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Washington, D.C. — Opportunities for federal employees to telework took a major step forward today when a Senate committee marked up S. 1000, the Telework Enhancement Act of 2007—a move applauded by the leader of the nation’s largest independent union of federal employees.

The legislation advanced by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee includes an important provision that would provide, for the first time and under some circumstances, for full-time telework.

This provision, added to the measure by Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), was sought by the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) in particular on behalf of those it represents at the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO), which has an NTEU-negotiated telework program that often is held up as a model for the government.

“The work at PTO is particularly situated for telework,” said NTEU President Colleen M. Kelley, “and some NTEU members at this agency have relocated as far from PTO’s Alexandria, Va., headquarters as Chicago and Long Island, New York.” The NTEU-endorsed provision, she said, “would save them from having to commute one day a week to the Alexandria office, which they currently do at their own expense.”

Kelley has been among the leading advocates of expanding telework in the federal sector, citing its positive impact on employee productivity and morale, as well as its environmental benefits and its ability to generate a decrease in traffic congestion. That latter point is particularly important in the Washington metropolitan area, which houses the largest concentration of federal employees in the nation, and where the traffic routinely ranks among the worst in the country.

Earlier this month, the NTEU leader offered testimony in support of expanded telework before the House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on the Federal Workforce, Postal Service and the District of Columbia. That body is considering H.R. 4106, a measure introduced by subcommittee chairman Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.) which would allow more federal employees to participate in telework programs.

Approval of these bills, President Kelley said, would send a strong signal to federal managers about the importance to their agency’s mission of taking full advantage of the benefits of telework. Management reluctance, especially in the mid-level ranks, often is cited as the most significant impediment to the development and expansion of telework in the federal workplace.

As the largest independent federal union, NTEU represents 150,000 employees in 31 agencies and departments.