Red states embrace Trump’s crackdown on remote government work

by Kevin Hardy, West Virginia Watch
February 20, 2025

A yearslong conflict over whether Nebraska’s governor can unilaterally force state workers back to the office will ultimately be sorted out by the state’s highest court.

The Nebraska Association of Public Employees, which represents more than 8,000 state employees, challenged Republican Gov. Jim Pillen’s November 2023 order requiring workers in offices full time. The group argues that Pillen cannot do so without labor contract negotiations.

Justin Hubly, executive director of the union, said most of Nebraska’s state employees would continue working from physical offices, as they did before the pandemic. But he said many state jobs could be performed remotely.

“Who cares where our IT application developers are working, what time of the day they’re working, as long as their assignments are done in a timely matter?” he said.

Hubly said the issue has become needlessly politicized in Nebraska and across the country. In recent weeks, Republicans in states nationwide have echoed President Donald Trump’s skepticism that government work can be effectively done remotely.

“It seems that everything in America today has to become a political issue and then immediately has to be chosen to be a conservative red-state issue or a liberal blue-state issue,” Hubly said.

Last week in the Oval Office, Trump repeated his rationale for requiring federal workers to be in the office, part of his push to shrink the workforce. He claimed without evidence that many of them are balancing two jobs and only devoting 10% to 20% of their government time to working.

“Nobody’s going to work from home, they’re going to be going out, they’re gonna play tennis, they’re gonna play golf,” Trump told reporters.

Experts say the president’s push has turned the work-from-home debate into a partisan fight.

“I would analogize it to many states launching their own DOGE commissions, to sort of signal affinity with what’s happening in Washington,” said Peter Morrissey, senior director of talent and strategy at the Volcker Alliance, a nonprofit that works to support public sector workers.

Earlier this month, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine ordered state employees back to their offices starting March 17. Similarly, Oklahoma GOP Gov. Kevin Stitt signed an order in December that requires employees to work full time from offices as of this month. And Republicans who control Wisconsin’s legislature are pushing legislation and pressuring the state’s Democratic governor over the issue.

In Nebraska, a labor court last July ruled against the public employees union, though the union has appealed the decision to the Nebraska Supreme Court. The July decision came down on a Thursday, and Pillen said he expected state workers to be back in offices the next Monday.

“The COVID-19 pandemic is long over, and it is likewise long overdue that our full workforce is physically back,” he said at the time.

Before Pillen’s executive order, 2,250 employees in Nebraska’s 25 largest agencies were working remote or hybrid, said Pillen spokesperson Laura Strimple. She said 1,100 — or 8% of those agencies’ workers — are now working remotely or hybrid and that the state is “still evaluating available space in the future to return even more public servants.”

The politicization of remote work

Like private employers, states have been grappling with the complications of remote work since the COVID-19 pandemic. But nearly five years later, the issue is as political as ever.

Trump is requiring a return to office in part to have federal employees quit as his administration seeks to shrink the government workforce, according to a November Wall Street Journal opinion piece by Department of Government Efficiency task force head Elon Musk and his then-DOGE partner, Vivek Ramaswamy.

Morrissey noted that state, local and federal governments compete with the private sector for workers. And with less competitive pay in many government roles, a lack of flexible work arrangements could prove a competitive disadvantage — particularly for some of the most specialized workers.

He added that legitimate debate over worker productivity and taxpayer savings related to remote work should not be an excuse to use “the public workforce as a culture war item or a punching bag.”

Morrissey expects state political leaders will leave flexibility for agency directors and department management to craft hybrid or remote work arrangements.

Even the White House’s order allowed agency leaders to “make exemptions they deem necessary.”

Research has found slight productivity dips from remote work, though it can help with employee recruitment and retention, said Nicholas Bloom, an economics professor at Stanford University who researches remote work.

Fully remote workers also can deliver employers significant cost savings through reduced office expenses and less employee turnover. But evaluating the performance of remote employees is tricky, particularly so in government work. Bloom said hybrid arrangements — such as requiring workers to come into the office three days a week — might make the most sense for governments to maximize productivity, employee satisfaction and office savings.

“This is why 80% of Fortune 500 companies have managers and professionals on a hybrid schedule,” he said.

But Bloom views the Republican return-to-office trend in government as a way to reduce staffing. Employees often prefer to work remotely and view hybrid schedules as providing the equivalent benefit of an 8% pay increase.

“This is clearly all about reducing headcount,” Bloom said. “By making work more unpleasant, the hope is employees quit.”

Republicans rethinking remote shift

Long before the pandemic, the Utah government embraced remote work as a way to cut costs.

Then-Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, called himself a “televangelist for telework” in 2019, after a successful pilot program. As governor, Cox in 2021 signed an executive order requiring state agencies to review whether work could be performed remotely. The order said remote work saved taxpayers millions, improved Utah’s air quality by cutting commutes and improved employee satisfaction.

But last month, Cox said the state is reevaluating its framework.

He said remote work could lead to increased productivity — if it’s accompanied with specific oversight and training. But those guardrails weren’t always implemented when the pandemic suddenly sent state workers home, he said.

“You don’t just send people home with a computer. It’s much more detailed than that,” Cox told reporters.

Cox said the state had been bringing more workers back into offices over the past few years as the administration weighs both employee productivity and taxpayer savings.

“Remote work has its place, but so does being together,” he said.

In Wisconsin, the remote work debate has split state leaders along partisan lines.

In November, Republican House Speaker Robin Vos proposed as part of the budget requiring all state workers to return to offices three or four days per week.

“A lot of employees aren’t working or they’re working only from home and not doing it very well with very little supervision,” he told a local television station.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers pledged to veto any such requirement. He noted that Wisconsin in recent years made significant efforts to hire workers across the state outside the major population centers of Madison and Milwaukee.

More than a dozen state agencies have already consolidated office space as the administration sought to develop a work environment better suited to help with employee recruitment and retention, Evers’ office said in a statement to Stateline. In recent years, Wisconsin’s government has shed 230,000 square feet of office space with nearly 400,000 more planned, according to a January report.

The governor’s office said reversing course now would drive up costs and negate millions of expected taxpayer savings. Implementing in-office work arrangements would require more private lease arrangements or reopening buildings that are slated for closure and sale.

Aside from ongoing budget negotiations, Republican lawmakers introduced stand-alone legislation that would require employees who worked in offices before the pandemic to return by July 1.

State Republican Rep. Amanda Nedweski, who leads the state Assembly’s new committee on Government Operations, Accountability, and Transparency, or GOAT — mirrored after Trump’s DOGE effort — testified last week in favor of a Senate return-to-work bill. But she said the majority caucus isn’t against remote work entirely.

In an interview, Nedweski pointed to a 2023 legislative audit on remote work that found the state lacked data on the extent of remote work and recommended more detailed monitoring.

Nedweski said there may be potential efficiencies from telework, but said the state needs “to get a handle on who’s doing what and from where and why.”

“And what are they missing out on by not having that opportunity to collaborate with co-workers on a regular basis?” she said in an interview. “We miss out on the opportunities to innovate when people are isolated and not working together.”

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

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WV House committee considers ‘Make America Healthy Again’ bill restricting SNAP purchases

by Lori Kersey, West Virginia Watch
February 19, 2025

A West Virginia House of Delegates committee is considering legislation that would prohibit recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly known as food stamps, from using their benefits to purchase soft drinks and candy. 

House Bill 2350, and similar legislation around the country, is part of an effort promoted by the Trump administration and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.  to “Make America Healthy Again.”

The bill was before the Committee on Health and Human Resources for a hearing on Tuesday.

It would require the cabinet secretary for the Department of Human Services to request a federal waiver to prohibit the purchase of candy and soft drinks with SNAP benefits. If the waiver is not granted, the bill says the secretary would ask for such a waiver annually until the waiver is granted. 

Bill sponsor Del. Adam Burkhammer, R-Lewis, said the legislation is meant to promote healthy options for SNAP recipients. 

More than 144,000 West Virginia households got SNAP benefits in December 2024, according to the state Bureau for Family Assistance.

Opponents of the bill say the legislation would have a negative effect on the state’s grocery stories, particularly in counties that border other states. 

Facing restrictions in West Virginia, SNAP recipients who live near the state’s borders are likely to drive across state lines to use their benefits, said Seth DiStefano, policy outreach director for the Center on Budget and Policy. 

“The direct result — long story short, is that grocery stores close,” he said. “And grocery stores closing is very bad for the health of an entire community. Food deserts get worse. Options become less.”

Restrictions and “poverty shaming” won’t improve health, he said. 

“The only real impact so far as I could tell is that it’s going to put a lot of folks in those border counties, it’s going to give them a choice,” DiStefano said. “Do I want to sit in line and be embarrassed when I get into a back and forth with a cashier who may not have coded something correctly with my kid in line? Or do I take my business across the river to Gallipolis or Belpre or Steubenville or Hagerstown or any myriad of towns where folks just simply don’t have to deal with the administrative hassle and the increased embarrassment and stigma that a bill like this puts on them?” 

Burkhammer responded to concerns about the bill’s economic impact by saying that poor health has an economic impact as well. 

“I would say that there is a continued economic negative impact if we continue to fuel childhood diabetes, diabetes and so forth with that,” he said. “So I understand that concept and I understand we’re a body that has to consider the financial impact on every decision almost that we make and this is one of those that I was willing to make that financial decision to say the health and the wellbeing of our state and our communities is greater than the financial risk that is potential.”

He added that SNAP recipients still have the option to purchase candy and soft drinks with their own money. 

Del. Mike Pushkin, D-Kanawha, raised concerns about the definition of candy and soft drinks in the bill. 

According to the bill, soft drinks are “nonalcoholic beverages that contain natural or artificial sweeteners. Soft drinks do not include beverages containing milk or milk products, soy, rice or similar milk substitutes or greater than 50% of vegetable or fruit juice by volume.

Candy, according to the bill, means “a preparation of sugar, honey or other natural or artificial sweeteners in combination with chocolate, fruits, nuts or other ingredients or flavorings in the form of bars, drops or pieces.” It does not include any preparation containing flour and does not require refrigeration.

Burkhammer said a forthcoming committee substitute would allow the cabinet secretary to define candy and soft drinks. 

The bill did not include a cost estimate as of Wednesday. 

Kennedy suggested banning soda and candy purchases by the SNAP program during an interview last week with Fox News, Forbes reported. 

“The one place that I would say that we need to really change policy is the SNAP program and food stamps and in school lunches,” Kennedy told Fox News host Laura Ingraham. “There, the federal government in many cases is paying for it. And we shouldn’t be subsidizing people to eat poison.”

The bill and others like it around the country are supported by the Opportunity Solutions Project, a partner organization to the conservative group Foundation for Government Accountability.

Jeremiah Samples, the former deputy secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Resources who is now a lobbyist for the Opportunity Solutions Project, spoke in support of the legislation. 

“[The bill] really starts a dialogue between the states and the federal government, which we now have a partner in the Trump administration to really address these issues to tackle what everyone knows and recognizes is a major problem in what is called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,” he said. “Nutrition. We have lost the nutrition part of the SNAP program.”

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

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Two fatalities confirmed in weekend flooding in WV; Morrisey gives update on recovery efforts

by Caity Coyne, West Virginia Watch
February 18, 2025

At least two people have now died due to flooding in West Virginia’s southern coalfields, where already struggling communities were washed out in a torrent of rain that hit over the weekend.

The two victims, Debbie and Donald Griffin, were from Welch. Gov. Patrick Morrisey said at least one other person is still missing in McDowell County, where search and rescue teams were active Tuesday.

Morrisey said he spent Monday surveying damage across the coalfields, with specific stops in Mingo and McDowell counties. 

“I first met some people who seemed to have lost everything …,” Morrisey said. “I want to send a message that the state is looking to do everything possible through its efforts and its resources to be helpful.”

As a state, the governor said agencies have taken on a “unified response” in both cleaning up debris left by the flood waters and coordinating response efforts for those who need assistance. 

Five liaison officer teams from the West Virginia National Guard were working throughout the region while local and state emergency responders were combining efforts. Members of the West Virginia State Police, the state fire marshal’s office and those with corrections were operating drones to survey damage from above and help concentrate recovery efforts in places that needed it most. Workers from the state Department of Transportation, the Division of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Protection, among others, were also on the ground.

Morrisey said a bright spot in the ongoing devastation across the coalfields was how West Virginians — and those from outside the state — have stepped up to help their community through donations and cleanup efforts. He said bottled water had been donated from multiple residents who were spared from the floods. Other donations came in from as far away as Texas. 

“I saw so much volunteer efforts and food and water and people that cared so much. That’s the West Virginia way,” Morrisey said. “… We thank everyone who is putting themselves in harm’s [way] to save the lives of their neighbors. There’s no substitute for that — people acting selflessly to help their fellow West Virginians.”

Boil water advisories so far have been issued for residents served by public service districts in Williamson, McDowell, Kermit, Mingo and Crum. Those who rely on those systems for water should abstain from drinking anything coming out of their taps until further notice.

Water service in general was still out completely for portions of both McDowell and Mingo counties, Morrisey said. Utility operators, he continued, were working to flush lines and restore service as soon as possible on Tuesday.

In addition to the water outages, power remained out for more than 8,000 West Virginians on Tuesday, Morrisey said. Utility workers and others had restored power to nearly 56,000 residents on Tuesday. In some areas, responders were needing to wait until flood waters receded and debris was cleared out before repairing power lines.

Flood waters can be breeding grounds for disease due to contaminants that could enter the body through open wounds, among other ways. There can also be dangers — loose metal, sharp objects and more — hidden in flood waters, which can be hazardous for people caught in them. Morrisey said 250 tetanus shots were sent this week to Williamson Memorial Hospital and to Wyoming County for anyone who may have been exposed in the overflowing waters.

At least four school districts — in Mingo, McDowell, Raleigh and Wyoming counties — had closures on Tuesday for either power outages, road closures or damage from floods. In several of those counties, schools were being used as shelters or distribution centers for people displaced by the floods and in need of supplies. Social media postings from Mingo and McDowell on Sunday said both districts would be closed “until further notice,” however no announcements regarding any closures were posted on the state Department of Education’s website as of 4 p.m.

West Virginia Watch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. West Virginia Watch maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Leann Ray for questions: info@westvirginiawatch.com.

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