FOMC Chair Yellen Answers a reporters question by Federal Reserve is licensed under Public Domain
President Trump has ordered IRS employees to return to the office.
This is a reasonable and necessary action. Even Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified in 2024 that the IRS labor union’s “work from home” practice was the reason the IRS could not achieve a 50% in-office standard.
Appearing before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee on June 4, 2024, Yellen responded to questions from Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) regarding the abysmal IRS in-office attendance record. Collins noted the large volume of IRS casework her office handles for constituents receiving inadequate help from IRS workers.
Collins provided the latest IRS attendance figures, which indicate the IRS was not meeting the 50% in-office requirement which took effect May 5, 2024.
Susan Collins: “I’ve looked at the latest data from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, and the Inspector General found that IRS employees telework 22% of the time, worked in person 38% of the time, and engaged in some sort of hybrid work 40% of the time on average during the first quarter of the fiscal year.
So I’m trying to reconcile the data that’s reported by the Inspector General to the IRS’ goal of having its employees work half of their work days in the office. It seems to me that the Inspector General found that they are not working half of their work days in the office.”
Yellen: “You know, some of the employees are covered by collective bargaining agreements, they’re members of the union, and to enforce those rules requires an agreement with the union.”
Collins: “Let me suggest that I think those contracts need to be renegotiated with the taxpayers interests in mind.”
Yellen: “Agreed.”
Video of the exchange is here and below:
