The federal government has a special day, week, or month for everything, so why not telecommuting?

U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf, a Virginia Republican, has promoted the idea by sending a letter requesting the creation of a "National Telework Week" to President Bush and introducing a resolution to promote the idea. Wolf said he wants to encourage more employers to consider the option.

"The best part of telework is that it improves the quality of life for all," Wolf said in his written statement Tuesday. "Nearly 20 million Americans telework today, and according to experts, at least 40% of American jobs are compatible with telework. Telework reduces traffic congestion and air pollution. It reduces gas consumption and our dependency on foreign oil."

Wolf said telework provides parents with flexibility to meet personal and professional demands, increases opportunities for people with disabilities, and helps fill the nation's labor market shortage. He also said that companies reap benefits, including cost savings, lower absentee rates, increased retention, higher productivity, and improved morale.

He also cited George Mason University research showing that for every 1% of the Washington metropolitan region workforce that telecommutes, traffic delays drop by 3%.

"Just a few weeks ago the Texas Transportation Institute at Texas A&M University released its annual traffic congestion study which calculates that congestion creates a $78 billion annual drain on the U.S. economy due to 4.2 million lost hours of productivity and 2.9 billion gallons of wasted gas," he said. "That's not even considering the air pollutants caused by idling vehicles around the nation."

Wolf pointed out that leaders in the Office of Personnel Management and General Services Administration support telework and want to promote it within the federal government.

"National Telework Week would be an ideal time for employers, for just one day during one week of the year, to allow employees to work from home or an alternative work site to find out the benefits of telework," Wolf said. "It's time to give it a shot."

Wolf said "work is something you do, not someplace you go."

"Hopefully we can make telework as commonplace as the morning traffic report," he added. "There is nothing magical about strapping ourselves into a car and driving sometimes up to an hour and a half, arriving at a workplace and sitting before a computer. We can access the same information from a computer in our living rooms."