USDA already has plans in place for the future of telework when the pandemic is over. Secretary Tom Vilsack recently told 17,000 USDA employees during a virtual town hall last that he wants the department to have a policy that allows them up to four days of telework a week. And during the pandemic, the department was able to move seamlessly to large-scale telework, something CIO Gary Washington has credited to USDA’s past modernization progress.