WH Orders Federal Agencies To Get Ready For The Return Of Workers In Offices

UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 12: Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, arrives to testify during the House Budget Committee hearing on “The President's 2021 Budget,” in Cannon Building on Wednesday, February 12, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 12: Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, arrives to testify during the House Budget Committee hearing on The President's 2021 Budget, in Cannon Building on ... UNITED STATES - FEBRUARY 12: Russell Vought, acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, arrives to testify during the House Budget Committee hearing on The President's 2021 Budget, in Cannon Building on Wednesday, February 12, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) MORE LESS
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The White House signaled to federal departments and agencies to prepare for workers to return to offices in a memo on Monday written by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.

Vought’s memo, which was sent to the heads of federal departments and agencies, tells federal agencies to plan the reopening of their offices in accordance with state and local guidance.

“In partnership with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and the private sector, the federal government is actively planning to ramp back up government operations to the maximum extent possible, as local conditions warrant,” Vought wrote in the memo. “Agencies are encouraged to allow federal employees and contractors to return to the office in low-risk areas.”

However, the memo directs federal employees to continue working remotely until state and local authorities begin to reopen their economies using the White House’s three-phase plan released last week.

According to the White House’s guidelines, states have the discretion to begin the first phase of reopening their economies upon recording a decline in coronavirus cases for two weeks.

Read Vought’s memo below:

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Notable Replies

  1. “Vought’s memo, which was sent to the heads of federal departments and agencies, …

    in actuality, was addressed to only a single recipient.”

  2. This should about as well as it has for nursing homes.

  3. By tomorrow it’ll have morphed into a directive for all Federal employees to get back in their offices regardless of any State directives…

  4. This is a fucking death sentence right now unless each worker is issued a box of masks. box of gloves, a gallon of Purell, a gallon of Clorox a 24 pack of paper towel rolls…and the right to sue trump personally for every last fucking dime he has if they get ill with covid.

  5. Article says:

    tells federal agencies to plan the reopening of their offices in accordance with state and local guidance.

    Whereas headline says:

    WH Orders Federal Workers To Prepare To Return To Office

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