Media Mentions – Functional Government Initiative

Biden’s 2,000 boxes and 400 gigabytes of digital records from 36 years in the Senate should be SEARCHED for classified documents, three watchdog groups demand

By Emily Goodin (The Daily Mail)

January 25, 2023

Several watchdog groups are calling for Joe Biden’s records from his Senate years to be searched for classified documents after another tranche of material was found at his Wilmington, Delaware, home.

There are also calls to search his Rehoboth, Delaware, beach home. Biden’s personal attorneys searched the home but said no classified material is there.

The University of Delaware houses 1,875 boxes and over 400 gigabytes of digital records from Biden’s 36-year Senate career. He deposited his records there at the end of his service.

Biden Senate records should be searched in classified documents case, watchdogs say

By Gabe Kaminsky (Washington Examiner)

January 24, 2023

EXCLUSIVE — The special counsel appointed to investigate President Joe Biden’s possible mishandling of classified documents should authorize a search of his hidden Senate records stored at the University of Delaware, according to watchdogs.

Attorney General Merrick Garland made ex-Trump Justice Department appointee Robert Hur special counsel on Jan. 12 to handle the investigation, which widened in scope on Friday upon DOJ officials finding six more classified records at Biden’s Wilmington, Delaware home. Now, three watchdog groups are calling for a search of the University of Delaware, which houses almost 2,000 boxes and over 400 gigabytes of digital records from Biden’s 36-year Senate career.

Records: Biden Coordinated Emergency Oil Release With Already Forecasted Price Dip, Then Took Credit

By Tristan Justice (The Federalist)

January 23, 2023

President Joe Biden took credit for knocking a few cents off of record-high oil prices after withdrawing millions of barrels from the nation’s emergency strategic petroleum reserves (SPR), but records show his Department of Energy actually timed the first drawdown of the emergency oil supply to coincide with an already forecasted decline in oil prices.

According to internal documents obtained by the Functional Government Initiative (FGI) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), administration officials acknowledged agency assessments that predicted a drop in oil prices ahead of the first SPR release in November 2021.

Biden’s supply-chain crisis task force leader never attended a meeting

(Hot Air)

January 20, 2023

In June 2021, as supply chains were being crippled by the effects of pandemic-era restrictions and Biden’s rampant spending, Vilsack pledged to participate in meetings with the newly formed Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, an initiative Biden said would solve the budding crisis with a whole-of-government approach.

But those promised meetings never occurred. There are no records showing that Vilsack or his designees participated in any meetings with the task force after its launch, according to the Department of Agriculture’s response to a Freedom of Information Act request submitted by the Functional Government Institute.

Biden supply chain task force leader didn’t attend any meetings during crisis: Report

By Rachel Schilke (Washington Examiner)

January 20, 2023

Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack was asked to co-lead a team tasked with addressing the supply chain crisis but never attended a meeting.

After the Functional Government Institute submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the Department of Agriculture, records showed that meetings between the secretary and those designated to serve on the team have not participated in any meetings for the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, the institute said, according to documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Top Biden Officials Responsible For Leading Supply Chain Task Force Never Even Showed Up To Meetings: Report

By Ben Zeisloft (Daily Wire)

January 20, 2023

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack never attended meetings of the task force he co-chaired to help resolve the nation’s supply chain woes, according to a public records request from the Functional Government Institute.

A public records request from the Functional Government Institute revealed that the Supply Chain Disruptions Task Force, created by the White House two years ago, suffered from nonexistent leadership. The Agriculture Department only produced 19 pages of records related to the entity after five months and a federal lawsuit from the Functional Government Institute; 14 of the pages were copied from public statements about the initiative, and none of the records provided evidence that Vilsack or his deputies attended any meetings.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack Led the Biden Administration’s Supply Chain Task Force. He Never Attended A Meeting.

By Andrew Kerr (Washington Free Beacon)

January 20, 2023

President Joe Biden tapped Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to co-chair a team tasked with fixing a supply chain crisis that left grocery shelves empty. The secretary never even showed up to a meeting, records show.

Legislation Reintroduced to Slash Telework Flexibilities for Federal Employees

By Ian Smith (FedSmith)

January 13, 2023

Among the first of the bills introduced in the new House of Representatives in the 118th Congress is one that involves federal employees. Specifically, the legislation would cut back on the amount of telework currently being afforded to federal workers.

The Stopping Home Office Work’s Unproductive Problems (SHOW UP) Act (H.R. 139) was reintroduced in the House by Congressman James Comer (R-KY). Comer also is the new chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

The bill would require that the federal government’s telework policy be returned to the pre-COVID telework policy that was last in place on December 31, 2019. It also forbids expanding the telework policy, practices or levels until a plan is submitted to Congress about the effects of telework on federal agencies and productivity.

Watchdog urges probe into government telework, fears feds are abusing it to preserve leave

By Ben Whedon (Just The News)

December 29, 2022

A non-profit government watchdog is urging an investigation into federal telework practices after its research revealed “dramatic reductions in paid leave used by the federal workforce” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Before the federal government engages in expanded telework in perpetuity, its impact should be investigated more fully by agency Inspectors General, Congress, and other oversight entities,” the Federal Government Initiative (FGI) asserted announcing its findings.

Reports emerged in May that federal agencies were not tracking whether their remote employees were logging into work computers. At the time, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., demanded explanations from officials, saying he received “troubling information suggesting that up to one-third of the [Health and Human Services] employees are not logging onto their government issued computer equipment on an average day.”

Watchdog Group Finds over $1 Billion in Possible Telework-Related Government Waste, Pushes for More Oversight

By Jacob Bliss (Breitbart)

December 27, 2022

The Functional Government Initiative (FGI), a “new organization dedicated to improving the American public’s awareness about the officials, decisions, and priorities of their government,” conducted an examination, first reported by Breitbart News, of leave data from federal agencies and service centers that process payroll for multiple agencies, which shows that federal employees’ use of sick days and paid time off steeply declined during the telework expansion following the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Ultimately, employees taking time off but not using leave days have cost taxpayers over $1 billion in waste over the last few years. At the beginning of the pandemic, the report noted, “virtually all federal agencies moved to fulltime telework, attempting to limit the spread of [Chinese coronavirus].”