[House Report 115-81]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
115th Congress } { Report
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
1st Session } { 115-81
======================================================================
ELIMINATING PORNOGRAPHY FROM AGENCIES ACT
_______
April 6, 2017.--Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
_______
Mr. Chaffetz, from the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 680]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, to whom
was referred the bill (H.R. 680) to prohibit accessing
pornographic web sites from Federal computers, and for other
purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon
without amendment and recommend that the bill do pass.
CONTENTS
Page
Committee Statement and Views.................................... 1
Section-by-Section............................................... 3
Explanation of Amendments........................................ 3
Committee Consideration.......................................... 3
Roll Call Votes.................................................. 4
Application of Law to the Legislative Branch..................... 4
Statement of Oversight Findings and Recommendations of the
Committee...................................................... 4
Statement of General Performance Goals and Objectives............ 4
Duplication of Federal Programs.................................. 4
Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings.............................. 4
Federal Advisory Committee Act................................... 4
Unfunded Mandate Statement....................................... 4
Earmark Identification........................................... 5
Committee Estimate............................................... 5
Budget Authority and Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate... 5
Committee Statement and Views
PURPOSE AND SUMMARY
H.R. 680, the Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act
requires guidelines to prohibit the access of pornographic or
explicit websites on a federal computer. The bill does provide
an exception from this prohibition where there is an
investigative purpose that requires accessing such sites from a
federal computer. The bill gives the Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) 90 days to develop guidelines.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
The Committee has identified multiple cases of federal
employees viewing pornography at work.
In September 2013, the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) Office of Environmental Information informed the EPA
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) that an EPA employee had
been viewing pornography at work.\1\ When OIG personnel
investigated this employee at his office, OIG staff found him
viewing pornography.\2\ The employee subsequently told the OIG
that he viewed pornography for an average of two-to-six hours a
day while at work.\3\ The OIG also found the employee had about
20,000 adult pornographic images on his government-issued
laptop.\4\ The OIG referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's
Office, which declined to prosecute in March 2015.\5\
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\1\Is EPA Leadership Obstructing Its Own Inspector General?:
Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Oversight & Gov't Reform, 113th Cong. 22
(2014) (written statement of Allan Williams, Deputy Assistant Inspector
General for Investigations, Office of Inspector General, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency).
\2\Id.
\3\EPA Mismanagement: Hearing Before the H. Comm. on Oversight &
Gov't Reform, 114th Cong. 16 (2015) (written statement of Patrick
Sullivan, Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Office of
Inspector General, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).
\4\Id. at 17.
\5\Id.
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In another example, the EPA OIG investigated one EPA
employee in the Office of the Administrator for watching
pornography on his government-issued computer during the
workday after an individual reportedly saw him viewing
pornography at work in April 2014.\6\ The subsequent
investigation found the employee typically viewed pornography
at work for 1-to-4 hours a day and that 30-40 percent of the
electronic media on his computer was pornography.\7\ The OIG
referred the case to the U.S. Attorney's Office, which declined
to prosecute in March 2015.\8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\Id.
\7\Id.
\8\Id. at 18.
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In 2010, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) OIG
provided Senator Charles Grassley a summary of investigations
from the prior five years on federal employees using work
computers to view pornography at the SEC.\9\ The summary
detailed 33 cases, some involving senior employees.\10\
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\9\Report: SEC Staffers Watched Porn as Economy Crashed, CNN (Apr.
23, 2010), available at http://www.cnn.com/2010/POLITICS/04/23/
sec.porn/.
\10\Id.
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In February 2017, a Washington, D.C.-based news station
reviewed records received from Freedom of Information Act
requests that revealed almost 100 cases of federal employees
viewing pornography while on government computers across the
federal government.\11\ These cases occurred at 12 major
federal government agencies over the past 5 years.\12\
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\11\Scott MacFarlane, Rick Yarborough & Jeff Piper, Dozens of
Federal Employees Watched Abundance of Porn on the Job in Recent Years,
NBC-4 I TEAM (Feb. 27, 2017), available at http://
www.nbcwashington.com/investigations/Dozens-of-Federal-Employees-
Watched-Abundance-of-Porn-on-the-Job-in-Recent-Years-414743293.html.
\12\Id.
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These cases demonstrate that current prohibitions on
unauthorized use of federal computers are not sufficient to
prevent some employees from accessing pornographic materials
while at work. These situations not only contribute to lowering
agency morale, but they also raise cybersecurity concerns for
vulnerable agency computer systems. H.R. 680 sends a clear
signal across the federal government that watching pornography
on federal computers will not be tolerated.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY
On January 24, 2017, the Chair of the Subcommittee on
Government Operations, Representative Mark Meadows (R-NC)
introduced H.R. 680, with Representative Walter Jones (R-NC).
H.R. 680 was referred to the Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform. The Committee considered H.R. 680 at a
business meeting on March 8, 2017 and ordered the bill
favorably reported by voice vote.
There have been two bills identical to H.R. 680 introduced
in previous Congresses. In the 114th Congress, Representative
Meadows introduced H.R. 901 on February 11, 2015. The bill was
referred to the Committee and ordered favorably reported by
voice vote on March 25, 2015. The text of H.R. 901 was included
as part of H.R. 4361, the Government Reform and Improvement
Act, which passed the House of Representatives on July 7, 2016
by a vote of 241-181.
In the 113th Congress, Representative Meadows introduced
H.R. 5628 on September 18, 2014. The bill was referred to the
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
Section-by-Section
Section 1. Short title
Section 1 designates the title as the ``Eliminating
Pornography from Agencies Act.''
Section 2. Prohibition on accessing pornographic web sites from Federal
computers
Section 2 requires the Director of the Office of Management
and Budget to issue guidelines not later than 90 days after the
date of enactment that prohibit access to pornographic or
explicit websites from a Federal computer.
Section 2 provides an exception to this prohibition for
investigative purposes.
Explanation of Amendments
There were no amendments offered during Committee
consideration of H.R. 680.
Committee Consideration
On March 8, 2017, the Committee met in open session and
ordered reported favorably the bill, H.R. 680, by voice vote, a
quorum being present.
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes were requested or conducted during Full
Committee consideration of H.R. 680.
Application of Law to the Legislative Branch
Section 102(b)(3) of Public Law 104-1 requires a
description of the application of this bill to the legislative
branch where the bill relates to the terms and conditions of
employment or access to public services and accommodations.
This bill requires OMB to issue guidelines prohibiting the
access of pornographic or explicit websites on a federal
computer, with an exception to this prohibition for an
investigative purpose. As such, this bill does not relate to
employment or access to public services and accommodations.
Statement of Oversight Findings and Recommendations of the Committee
In compliance with clause 3(c)(1) of rule XIII and clause
(2)(b)(1) of rule X of the Rules of the House of
Representatives, the Committee's oversight findings and
recommendations are reflected in the descriptive portions of
this report.
Statement of General Performance Goals and Objectives
In accordance with clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII of the Rules
of the House of Representatives, the Committee's performance
goal or objective of this bill is to prohibit accessing
pornographic web sites from federal computers, and for other
purposes.
Duplication of Federal Programs
No provision of this bill establishes or reauthorizes a
program of the Federal Government known to be duplicative of
another Federal program, a program that was included in any
report from the Government Accountability Office to Congress
pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139, or a program
related to a program identified in the most recent Catalog of
Federal Domestic Assistance.
Disclosure of Directed Rule Makings
The Director of the Office of Management and Budget is
directed to issue guidelines within 90 days of enactment of
this act to prohibit the access of a pornographic or other
explicit website from a federal computer.
Federal Advisory Committee Act
The Committee finds that the legislation does not establish
or authorize the establishment of an advisory committee within
the definition of Section 5(b) of the appendix to title 5,
United States Code.
Unfunded Mandate Statement
Section 423 of the Congressional Budget and Impoundment
Control Act (as amended by Section 101(a)(2) of the Unfunded
Mandates Reform Act, P.L. 104-4) requires a statement as to
whether the provisions of the reported bill include unfunded
mandates. In compliance with this requirement, the Committee
has included below a letter received from the Congressional
Budget Office.
Earmark Identification
This bill does not include any congressional earmarks,
limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in
clause 9 of rule XXI.
Committee Estimate
Clause 3(d)(1) of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of
Representatives requires an estimate and a comparison by the
Committee of the costs that would be incurred in carrying out
this bill. However, clause 3(d)(2)(B) of that Rule provides
that this requirement does not apply when the Committee has
included in its report a timely submitted cost estimate of the
bill prepared by the Director of the Congressional Budget
Office under section 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of
1974, which the Committee has included below.
Budget Authority and Congressional Budget Office Cost Estimate
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) of rule
XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and section
308(a) of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 and with respect
to requirements of clause (3)(c)(3) of rule XIII of the Rules
of the House of Representatives and section 402 of the
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee has received
the following cost estimate for this bill from the Director of
Congressional Budget Office:
U.S. Congress,
Congressional Budget Office,
Washington, DC, March 21, 2017.
Hon. Jason Chaffetz,
Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform,
House of Representatives, Washington, DC.
Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for H.R. 680, the
Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act.
If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Matthew
Pickford.
Sincerely,
Mark P. Hadley
(For Keith Hall, Director).
Enclosure.
H.R. 680--Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act
H.R. 680 would require the Office of Management and Budget
to issue guidelines to prohibit federal computers from
accessing pornographic and other explicit websites. Several
federal laws, regulations and policies prohibit the use of
government property for unauthorized purposes such as viewing
pornography. According to several agency officials that CBO
consulted, government information technology systems generally
block access to pornographic material. CBO estimates that
implementing the bill would not have a significant cost because
the viewing of pornography using government computers is
already prohibited.
Enacting the bill would not affect direct spending or
revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply. CBO
estimates that enacting H.R. 680 would not increase net direct
spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive
10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 680 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector
mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act and
would impose no costs on state, local, or tribal governments.
The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Matthew
Pickford. The estimate was approved by H. Samuel Papenfuss,
Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis.
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