The COVID Project
The record
- Jurisdiction
- United States (executive branch, nationwide)
- Level
- Federal
- Authority
- 5 U.S.C. ch. 65; OMB management authority; the President's Coronavirus Guidelines for America
- Issued
- 2020-03-17 Mar. 17, 2020
- Effective
- 2020-03-17 (implementation within 48 hours) (read as 2020-03-17)
- End
- superseded by the M-20-23 gating framework (Apr. 20, 2020); maximum telework persisted at most agencies through 2020 and into 2021 under M-20-23 and M-21-15 (read as 2020-04-20)
- In force
- Mar. 17, 2020 to Apr. 20, 2020
- Quarters
- 2020 Q2
2020 Q22020 Q32020 Q42021 Q12021 Q22021 Q3
- Limitation types
- Business closureTelework mandateWorkplace rules
- Addressees
- heads of departments and agencies
- federal contractors and visitors (through agency policies)
- agency customers
- Functions reached
- OF federal offices emptied nationwide
- PJ contractor performance moved to telework or postponed
- CS in-person federal transactions postponed (Social Security offices, IRS taxpayer assistance centers, passport agencies, USCIS, USDA service centers, VA regional offices)
- CB every business whose customer, licensor or counterparty was a federal office
- Collection
- Federal commerce, travel, workplace and finance layer FED-B
Operative words
the Government must immediately adjust operations and services to minimize face-to-face interactions, especially at those offices or sites where people may be gathering in close proximity or where highly vulnerable populations obtain services.... Non-mission-critical functions that cannot be performed remotely or that require in-person interactions may be postponed or significantly curtailed.... Maximize telework across the nation for the Federal workforce (including mandatory telework, if necessary), while maintaining mission-critical workforce needs... Assess professional services and labor contracts to extend telework flexibilities to contract workers wherever feasible... Agencies shall communicate with their customers to encourage them to delay transactions which are not time-critical and to ensure that available resources can be re-prioritized to mission-critical activities.
Enforcement
OMB directive; agency facility-access policies for employees, contractors and visitors
Notes
The operative federal order of March 2020 for the workplace layer: it postponed or curtailed non-mission-critical in-person functions across the executive branch and directed agencies to tell their customers to delay non-time-critical transactions.