BALTIMORE — Maryland is home to 160,000 federal employees, the second highest concentration in the country behind the District of Columbia, according to the state.
President Donald Trump’s new executive order will require all federal employees to work at their office and end remote opportunities.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the return-to-the-office policy for federal workers requires a scalpel and not a meat axe. He also pointed out the government had a telework policy before the pandemic.
Who are considered federal workers?
Federal workers include politicians, judges, members of the military and civil servants. It also includes a range of administrative positions, such as project managers, HR employees and finance specialists.
According to data from Maryland, 19% of the state’s workforce was employed by federal state and local governments in 2023, while 81% worked in the private sector.
Data shows 158,475 Maryland residents worked for the federal government in 2023.
According to the state’s Department of Commerce, there are approximately 38 federal agencies with headquarters or major operations in Maryland, including the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA).
When do federal employees have to return?
Under Mr. Trump’s executive order, department and agency leaders are required to put an end to remote work “as soon as practicable,” and arrange for federal employees to return to in-person work.
The executive order leaves some room for negotiation, giving department and agency leaders the ability to make exemptions.
“Before the COVID pandemic, we had a federal telework policy, a flexible work policy that was supported by Republicans and Democrats alike,” Sen. Van Hollen said. “I believe that we’ve been too slow coming out of COVID to get more people back to work in the offices, at the same time, we do not want a one-size-fits-all policy.”
A 2024 report from the Biden Administration’s Office of Management and Budget says that 54% of federal workers already work fully in person because of their job requirements. The remaining 46%, or 1.1 million workers, are telework eligible.
The government employs nearly 2.3 million workers, but just 10% of those were fully remote eligible.
Will all federal employees have to return to the office?
It is currently unclear who, if anyone, will benefit from exemptions defined by department and agency leaders.
Some federal union leaders have already begun to push back against the executive order as some of the unions have remote work written into their contracts, CBS News reported.
“Every American has a stake in ensuring that federal employees remain free to carry out the mission of the agencies that employ them without fear of political interference,” Everett Kelly, national president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).
AFGE represents agencies in the District of Columbia, including the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Veterans Affairs and the Social Security Administration.
“Defend the hardworking Marylanders”
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore said he will continue to support federal workers through all of the new administration’s changes.
Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks said the orders are targeting federal workers.
“They’re researching cures for cancer at the National Cancer Institute in Frederick and Bethesda. They’re keeping our food safe at the FDA in Silver Spring. They’re delivering benefits to seniors at the Social Security Administration in Woodlawn,” Alsobrooks said. “No matter who sits in the White House, these workers are delivering results. I will always stand up and defend the hardworking Marylanders who’ve spent their lives in service to the federal government and the American people.”
A flurry of executive orders
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders to undo policies from the Biden administration.
Aside from the return to the office policy for federal workers, an executive order creates a federal hiring freeze, except for military and “other excluded categories.”
Another executive order seeks to restore “Schedule F,” a policy the Trump administration introduced in 2020, which President Biden rescinded days after taking office. The policy seeks to “restore accountability in policy-influencing” jobs. The 2020 order sought to reclassify thousands of federal jobs, thus limiting job security for current workers.
“America’s civil service is a merit system protected from corruption by due process rights for federal employees,” the American Federation of Government Employees, the union that represents 800,000 federal workers, said about the controversial “Schedule F” hiring practice. “Corrupting the civil service by reclassifying professional jobs into Schedule F is against the interests of American citizens who expect that federal employees be hired solely based on their ability to carry out the duties of their position.”
CBS News reported that in 2024, The Office of Personnel Management regulations barred career civil servants from being reclassified as political appointees, or as other at-will workers, who are more easily dismissed from their jobs.
MARC train’s service for federal workers
MARC train said ridership was up at the end of 2024, and while the agency’s goal is to increase that by 10% this year, the public transport service expects to break that.
“We’re currently in about 50% of pre-pandemic ridership so we do have capacity available and we’re glad to welcome folks back to the trains,” said David Johnson, deputy director of operations for MARC Train. “If this does play out the way it seems like it will, I think we will surpass that.”
Johnson said any federal worker who is returning to the office can apply for SmartBenefits, which can cover some or all of the fare.
