# The SHOW UP Act: What It Means for Federal Employees and Government Work

This bill would require federal agencies to go back to their pre-pandemic office work arrangements and then prove to Congress why they should be allowed to let employees work from home. Essentially, it's a rollback of the remote work flexibility that expanded during COVID-19, with strict requirements agencies must meet before they can offer telework again.

Here's what would happen in practice: Within 30 days of the law passing, every federal agency would have to return to whatever work-from-home policies they had on December 31, 2019—before the pandemic hit. This means if an agency allowed 10% remote work back then, they'd have to go back to that level immediately. They couldn't expand telework at all until they jump through several hoops. Within six months, each agency would have to submit a detailed study to Congress analyzing what went wrong during the pandemic expansion, including whether remote work hurt their ability to serve the public, whether they wasted money on empty office buildings, and whether they had adequate technology to keep remote workers secure and productive. Then, if an agency wants to allow more telework going forward, they'd need to submit a plan to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management proving that expanded remote work would actually improve their mission performance, save money on real estate and employee pay, and provide workers with proper equipment and secure network access without increasing costs.

The practical impact would be significant for the roughly 2.1 million federal employees who have been working remotely or hybrid since 2020. Many would be required to return to offices full-time, potentially affecting their commutes, childcare arrangements, and quality of life. Agencies would face the burden of preparing detailed studies and plans, and the bill essentially makes it very difficult for them to expand remote work unless they can prove it saves money and improves service—a high bar that may be hard to meet. The bill reflects a skepticism about remote work's effectiveness in government, though it doesn't outright ban telework permanently; it just makes it much harder to maintain or expand.

SHOW UP Act of 2022

Herrell, Yvette

Stopping Home Office Work's Unproductive Problems Act of 2022 or the SHOW UP Act of 2022 This bill requires each executive agency to reinstate the telework policies that were in place on December 31, 2019. Agencies may not implement expanded telework policies unless the Office of Personnel Management certifies that such policies, among other requirements, will have a positive effect on the agency's mission and operational costs.