FEMA Latest Agency to Fuel Epidemic of Govt. Employees Watching Porn During Work

Over a decade after legislation was introduced in Congress to contain an epidemic of federal workers watching pornography on government computers, the nation’s Homeland Security Secretary has fired numerous employees “for consuming pornographic content during work hours while on government issued devices,” according to statement issued a few days ago by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). “Today, I am announcing that multiple disgraced FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Agency] employees were fired for using their government devices to consume sexually explicit content while on the job,” said DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in the recent announcement. “These individuals had access to critical information and intelligence and were entrusted to safeguard Americans from emergencies—and instead they were consuming pornography.” The DHS Secretary added that “in at least one case the pornography consumed was racially charged and involved bestiality.”

During the recent audit, DHS investigators also discovered that nearly half of the FEMA staff regularly log into social media platforms while performing taxpayer funded duties. DHS’s Insider Threat Operations Center (ITOC) identified that one employee typed explicit and sexually charged phrases into a chatbot website from his government devices for the purpose of having the comments read back to him in an accent. Another individual, a government contracted employee also stationed at the command center, accessed a popular social media platform 578 times over a 30-day period. He was engaged in extensive interactions with individuals online, viewing explicit sexual content while on his work devices. He also accessed content that included graphic photographs and videos and, on several occasions, used his government computer to chat online with members presenting explicit content. The examples appear to be a snippet of the porn problem at FEMA, the beleaguered agency created by Jimmy Carter to help Americans recover from disasters.

Porn has for years been part of the job at some government agencies and in fact, numerous federal audits have long documented the enraging details of public servants consuming it during business hours. Judicial Watch has reported on the scandal for over 15 years, beginning with the porn scandal at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency charged with policing the nation’s financial industry. While the economy crumbled, the SEC was preoccupied with pornography. In fact, high-ranking managers at the agency regularly spent work hours gawking at pornography web sites on their government computers while the country’s financial system collapsed. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has also been embroiled in a large-scale pornography scandal with the agency’s inspector general issuing a special alert involving a “significant increase” in the number of employes and contractors viewing and sharing unlawful or otherwise inappropriate pornographic content—including child pornography—using their government-issued computers and other communication devices. The National Science Foundation (NSF) has also been exposed by its inspector general for employees spending significant portions of their workdays watching, downloading and e-mailing pornography on government computers without ever getting caught. The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general has also uncovered multiple cases of employees working hard at watching porn.

Government employees viewing porn on taxpayer dime has been so pervasive that over ten years ago a bill, Eliminating Pornography from Agencies Act, was introduced in Congress to contain the embarrassing crisis. Though it was never enacted, the proposed law brought much-needed attention to the matter and inspired some agencies to address the problem individually. The North Carolina congressman who introduced the measure over a decade ago said it was necessary to stop federal employees from accessing, watching or sharing pornography on government-issued computers and devices. The former Republican lawmaker introduced the bill after the EPA scandal, which included one veteran employee viewing as much as six hours of pornography a day in his office, according to a federal audit. The same employee downloaded thousands of pornographic files onto his government computer, and another used his official EPA email to access an internet site with child pornography. The former congressman, Mark Meadows, who introduced the anti-porn bill, rightfully said it was appalling that it requires an act of Congress to ensure that federal agencies block access to porn sites.