The White House signaled to federal departments and agencies to prepare for workers to return to offices in a memo on Monday written by Office of Management and Budget Director Russ Vought.
Vought’s memo, which was sent to the heads of federal departments and agencies, tells federal agencies to plan the reopening of their offices in accordance with state and local guidance.
“In partnership with state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and the private sector, the federal government is actively planning to ramp back up government operations to the maximum extent possible, as local conditions warrant,” Vought wrote in the memo. “Agencies are encouraged to allow federal employees and contractors to return to the office in low-risk areas.”
However, the memo directs federal employees to continue working remotely until state and local authorities begin to reopen their economies using the White House’s three-phase plan released last week.
According to the White House’s guidelines, states have the discretion to begin the first phase of reopening their economies upon recording a decline in coronavirus cases for two weeks.
Read Vought’s memo below:
