Senator to Scott Turner: HUD workplace needs reform

With a political ally now at the head of the department, a Republican senator is aiming to garner more scrutiny of federal work policies and practices at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) submitted a letter this week to HUD Secretary Scott Turner, alleging that some HUD workers have received improper payments stemming from remote work policies.

She also says they have misused permissible “taxpayer-funded union time” (TFUT) for vacations, inefficiently utilized the department’s workspace, and submitted “inaccuracies” in so-called “locality pay” that’s adjusted for a worker’s geographic location to better retain talent.

“In your first several months of managing HUD, I am sure you have identified a number of areas ripe for reform,” Ernst wrote in the letter, which was first reported by conservative news outlet the Daily Caller.

“Among those, if it has not come to your attention already, are the department’s ongoing workforce management and space utilization challenges.”

In the letter, Ernst says that a whistleblower at HUD informed her of a colleague who supposedly lives in Florida while collecting locality pay for living in Washington, D.C. Ernst did not publicly reveal the documents she cites in the letter but says they are “on file with the sender.”

She goes on to say that the HUD staffer revealed through other documentation that they describe themselves as a “real estate professional” with residency in Florida.

Ernst’s letter also alleges that an American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) “steward” who works out of HUD’s Denver field office took vacations while claiming to be working remotely or on TFUT.

“Specifically, the whistleblower alleges the Colorado vacationer has been working entirely on TFUT time since 2017 and has been taking vacations while informing HUD managers he has been working remotely or on TFUT.”

TFUT is referred to as “official time” in the U.S. Code, which describes it as permitted activity for those involved in the collective bargaining process.

“Any employee representing an exclusive representative in the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement […] shall be authorized official time for such purposes, including attendance at impasse proceeding, during the time the employee otherwise would be in a duty status,” the code states.

Early 2025 guidance from the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) under the Trump administration has permitted TFUT “only in amounts that are reasonable, necessary, and in the public interest and to monitor its use to see that it is used efficiently.”

Ernst told Turner that HUD’s payroll systems and telework employee oversight policies have allowed employee malfeasance to flourish at the department. The senator said there is “limited analysis of HUD’s telework, remote work and space utilization to date.”

But a letter she submitted to former HUD Inspector General Rae Oliver Davis in 2023 requested an investigation into HUD’s telework and remote work policies.

That letter led to the publication of a report by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) in 2024. The OIG found that HUD maintains controls for remote work and locality pay through its Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer (OCHCO), which had taken corrective action on at least six instances of incorrect locality pay.

In December, Ernst released the results of an investigation that her office performed into government remote and telework policies. A report from Government Executive characterized the findings as inclusive of “bluster,” and that the investigation “failed to uncover any systemic abuse of the flexibility or that it made agencies less productive.”

But Ernst ended this week’s letter to Turner by saying that she looks “forward to working with you to bring accountability to the HUD workforce and making Washington work for America, rather than the other way around.”