Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., has said the federal government needs to reinvent its telework policies and ensure that emerging cybersecurity threats are “seriously considered” in policy dialogues, Federal News Network reported Tuesday.
Lankford, who chairs the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Financial Management, testified at a recent hearing that Congress must modify the Telework Enhancement Act, which hasn’t been updated in a decade.
He noted that federal agencies must also assess telework best practices in the private sector “to see what is working, what is not working for the federal workforce”.
“How do we best prepare employees so that during a future disaster or pandemic, we can seamlessly transition to a federal [remote] workforce posture?” added Lankford. “How do we effectively train managers to stay engaged and monitor the performance of a remote workforce?”
“We have a responsibility to ensure federal workforce strategies are relevant, cost effective and well thought out,” he added.
Companies like Deloitte, which is implementing a community-based approach to remote work, also testified during the hearing.
