DRAIN THE SWAMP Act
Official title: A bill to require the head of each Executive agency to relocate 30 percent of the employees assigned to the headquarters of the Executive agency to duty statio… Show full official titleShow less
Official title: A bill to require the head of each Executive agency to relocate 30 percent of the employees assigned to the headquarters of the Executive agency to duty stations outside the Washington metropolitan area, and for other purposes.
| Date | Chamber | What was voted on | Result | Yes–No | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 8, 2011 | Senate · vote #35 | On Passage of the Bill S. 23 | Passed | 95–5 | See who voted → |
| Mar 7, 2011 | Senate · vote #34 | On the Cloture Motion S. 23 | Agreed To | 87–3 | See who voted → |
| May 8, 2006 | Senate · vote #116 | On Cloture on the Motion to Proceed S. 23 | Rejected | 49–44 | See who voted → |
Have a question about what this bill does? Ask in plain English; the answer is drawn from the bill's actual text and official record, and it'll tell you when something isn't in the text rather than guess.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.
Decentralizing and Reorganizing Agency Infrastructure Nation-wide To Harness Efficient Services, Workforce Administration, and Management Practices Act or the DRAIN THE SWAMP Act
This bill relocates 30% of employees of executive agencies who are based in the Washington, DC area and reduces the office headquarters of agencies by 30%. It also ends full-time telework for relocated employees and for those who remain based in the DC area.
Under the bill, each agency must relocate at least 30% of full-time employees based at the agency’s headquarters, including full-time telework employees who receive DC-area locality pay (unless telework is an accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act). The bill does not apply to certain essential employees in the Executive Office of the President, the Department of Defense, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Central Intelligence Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Homeland Security.
In determining the new duty stations, each agency must promote geographic diversity and ensure adequate staffing throughout the regions of the agency. Compensation for relocated employees must be according to the locality pay scale for their new duty station. Agencies must provide their reduction plans to Congress within 180 days and complete the relocations within one year after the bill's enactment.
Further, the Office of Management and Budget must identify at least 30% of agency headquarters' office space (i.e., real property) to sell or to cease leasing. Agency heads must complete the space reduction within two years after the bill's enactment.
- Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
- NATIONAL TREASURY EMPLOYEES UNION
Bodies those filers lobbied
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)
- Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB)
- Energy, Dept of
- Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
- Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
- Food & Drug Administration (FDA)
- General Services Administration (GSA)
- Health & Human Services, Dept of (HHS)
Cite this page
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 23: DRAIN THE SWAMP Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-23/
"S. 23: DRAIN THE SWAMP Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-23/.
S. 23, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-23/.
[S. 23: DRAIN THE SWAMP Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-23/)