Washington Post's Stephen Barr was among the reporters at yesterday's Congressional hearings on Telework. His article in this morning's "Federal Diary" column, Congressmen Plan Measures to Rev Up Telecommuting (Washington Post, July 9, 2004) highlights proposed legislation from Rep. Danny Davis (D-IL) that would require a pilot project with two or more agencies to test the use of telework as a response to an extended emergency or disruption to normal operations.

"Employees in the pilot project would work away from their offices for at least 30 days to identify how their jobs can be performed during an extended emergency or disruption. An aide said Davis would introduce his bill today."

Also this morning, discussions are heating up on whether to raise the Terror Alert level from yellow to orange. Tom Ridge is warning of the potential for another terrorist attack, as reported in Bin Laden Is Said to Be Organizing for a U.S. Attack by David Johnston and David Stout (New York Times, July 9, 2004)

"Mr. Ridge said reliable information pointed to an attack in which terrorists would try to "disrupt our democratic process," suggesting an attack designed to disrupt the national political conventions or the elections in November. He added that extra protective measures would be in place at the conventions, even though there was no specific indication that they were targets."

What would it take to raise the threat level to orange?

'Mr. Ridge declined to discuss in detail what circumstance might cause the administration to raise the country's color-coded terror alert level from its current yellow, which indicates a heightened threat, to orange, which would warn of an imminent threat of attack. "We wouldn't want to necessarily broadcast to the terrorists what it would take for us to raise it to orange," he said. "But we know internally that there are a couple of tripwires that might cause us to pull everybody together to begin that whole process."'

What special processes should be instituted if and when that happens? Requiring key federal employees to telework is a logical, low cost, and highly efficient means of distributing our governmental assets and ensuring that the business of government can continue in an emergency situation. Looks like Rep. Danny Davis has figured this one out.

11:00:13 AM    
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