Last month, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) was ordered by a federal arbitration panel to allow its legal instrument examiners to telework on a pilot basis. Like other U.S. government agencies that deal with sensitive information the ATF was against letting these specialists telework because it says the material they need to remove from agency offices in order to telework posed a security risk.

By law, all executive agencies should be enabling eligible employees to telecommute. Public Law 106-346, which went into effect Oct. 23, 2000, called for agencies to increase telework participation by 25% of the federal workforce annually, until 100% of eligible employees ?participate in telecommuting to the maximum extent possible without diminished employee performance.?

As fuel prices soar and traffic congestion becomes more menacing, even the Federal government will have to embrace a “work from home” mentality. We have, they should too.

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