Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar does not believe that pornography results in productivity.
He said in a Feb. 21 newsletter that if Environmental Protection Agency employees were doing their jobs instead of watching porn, they "might have reported sooner that the water in Flint, Michigan, was poisoned."
The toxic water was borne out of a cost-saving switch in April of 2014 from the City of Detroit's water system to the Flint River.
Here's more of Gosar's rant against the EPA:
"The employee integrity cases further corroborate a culture of corruption at this lawless agency. This collection of porn addicts, office thieves and drunk drivers are not fit to run for dogcatcher much less manage a federal agency. If EPA employees would have been doing their jobs instead of watching porn, they might have reported sooner that the water in Flint, Michigan, was poisoned."
Gosar was referring to three EPA Office of Inspector General reports released in early February that lists more than 60 closed cases of alleged employee misconduct between April of 2014 and September of 2015.
The EPA has about 15,000 employees.
Of the cases, three EPA employees are cited for allegedly watching porn. In one case, an employee "watched pornography regularly at work for the past several years." That employee received a five-day unpaid suspension.
In another case, an employee allegedly watched child porn on an EPA-issued computer, but the investigation failed to reveal any evidence of that. The employee later resigned.
In the third case, an employee downloaded porn using an EPA-issued computer during work hours. That employee retired before being terminated.
"The inexcusable actions by EPA employees documented in the integrity case summaries continues a longstanding trend of gross negligence," Gosar's spokesman Steven Smith said.
Gosar has repeatedly lobbied against the EPA, even calling for EPA administrator Gina McCarthy's impeachment. He claims she has committed perjury on issues relating to federal water policies.
The EPA knew about potential problems with Flint's drinking water as early as April of 2015.
But, it is impossible to know whether the EPA employees accused of watching porn had any relation to addressing the situation in Flint.
"The situation in Flint – of a large system switching from purchasing treated water to untreated water – is highly unusual," EPA spokeswoman Monica Lee told ABC15. "EPA worked within the framework of the law to repeatedly and urgently communicate the steps the state needed to take to properly treat Flint’s water."
The EPA issued an emergency order on Flint's drinking water in January as officials continue to work on fixing the problem.
Congress has also pitched $250 million in aid for Flint and other cities with water issues.
An EPA Office of Inspector General spokeswoman noted that some of the figures in the employee reports need adjustments as their investigations unit recently changed their methodology. We will update this story once we have revised numbers.
