The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) have issued a joint memorandum to federal agencies providing guidelines on resuming more normal operations once the immediate threat posed by Covid-19 declines.
One important point is that there's not going to be some national order to re-open all the agencies all over the country at the same time regardless of local conditions and regardless of state and local stay at home orders. The memo says that "State and regional assessments should be the starting point for discussions and decisions related to Federal agency operations, but additional factors may include: school and daycare closures, mass transit availability, parking availability, facility requirements, and missions." That doesn't require deference to state and local stay at home orders but it certainly suggests that will be the case.
The memo also indicates that it may be necessary for agencies to apply different rules for employees 65 and older because they face heightened risks from Covid-19.
I wonder if Social Security should also apply different rules to claimants who are older or immunocompromised. Maybe they should be afforded telephone hearings even after in person hearings are resumed. I don't know what the odds are for a person who gets Covid-19 while on immunosuppressive medication because of a history of an organ transplant but they're probably very bad.
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