Apparently lumping all 15,000 EPA employees across the country together, he charged that they are a “collection of porn addicts, office thieves and drunk drivers… not fit to run for dogcatcher much less manage a federal agency.”
Gosar’s comments come after the EPA’s internal inspection department published a routine report about employee-misconduct cases it investigated between April and September 2015 — the results of which Gosar said “further corroborate a culture of corruption at this lawless agency.”
The Arizona congressman, who sits on the House Natural Resources Committee and the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, long has had it out for EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, but his latest attack on the employees of the vast federal agency seems more over the top than usual.
“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 stated, adding, “This lawlessness will continue until someone is held accountable and punished.”
There is no evidence that any of the employees investigated for misconduct could have prompted the state or federal government to address the water problems in Flint at an earlier time.
If EPA employees weren’t watching porn at work they might have noticed the water in Flint was poisoned. @DailyCaller https://t.co/0Nd0QwEhxN
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) February 18, 2016
The semiannual EPA Inspector General Report outlines the 19 cases of alleged employee misconduct, though as is agency policy, no names were published.Seriously... how is it even possible that EPA employees have access to porn at work? Disgusting: https://t.co/0Nd0QwVSpl @DailyCaller
— Rep. Paul Gosar, DDS (@RepGosar) February 18, 2016
One employee got in trouble for “stealing more than $5,000 of grant funds from a U.S.–Mexico border program by diverting funds through invoices” while another got busted for having “approximately three grams of marijuana and two marijuana pipes” on federal property.
There was an unsubstantiated claim about an employee who “allegedly requested that EPA label reviewers not follow Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act guidelines when conducting label reviews on products being supported by former EPA employees,” but there also was a scandalous substantiated one about an employee who downloaded and watched porn at work:
“The employee…violated EPA administrative policies by viewing and downloading pornographic materials as well as various movies and video clips with an EPA-issued computer through the EPA network during core working hours,” the report states. “The employee was issued a Notice of Proposed Removal [but] retired in lieu of termination.”
The investigations looked into employees at various levels of employment, though most, including the pornography down-loader, appear to be low-level workers.
“Sadly, this type of vile behavior has become the status quo under the leadership of Administrator Gina McCarthy who has on numerous occasions broken the law by lying to Congress in order to force overreaching regulations down our throats,” Gosar claimed, adding that he was furious that harsher penalties were not levied against the employees.
Punishments ranged from fines to unpaid administrative leave to demotion, though many investigated employees resigned before punishment could be determined.
“For too long, government bureaucrats have been immune to the laws that everyone else must follow and that must end now before the EPA does any more damage to our country,” Gosar said before pivoting into a plug for his on-going “impeach Gina McCarthy” campaign.
Read the full EPA Report: