General Services Administration

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GSA boss works mostly from Missouri

The leader of the D.C.-based General Services Administration worked remotely from Missouri most of the time in the year after the agency's "full re-entry" plan called employees back to their offices, according to a GSA letter to Congress obtained by Axios' Alex Thompson.

• Why it matters: Calendar records of GSA Administrator Robin Carnahan show how remote work has continued after the pandemic for many federal workers — even at top levels of the Biden administration — despite the president's 17-month push for more in-office work.

Carnahan, whose agency manages about 1,500 federally owned buildings, is scheduled to testify to the House Oversight Committee soon. A hearing yesterday was postponed.

• House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) began investigating Carnahan's remote work arrangement in January. In a letter to her then, Comer said his panel had "received whistleblower reports you have spent most of your time working in a location other than Washington."

? By the numbers: From March 2022 to March 2023, Carnahan worked 121 weekdays in Missouri and 64 weekdays at her office in Washington, GSA Associate Administrator Gianelle E. Rivera wrote to Comer on March 31.

• Carnahan also spent 34 weekdays on official travel, Rivera wrote.

A GSA spokesperson told Axios that Carnahan "supports workforce flexibility, which has helped GSA reduce its footprint by 43% and save taxpayers more than $300 million in real estate costs."

• Carnahan has "modeled that flexibility in her own schedule," the spokesperson continued, "spending roughly half her time in calendar year 2023 working from GSA headquarters in D.C. and visiting job sites and federal facilities that the agency oversees nationwide, with the rest of her time teleworking."