[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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \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.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    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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