The Biden administration has finalized a sweeping agreement ensuring telework protections for 42,000 Social Security Administration (SSA) employees through 2029. The deal, negotiated with the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), preserves remote work options for SSA staff and limits the ability of management to impose stricter in-office attendance requirements, potentially clashing with the incoming Trump administration’s plans to overhaul federal workforce policies.
Outgoing SSA Commissioner Martin O’Malley authorized the agreement, which guarantees remote work arrangements for the next five years. The Biden administration has defended such policies as essential for maintaining employee retention and productivity, while critics see it as entrenching inefficiency in federal agencies. Rich Couture, president of the AFGE SSA Council, stated that the deal “will secure not just telework for SSA employees, but also staffing levels through prevention of higher attrition, which in turn will secure the agency’s ability to serve the public.”
The incoming Trump administration has sharply criticized telework arrangements and other pandemic-era work policies, labeling them wasteful and counterproductive. President-elect Donald Trump has established the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to spearhead reforms aimed at reducing the size of the federal government and curtailing what his team calls “bureaucratic overreach.”
Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, tapped to lead DOGE, have pledged to dismantle telework policies and enforce stricter in-office attendance requirements as part of their mission to streamline federal operations. In a joint op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, Musk and Ramaswamy outlined their strategy to eliminate inefficiencies within the federal workforce, emphasizing the use of executive action to enforce regulatory and administrative changes.
“President Trump has asked the two of us to lead a newly formed Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, to cut the federal government down to size. The entrenched and ever-growing bureaucracy represents an existential threat to our republic, and politicians have abetted it for too long.” they wrote.
The agreement has drawn sharp criticism from Republican lawmakers and business leaders. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) slammed the deal on X (formerly Twitter), accusing the Biden administration of undermining the incoming government’s efforts to reform the bureaucracy. “On its way out the door, the Biden administration is locking in telework for 42,000 SSA bureaucrats until AFTER President Trump leaves office! Unacceptable!” she wrote.
Business leader Bill Ackman, CEO of Pershing Square, also criticized the agreement, claiming it represents an effort to “make permanent the Deep State” by burdening the government with rigid contracts that prevent reform. “Biden is attempting to make permanent the Deep State before he leaves office by burdening the government with untenable contracts so that Donald Trump and DOGE cannot succeed,” Ackman said in a statement.
The telework agreement is the latest flashpoint in the broader battle between the outgoing administration’s efforts to secure workforce policies and the incoming administration’s plans to roll back what it sees as bloated federal operations. The Trump team has emphasized that reversing these policies is crucial to reducing government waste and increasing accountability.
How the Trump administration will address this agreement, given its legally binding nature, remains to be seen. The Biden administration’s strategic timing ensures that the policy will be a formidable challenge for the incoming leadership to unwind.
