The COVID-19 pandemic changed the world in a lot of ways, and one of the big ones was the shift to the 'work from home' idea. It has become commonplace now, with some spending half the time in the office, half the time at home. In either regard, it has led to many office buildings going vacant, and massive downsizing in terms of space.
But in comes the federal government and their agencies. We are four years removed from the pandemic now, and many of the office buildings in Washington sit not even a quarter full. Taxpayer money is pumped into keeping them running every day, with no one in the office to benefit. House Republicans have grown tired of that waste and are now pushing a new bill that includes huge budget cuts for some federal agencies.
There is a proposed cut of 50 percent to the administrative budget for the Education, Health, and Human Services (HHS) departments alone. Charles Blain of Urban Reform says a number of these places could trim a lot of fat.
"Some of them could do more, some of them probably need less cuts...but there are some where there is a lot of loss, and employees milking are the time clock with taxpayer dollars, and could use these cuts," he says.
The bill is proposed by Representative Robert Aderholt of Alabama. A 2023 report indicated that HHS is using just 19 percent of their Washington D.C. office, and the Education Department is using just 17 percent of their space.
Simply put, they have no need for all that space, and all the costs that come with it. So, these cuts make sense.
"Only government would do this, sinking money into a product they are not actually using," he says.
Of course, not all agencies are stealing money quite like that. But gross overspending has led us here. All of these agencies get a big piece of a ridiculously big pie, and they do not want to stop.
"Some of these could take these bigger cuts though, and we would not notice a difference at all," says Blain.
But at the end of the day, an organizational structure starts at the top, and i most cases, it is monkey see, monkey do. And in a Democrat world in Washington, that usually means an easy way out of real work.
"If they see the top management staying home, then middle management will do the same...all the way down to the people on the ground," he says. "The Biden administration deserves a lot of the blame for this...he is setting this tone, and that is what people are following."
Blain adds that we will likely never get away from the work from home phenomena, but the federal agencies need to be back in the office.
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