War Department Breaks Down Just How Much Money Biden Admin Telework Policy Wasted
The War Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released a report Tuesday on the Biden administration-era telework policies that found at least $665,000 was spent — questionably — on local salaries.
The report is the first from the War Department since Republican Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa sent a letter to 24 government agencies requesting a review of telework issues in August 2023, with some agencies refusing to send data under the Biden administration. Ernst told the Daily Caller News Foundation that the report confirmed many of her suspicions when she began looking into telework policies. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Post admits it doesn’t really know how to deal with hundreds of vacant buildings)
“From bubble baths to the beach and beyond, I warned that Biden bureaucrats were everywhere but the office,” Ernst said. “Thanks to my oversight and partnership with the Trump administration, the days of missing federal workers at the expense of hard-working taxpayers are coming to an end. Showing up is half the battle, and Biden’s bureaucrats were in full retreat. If the Pentagon can’t keep track of its personnel or our tax dollars, no wonder it can’t pass a clean audit.”
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth speaks to senior military leaders at Marine Corps Base Quantico September 30, 2025 in Quantico, Virginia. In an unprecedented gathering, nearly 800 generals, admirals and their senior enlisted leaders were summoned to a single location from around the world on short notice. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
The War Department was unable to reliably determine how many employees were teleworking, largely due to a lack of proper recordkeeping, different War Department agencies developing their own policies, and employees using poor timesheets to document remote work, according to the OIG report.
Ernst detailed the problems created by telecommuting regarding local pay, an adjustment to the base salary of civilian federal employees intended to ensure that federal employees receive compensation comparable to that of their private sector counterparts in a given region of the country, in a December 2024 report. Ernst provided the report to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who led the Department of Government Effectiveness during the first months of President Donald Trump’s second term.
According to the OIG report, in one case, a War Department employee received incorrect local pay for four years.
“An employee’s workplace was changed in error in 2020,” the report said. “After requesting supporting documentation for this employee, DCSA human resources staff noted that this was an error. Although they stated that they were in the process of correcting the salary, DCSA has been paying an incorrect amount for at least four years.”
The report also states that it is very possible that additional funds were disbursed inappropriately. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: The Federal Government’s Telecommuting Obsession Is Much Worse Than You Thought)
Americans are tired of “learning” about billions of dollars of fraud AFTER it happens.
The Senate DOGE Caucus is taking action to stop fraud BEFORE it happens! pic.twitter.com/E884WqCmIf
– Joni Ernst (@SenJoniErnst) January 20, 2026
“Additionally, our review only included individuals who coded work hours in their timesheets as remote teleworking for the entire pay period,” the report said. “If a remote employee did not use the correct remote work timesheet code in their timesheet or took time off during the pay period, they were not included in our review. Therefore, the number of employees receiving incorrect local pay could potentially be much higher.”
When she launched the investigation in August 2023, Ernst cited a media account of a VA employee who attended a staff meeting while taking a bubble bath and a case involving a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee who received $25,000 while spending more than 730 hours at the golf course or happy hours.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent, nonpartisan news service, is available free to any legitimate news publisher capable of delivering a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and DCNF affiliation. For questions about our guidelines or our partnership, please contact licenses@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
