Irked by reports that federal office buildings are sometimes operating at less than 10% capacity, the House on Tuesday approved a use-it-or-lose-it policy for agency office buildings, ordering them to either get employees back at desks or give up the space.

The legislation would require an average 60% utilization rate for government buildings and would direct agencies to consolidate their offices to reach that level. Republicans said the bill would goose the government out of its extended pandemic haze.

“COVID is over. Either come to work or don’t come to work, but let’s don’t keep these buildings open if nobody is in them,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican.

Many Democrats said they agree with the idea of better use of office space, but they worried Republicans’ bill was too stringent and would chase good employees out of the federal workforce by forcing them to give up the telework flexibility they’ve come to count on.

“If we want our federal workforce to be the best in the world, we need to compete. We need to give them the flexibility to work from home, just like other employers do in the private sector,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, Massachusetts Democrat.

Republicans said they weren’t objecting to where employees wanted to work, but they don’t want taxpayers picking up the bill for vacant offices.

“All we’re saying is, my goodness, federal agencies, can you come back to work at at least 60%,” said Rep. Scott Perry, Pennsylvania Republican and chief sponsor of the bill, who cited The Washington Times’ reporting on empty offices in support of the legislation.

The bill passed on a 217-213 vote, split mostly along party lines. Six Democrats backed the measure and two Republicans opposed it.

Under the legislation, the government would come up with a yardstick for occupancy rates and use sensors to measure how full buildings are. An amendment adopted during debate Tuesday allows for alternate schedules to be accommodated in the definition.

Agencies that average less than 60% over a year would then have to correct the situation or else come up with a plan to reduce their space.

Sen. Joni Ernst, Iowa Republican, last year revealed government data showing shocking vacancy rates at the headquarters of major federal departments and agencies.

The Social Security Administration’s office in Baltimore and The Department of Housing and Urban Development’s building in the southwest quadrant of Washington clocked in at 7% use rates. The Small Business Administration had a 9% use rate.

Even the General Services Administration, the government’s chief landlord, was using just 11% of its space in its office near the White House.

The best performer on the list was the State Department, whose Harry S. Truman building had a 49% use rate.

Federal agencies told the Government Accountability Office that they didn’t want to share space because it would mean giving up the political clout that comes with having their own real estate.

And even within agencies there was reluctance to share space, such as conference rooms, among divisions. Some agencies also said they had to keep classified and unclassified work separate.

Rep. Mark Alford, Missouri Republican, said when he first came to Washington last year he tried to visit the federal agencies within the jurisdiction of his committee assignments. The Pentagon let him in, but he said others refused him.

“A sitting member of Congress could not get into the door of these agencies,” he said. “They have been hiding the low numbers of people actually at their desk.”

Ms. Ernst last month challenged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on the 11% use rate of his department’s headquarters buildings, historic structures at the southern entrance to downtown, citing a whistleblower who called the office a “ghost town.”

Mr. Vilsack insisted that was an old figure, though he didn’t offer updated occupancy data. He said the crux of the issue is that his employees are doing their jobs, wherever they are.

“To suggest that they’re not working, I think, is an affront to the hardworking members of the USDA family,” he said.

The White House said it “strongly” objected to the bill, but did not threaten a veto.

It said in a policy statement that there are hurdles to consolidating departments and agencies, some of which are very old and would require “major modernization.”

“While the administration believes that the federal real estate portfolio needs to be evaluated and optimized, the administration believes that agencies’ unique missions require individualized approaches to improving space utilization,” the White House Office of Management and Budget said.

Congressional Democrats offered other objections.

Rep. Rick Larsen, Washington Democrat, said much of the federal office space is leased and it doesn’t have escape clauses allowing the government to reduce its use. That means the government would be on the hook for the costs anyway.

And Mr. McGovern said it was wrong to treat federal food inspectors, who need to be out at work sites, the same as pencil pushers in headquarters buildings.

“Heck, members of Congress, we’re not in Washington behind our desk five times a week,” he said.

But Rep. Garret Graves, Louisiana Republican, said managers should be able to figure out schedules to stagger when people are in the office.

“That’s fine. Just manage them in a way that maximizes the use of space,” he said.

The empty buildings have caused some embarrassing hiccups for the government, including outbreaks of Legionella, the bacteria that causes Legionnaires Disease.

The inspector general for the GSA issued a report last year disclosing that Legionella had been detected in six GSA-controlled buildings, including one that led to a case of Legionnaires Disease.

That report blamed buildings left empty by pandemic shutdown policies, which meant fewer people using facilities and water stagnating, creating conditions for the bacteria to grow.

Meanwhile in San Francisco, the Speaker Nancy Pelosi Federal Building has been so plagued by crime on the streets surrounding it that one federal agency told employees last year to start working from home. Executive branch agencies have declined to answer questions about the current occupancy of that building.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.