While many federal agencies have rules prohibiting employees from looking at porn and other inappropriate websites, a House Republican wants to ban it by law.
On Wednesday, Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina introduced the Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act, which would forbid government employees’ eyes from wandering.
“There is absolutely no excuse for federal employees to be viewing and downloading pornographic materials on the taxpayers’ dime,” Meadows said in a statement.
The bill aptly shares its initials with the federal agency that drew the most attention for its problem of staff watching pornography during working hours. Last year, an EPA employee downloaded 7,000 files containing pornography and spent 2 -6 hours a day watching the birds and the bees get at it on the job. Despite a Congressional hearing last year to discuss the employee’s at-work porn habits, the EPA never fired the employee, whose annual salary is $120,000, according to Slate.
Meadows, who serves on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, also pointed to cybersecurity concerns as a reason to support the bill.
“Downloading these files, which are often ridden with viruses and malware, poses a cybersecurity threat at our federal agencies,” he said. “This commonsense legislation ensures that federal workers have a comfortable, safe work environment and protects taxpayer resources from being misused.”
The bill would require the Office of Management and Budget to publish guidelines banning staffers from visiting pornographic websites while on the job.
Meadows introduced a similar bill to forbid porn at work last year, but it failed to gain traction in Congress.
