Op-Ed: Rep. Roger Williams and Rep. Mark Alford: Bringing federal workers back to work for Main Street America

Under President Donald Trump's leadership, federal agencies are finally returning to work. Agencies across the federal government are cutting bloated, unnecessary programs and are refocusing on their founding mission of serving the American people.

Last Congress, the House Committee on Small Business investigated the Biden-Harris Small Business Administration (SBA) and saw firsthand how drastically President Joe Biden and his administration damaged the integrity of our government through poor policy and inept leadership. This included failing to reimplement an in-person work policy for federal employees after the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. Simply put, the Biden administration failed Main Street America. This legacy of failure earned federal agencies a DOGE redesign, starting with a return to in-person work and the much-needed sale of excess federal properties.

Without the luxury of working from home after the pandemic, American small businesses returned to work — allowing Main Street America to function again. Federal employees, however, remained stagnant while their multimillion-dollar offices collected dust. When Americans needed help from the SBA, they faced unanswered phone calls and wasted hours on hold. For small businesses in desperate need of answers from the agency, this meant slower loan processing, unbearable bureaucratic wait times, and poor communication. Any small business with this disastrous record of customer service would be out of business. Yet, somehow, it is acceptable for the government.

Our Committee investigated the SBA for these failures. Our investigation was continually met with half-truths from President Biden’s SBA Administrator, Isabella Casillas Guzman, and countless unanswered questions. We sent two letters to Administrator Guzman (March 2024; August 2023) and brought her to testify before the Committee to discuss issues, including the SBA’s telework policies. We pressed her on why the SBA would request a $42 million funding increase for rent, while at the same time it was reported that the SBA buildings were only at “50 percent occupancy on any given day.”

We also questioned why employees were only expected to work in-person two out of every ten days in 2023 and four out of ten days in 2024. Her answers were abysmal and often inconsistent with the SBA’s stated policies.

Unsatisfied with her paltry response, the Republican members of the Committee joined us on a visit to the SBA. There, we witnessed the insanity of liberal telework policy that left rows and rows of desks empty during the workday — a sight unacceptable in any private company or small business. The SBA’s offices remained dormant and unutilized this way until President Trump’s SBA Administrator, Kelly Loeffler, was confirmed. On her first day in office, she went viral on X for showing the world exactly how empty the SBA has been for four years.

In with President Trump’s day-one commitment through a signed Executive Order, Administrator Loeffler mandated that all federal employees return to work, effective immediately. She demanded that SBA employees return to work, and the vast majority complied.

Federal agencies, especially the SBA, must be held to the same high standards as any business on Main Street. Small business owners do not have the luxury of working from home. Often, these hardworking Americans are the first to come to work and the last to leave.

Bringing workers back to the office is an essential step to right-sizing the SBA and ensuring it meets the needs of American small businesses. Over time, the SBA has become more centralized in Washington D.C., with limited staffing in the field where small businesses operate. That is why Sen. Joni Ernst and Rep. Mark Alford introduced the “Returning SBA to Main Street Act” in both chambers. The bill would reduce the SBA’s reliance on D.C. bureaucrats and relocate those jobs into communities across America so that the SBA can serve Main Street small businesses where they are.

Major reform requires significant action: bringing government workers back to the office, demanding high-quality work, and selling wasted space is just the beginning of the bureaucratic reset that can be expected from the Trump Administration. Federal workers must get on board and return to work, or watch federal agencies move on without them.

Rep. Roger Williams chairs the House Committee on Small Business and represents Texas’s 25th District.

Rep. Mark Alford represents Missouri’s 4th District.