Porn still turning up in the federal workplace despite ban
But the vastness of the federal computer network and the pervasiveness and easy access to pornography on the internet makes implementing the bans a serious challenge, says Kevin Kosar, vice president of policy at the R Street Institute and a former Congressional Research Service employee. Kosar co-founded the Legislative Branch Capacity Working Group, which organizes meetings of staff from both parties to discuss whether Congress has the tools to do its job.
“Just think — we have more than 150 government agencies,” Kosar says. “Checking in to see that each of them has developed robust enough filters that nobody is able to get on to objectionable sites and fritter away taxpayer dollars — that’s an unbelievably huge challenge.”
Another problem, he adds, is that “smut is everywhere on the internet,” and Congress has limited resources for oversight.
“Congress is grossly understaffed and doesn’t nearly have the capacity to check these things,” Kosar says.
