Another federal worker was caught watching pornography on the job.
Internal investigators with the Commerce Department said they found 300 pornographic images and videos on a hard drive used by a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office employee. The agency's internal web filters blocked access to a site suspected of hosting child pornography, they said.
They declined to say which trademark office location was involved. There are several across the country.
The worker resigned and moved before the agency could take some type of disciplinary action. He'd previously been disciplined in a prior case.
Earlier this month, the News4 I-Team reported about 100 cases in recent years in which federal agencies found employees watching egregious quantities of pornography.
Formal investigations into the behavior were launched, and the House Oversight Committee approved new legislation to make it illegal for federal employers to surf porn on the job.
"That's the thing that your work has shown,” said Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C. “This is not just an isolated incident at one single agency. We're starting to find it across almost every agency."
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Federal agencies told the I-Team they already ban the viewing of inappropriate content on government computers. The discipline can vary agency to agency from loss of the job and prosecution to as little as a reprimand.
