Pornographic Viewing/Downloads Cited as a Reason for Cuts to NSF DoE Research Budgets. (May 14, 2010)

By a vote of 292 to 126 the US Congress' House of Representatives has blocked passage of a 5-year authorization bill that would have designated marked increases in the research and education budgets of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and research programs at the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce. Instead, ScienceInsider reports the bipartisan majority voted for a 3-year freeze on the budgets for those agencies.

Included in the cuts were DoE's Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy program championed by Steven Chu. The vote was to recommit the bill, HR 5116, for an indefinite period.

In formal explanation for the vote a media release from the House's Republican read: "Given that our nation's debt is currently $13 trillion and our nation's budget deficit has increased 50% in 3 years, it is prudent to put the brakes on significant jumps in spending for years to come."

However, ScienceInsider's Jeffrey Mervis writes: But another reason is sex—or more specifically, the legislators' unhappiness with how the National Science Foundation responded to an internal investigation that found several employees had been viewing pornography on the job. In addition to slashing spending levels, Hall's amendment specified that "none of the funds authorized under this Act may be used to pay the salary of any individual who has been officially disciplined ... for viewing, downloading, or exchanging pornography on a federal government computer or while performing federal government duties.

NSF wasn't named explicitly but "The Inspector General of the National Science Foundation identified multiple instances of NSF employees downloading and viewing pornography, including one senior official that spent at least 331 days viewing pornography from his government computer," explains the Republican press release. "American taxpayers should not pay the salaries of employees who view pornographic material at work."

Representative Bart Gordon (D–TN), Chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, where the bill had been drawn up, noted with some anger: "We're all opposed to federal employees watching pornography," he said after the vote. "That is not a question; but that's not what this was about. The Motion to Recommit was about gutting funding for our science agencies. ... I'm disappointed that politics trumped good policy. The Minority was willing to trade American jobs and our nation's economic competitiveness for the chance to run a good political ad."