Nearly 100 Homeland Security workers have been paid to do nothing all year

Responding to damning audit results this past summer, the Obama administration asked federal agencies to cut back on paid administrative leave for employees accused of misconduct.

Since then, an investigation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has found that nearly 100 DHS employees have been on paid administrative leave for more than a year. "DHS... failed to explain why such extended amounts of time were needed to conduct investigations into security issues, misconduct, or fitness for duty," notes Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), who obtained this information from the agency.

The audit that prompted the initial leave cutback revealed that the federal government paid some 53,000 employees to sit at home, not working for a month or more, in fiscal year 2013. That came at a price of at least $775 million in salary (let alone the cost of other benefits), a total that is considered a significant underestimate because the audit did not encompass all agencies.

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