Statewide Iowa — Iowa Congresswoman Ashley Hinson is joining a group of House Republicans who’re questioning why some key federal agencies do not have all employees working in-person.
The group says federal employees had early access to COVID vaccines and there’s been time to reconfigure work spaces to accommodate social distancing.
Hinson has signed onto a letter asking President Biden for a list of which federal agencies are fully staffed and in person and which agencies have more than half the staff working remotely. Hinson points to staffing at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis which has the documents veterans need to secure their benefits and the medals they’ve earned.
Hinson says the number one complaint from her constituents, though, is about the Internal Revenue Service and getting IRS staff on the phone to answer questions.
The IRS reports it received 119 million calls last year a 70 percent increase from a typical tax filing season. The total IRS budget, when adjusted for inflation, is 20 percent lower than it was 12 years ago and staffing has fallen to levels the agency had in the 1970s.
This past September, ten other House Republicans called for a congressional investigation of in-person staffing levels at federal agencies during the pandemic.
