Erie County, N.Y. (WBEN) - Congressman Nick Langworthy (R, NY-23) announced two new bills that will be voted on in the House of Representatives this week in regards to ending COVID-19 mandates that are preventing federal employees and healthcare workers from returning to work.
"One of the things that we declared boldly and clearly is that the COVID emergency is over," said Congressman Langworthy. "We are not going to allow the White House or anyone else to continue to use COVID as an excuse for their socialist big government spending programs. We are not going to allow this White House or anyone else to print trillions upon trillions of dollars in the name of a pandemic, our country must be open for business."
The SHOW UP Act will require all federal agencies to return to pre-pandemic telework levels within 30 days and to submit to Congress within six months, a detailed assessment of the impact of pandemic era telework, on the missions of their offices.
In addition, permanent expansion of telework must also, under this legislation, be approved by Congress and certified by the Office of Personnel Management to show that it will improve agency mission performance, lower costs, and maintain network security as well as dispersing federal jobs across the country.
"It's bad enough that people are constantly frustrated, the taxpayers, that interact with these offices are constantly frustrated by a federal workforce that can often be unaccountable and bureaucratic. It's been totally blown up by remote work," said Langworthy.
The congressman is also co-sponsoring the Freedom for Healthcare Workers Act, also being voted on this week by the House, which will eliminate a vaccine mandate for health care workers under certain federal programs.
"Here in New York, we've seen firsthand the devastation and the consequences that these mandates have created and a dangerous staff shortage that threatens patient care in our local facilities," Langworthy said. "We have seen hospitals and nurses shouting from the rooftops that their staffing is at a dangerously low level, and that workers who are overburdened and overworked and patient care is declining as a result."
Congressman Langworthy is flying to Washington D.C. this Monday and, in addition to attempting to pass these new potential pieces of legislation, will be attending the first hearing of the House Oversight and Accountability committee, where he says he will investigate the fraudulent money that was pouring out of the government during the pandemic in the name of COVID-19.
"It's unconscionable what happened, and there absolutely needs to be people held accountable and answers being given to the people. This was the promise we made to the American people, and we're following through on that promise."