Over the weekend I had a chance to talk with an old friend of mine. We had lost touch over the years, and I was excited to hear that his life has taken a course similar to mine. He is becoming more engaged in the political process and taking the debate directly to the politicians.
This friend of mine petitioned his Congressman to consider teleworking, an idea that I found fascinating.
Think about it. Wouldn’t it be great if our representatives in Congress were more influenced by us, the people in their district, than the lobbyists? In the early years of this nation, our representatives actually took a pay cut to go to Washington and represent the people. Today, more often than not, our politicians in Washington leave office with more money that they started with. Instead of a fancy meal with a hired lobbyist, he or she could sit down to a cup of coffee with a constituent. Less travel back and forth to Washington would mean less pollution, and we all know how concerned they are about the effects of carbon emissions on the environment given their recent vote on Cap and Trade.
Last year, Congress passed a bill called the Telework Improvement Act which would have a direct impact on federal employees. The bill allows eligible employees to work 20 percent of their pay period from an authorized telework center. The field office would be perfect for that!
I suspect that the nature of the job does not lend itself well to telework though. There would be a lot of issues to iron out. Still, this would be a giant step towards having our representatives listen to the people they represent.
