Each executive agency shall establish a policy under which eligible employees of the agency may participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible without diminished employee performance. Not later than 6 months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall provide that the requirements of this section are applied to 25 percent of the Federal workforce, and to an additional 25 percent of such workforce each year thereafter.

Section 359 establishes a program to reduce traffic congestion that will allow eligible employees of federal agencies to participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible without diminished employee performance. Within one year, the Office of Personnel Management shall evaluate the effectiveness of the program and report to Congress. Each agency participating in the program shall develop criteria to be used in implementing such a policy and ensure that managerial, logistical, organizational, or other barriers to full implementation and successful functioning of the policy are removed. Each agency should also provide for adequate administrative, human resources, technical, and logistical support for carrying out the policy. Telecommuting refers to any arrangement in which an employee regularly performs officially assigned duties at home or other work sites geographically convenient to the residence of the employee. Eligible employees means any satisfactorily performing employee of the agency whose job may typically be performed at least one day per week.

Many of you already have telecommuting policies, but this does not necessarily mean you are in compliance with the new law. The purpose of the law is to require that each agency take a fresh look at the barriers that currently inhibit the use of this flexibility, act to remove them and increase actual participation. The law recognizes that not all positions are appropriate for telecommuting; therefore, each agency must identify positions that are appropriate in a manner that focuses on broad objective criteria. Once an agency has established eligibility criteria, subject to any applicable agency policies or bargaining obligations, employees who meet them and want to participate must be allowed that opportunity if they are satisfactory performers.

[Found in the Conference Report of the FY99 Treasury, Postal, and General Government appropriations bill (House Report 105-760)]

(a)  Flexiplace Work Telecommuting Programs.--For fiscal year 1999 and each fiscal year thereafter, of the funds made available to each Executive agency for salaries and expenses, at a minimum $50,000 shall be available only for the necessary expenses of the Executive agency to carry out a flexiplace work telecommuting program.

(b) Definitions.--For purposes of this section:

(1)  Executive agency.--The term "Executive agency" means the following list of departments and agencies: Department of State, Treasury, Defense, Justice, Interior, Labor, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, Commerce, Housing and Urban Development, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veterans' Affairs, General Services Administration, Office of Personnel Management, Small Business Administration, Social Security Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Postal Service.

(2)  Flexiplace work telecommuting program.--The term "flexiplace work telecommuting program" means a program under which employees of an Executive agency are permitted to perform all or a portion of their duties at a flexiplace work telecommuting center established under section 210(l) of the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 490(l)) or other Federal law.

Notwithstanding any provisions of this or any other Act, during the fiscal year ending September 30, 1996, and hereafter, any department, division, bureau, or office may use funds appropriated by this or any other Act to install telephone lines, any necessary equipment, and to pay monthly charges, in any private residence or private apartment of an employee who has been authorized to work at home in accordance with guidelines issued by the Office of Personnel Management: Provided, That the head of the department, division, bureau, or office certifies that adequate safeguards against private misuse exist, and that the service is necessary for direct support of the agency's mission.