GOP Rep. Reintroduces 'Eliminating Porn from Agencies Act'

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It's déjà vu all over again. An announcement posted today to one legislator's site states, "Congressman Mark Meadows (R-NC) introduced the Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act on Wednesday, which would prohibit federal employees from accessing pornographic or explicit material on government computers and devices." But Meadow's is actually reintroducing the bill, which he first proposed on Sept. 18 of last year. That bill was H.R. 5628; the current iteration does not yet have a bill number attached. Though the previous attempt was never taken up by Congress, Meadows is once again using cases of federal employees who have violated workplace policies as justification for passing a bill that was criticized last year as being so poorly drafted that it would likely "devolve into an exercise in bureaucratic busy work.” It appears as though no changes to the language of the bill are being proposed by Meadows, who in a statement issued today commented of the new effort, saying, “It’s appalling that it requires an act of Congress to ensure that federal agencies block access to these sites. “While there are rules in place at most agencies to ban this kind of unprofessional and potentially hostile workplace behavior, it continues to take place," he added. "There is absolutely no excuse for federal employees to be viewing and downloading pornographic materials on the taxpayers’ dime. “Further, downloading these files, which are often ridden with viruses and malware, poses a cybersecurity threat at our federal agencies. This commonsense legislation ensures that federal workers have a comfortable, safe work environment and protects taxpayer resources from being misused,” he concluded. Assuming the text of the bill, which was not included in today's PR, is the same as in last year's bill, it reads: (a) Prohibition.--Except as provided in subsection (b), not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget shall issue guidelines that prohibit the access of a pornographic or other explicit web site from a Federal computer. (b) Exception.--The prohibition described in subsection (a) shall not apply to any Federal computer that is used for an investigative purpose that requires accessing a pornographic web site.