H.R. 1280 — DRAIN THE SWAMP Act

This section establishes the short title of the Act as the “Decentralizing and Reorganizing Agency Infrastructure Nation-wide To Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Management Practices Act” or the “DRAIN THE SWAMP Act.”

This section revises the Antideficiency Act’s prohibition on accepting voluntary services under 31 U.S.C. § 1342 by defining “employee” to exclude certain excepted employees who would otherwise be exempt from the voluntary-services limitation during a lapse in appropriations. Specifically, it excludes individuals serving in positions within the Executive Office of the President or in national security-related components of the Department of Defense, including the Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency; the Department of Energy; the Department of Homeland Security; the Office of the Director of National Intelligence; and the Central Intelligence Agency, if their duties are mission-essential functions necessary to defend the United States against imminent threats. The section also defines several terms used in the Act, including “budget justification materials,” “Executive agency,” “headquarters employee of an Executive agency,” “headquarters of the Executive agency,” “pay locality,” “rural,” “telework,” “telework on a full-time basis” (i.e., telework for 100 percent of work days in a pay period), “Washington metropolitan area,” and “Washington metropolitan area rate of pay” (i.e., the Washington-Baltimore-Arlington, DC-MD-VA-WV-PA locality pay rate).

This section directs each Executive agency, not later than 1 year after enactment, to relocate the permanent duty station of not less than 30 percent of its headquarters employees, as of the date of enactment, to offices outside the Washington metropolitan area and throughout the agency’s regions. It also requires that relocated employees be paid based on the locality pay for their new duty station and prohibits them from teleworking on a full-time basis. As background, headquarters employees are the agency staff based at central offices, and the provision is intended to shift a substantial share of those positions to regional locations to promote geographic diversity, including rural markets, and to support in-person customer service. This section excludes from relocation eligibility headquarters employees who are qualified individuals receiving a full-time telework accommodation as a reasonable accommodation under title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111 et seq.), but counts those employees toward the 30 percent headquarters employee threshold. It requires agencies to notify affected employees of their eligibility determination before submitting the required report. This section requires each Executive agency, not later than 180 days after enactment, to report to the congressional committees with jurisdiction over the agency’s programs, projects, or activities the number of headquarters employees, the number eligible for relocation, the number whose duty stations will be changed outside the Washington metropolitan area, the number subject to the disability accommodation exception, and the agency’s implementation plan. This section further requires agencies, not earlier than 60 days and not later than 90 days after submitting the report, to notify each employee selected for relocation that, effective 90 days after the notice, the employee’s permanent duty station will change, locality pay will be recalculated for the new duty station, and full-time telework will no longer be authorized. It also provides that headquarters employees who remain in the Washington metropolitan area, are not subject to the disability accommodation exception, and telework full time as of enactment must stop full-time teleworking 180 days after the agency submits its report.

This section directs the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, not later than 60 days after enactment, to issue a memorandum requiring that the amount of real property serving as the headquarters of an Executive agency and owned or leased by the Federal Government be reduced by not less than 30 percent. It also requires the Director, when identifying property to be sold or leases to be terminated or not renewed, to prioritize disposal of buildings and co-locating Executive agency headquarters in as few locations as practicable. The section further requires any Executive agency head directed to reduce office space under the memorandum to begin reducing office space not later than 180 days after enactment and to complete the reduction not later than 2 years after enactment.

This section directs the head of each Executive agency to include, in the first budget justification materials submitted after enactment and in each fiscal year thereafter, the number of (1) headquarters employees, (2) employees assigned to a permanent duty station in a field office, district office, or regional office, (3) employees who telework on a full-time basis, and (4) employees who are qualified individuals receiving a full-time telework accommodation as a reasonable accommodation under title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (42 U.S.C. 12111 et seq.).

This section prohibits payment of a relocation incentive to any employee whose official worksite changes, under this Act, from the employee’s residence to the headquarters of the employee’s Executive agency. (Thus, an employee may not receive a relocation incentive under 5 U.S.C. § 5753 or related authorities for moving to the agency headquarters.)

This section establishes a severability clause providing that if any provision of the Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and the application of the provision to any other person or circumstance shall not be affected.

This section establishes that the Act overrides any conflicting provision of Federal, State, or local law and any provision of a collective bargaining agreement or master labor agreement. (Thus, the Act’s requirements would control over inconsistent legal or labor-contract terms.)

This section limits enforcement of the Act by prohibiting any private cause of action, whether legal or equitable, to challenge any selection, change, decision, or action taken under the Act. (Thus, individuals may not sue in court under this Act to contest agency or program determinations made pursuant to it.)