-trust architecture to protect its network from adversaries. […]

As the General Services Administration’s 18F stepped up to help agencies with the quick technical shift to telework, two officials from the program shared their top tips for helping the workplace culture adjust to a remote environment. […]

A Federal network environment that supports classified telework is coming soon to agencies within the intelligence community, Jennifer Zbozny, director of the Software Engineering Center at the Army’s Communications-Electronic Command, confirmed at an event today. […]

While the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) says that a pandemic was never a part of its strategic plan, the agency has released figures showing how it quickly prepared its workforce to continue operations including a 1,000 percent increase in virtual private network (VPN) access for its joint partners. […]

Democratic senators from Maryland and Virginia penned a letter to Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Russell Vought and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Acting Director Michael Rigas urging them to clarify Federal agency reopening plans to continue maximum telework, and arguing that it’s “unsafe” to bring employees back to the office. […]

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continues its “extensive, transparent, data-driven, measured and deliberate approach” to reopening its regional and National Capital Region offices, a spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk that political leadership has returned to on-site work. […]

Across the board, Federal agencies have made a massive shift to telework in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, agencies are beginning to look at how to safely bring employees back to worksites. While the Department of Defense (DoD) is taking a slow, phased approach, leadership is grappling with whether the culture of increased telework is here to stay. […]

The Department of Defense (DoD) will move to phase two of its reopening plan on June 29, allowing for up to 80 percent of employees to return to offices in the National Capital Region (NCR). […]

NASA is taking a “risk-based, phased, and methodical” approach to reopening its offices, with the health and safety of its workforce and continuing telework as top priorities, according to the agency’s framework for returning to on-site work. […]

Technology has played a critical role in keeping government services up and running. […]

The National Security Agency (NSA) updated its telework tech security guidance June 4 with new details for government agencies to consider when selecting which collaboration and video chat services to use to connect employees working remotely. […]

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is tentatively scheduling a phase one reopening of its offices in the National Capital Region to start June 22, per a short video presentation for employees obtained by MeriTalk.  […]

As some Federal offices begin looking ahead toward reopening when the COVID-19 pandemic slows, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is still largely pushing for maximum telework despite its rolling plan to reopen, an agency spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

Nearly three months since Federal agencies were directed to maximize telework, Federal CIOs at a June 11 ATARC virtual conference talked about what the telework experience may mean for the IT workforce of the future – and how agencies may balance newfound efficiencies with the need for human interaction in the workplace. […]

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency’s (CISA) Continuous Diagnostics and Mitigation (CDM) program has been a key tool for managing cybersecurity risks since Federal employees began maximum telework in March by helping to maintain situational awareness on networks, said Federal CISO Grant Schneider at MeriTalk’s CDM Central: Tales from the Frontlines digital event today. […]

The COVID-19 pandemic has driven Federal agencies to leap to maximum telework capacity on short notice. While many were able to kick telework into high gear in only a matter of days because of previous or ongoing IT modernization investments, the requirement to change fast and on the fly underscores the vital need for modernization – in the case of a pandemic or not. […]

The Department of Agriculture (USDA) entered phase one of its reopening plans on June 1 for its offices in the National Capital Region – D.C., Maryland, and Northern Virginia – a spokesperson confirmed to MeriTalk. […]

The U.S. Air Force’s AFNet Sustainment and Operations branch (HNIB) has expanded the service branch’s network capacity to 200,000 teleworkers, and Air Force official said. […]

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) – largely because of its broad, hands-on healthcare mission – is not the type of Federal agency that can transform to near 100 percent telework. But that didn’t stop the agency from more than tripling its telework capacity to meet the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic, said agency CIO James Gfrerer during a May 28 AFCEA Bethesda webinar event. […]

According to The Washington Post, 40 percent of Federal employees were set up for remote work before COVID-19. And, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported just four percent of state and local employees had telework capabilities. Hundreds of thousands of government workers across Federal, state, and local levels were suddenly in need of remote access. […]

Nick Ward, Chief Information Security Officer at the Department of Justice (DoJ), said the agency is proceeding “full steam ahead” on efforts to explore adoption of zero trust security models, with the more distributed nature of DoJ’s workforce in the coronavirus pandemic providing impetus to that effort. […]

Consolidating Federal data centers through adoption of cloud and shared services has the “greatest potential” for streamlining the use of Federal resources, according to Thomas Santucci, director of the Data Center and Cloud Optimization Infrastructure Program Management Office at the General Services Administration (GSA). […]

The CIOs of the Agriculture (USDA) and Transportation (DoT) Departments said today that workforce productivity trends have been stable or improved since both agencies turned to large-scale telework in March to combat spread of COVID-19. […]