WHY PAY FOR OFFICES BUREAUCRATS REFUSE TO USE? That’s the question being posed by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) in her continuing effort to force some simple, basic common sense on the people responsible for the day-to-day operations of the federal bureaucracy. Since 75 percent of the Washington, D.C. region feds are still mostly working from home more than a year after the COVID-19 Pandemic ended, Ernst says there’s no reason to keep paying billions of tax dollars for leases, maintenance and related costs with maintaining empty or nearly empty office space.