From www.nytimes.com- The National Science Foundation has failed to respond adequately to a government investigation that found that more than a dozen agency employees viewed or shared sexually explicit materials, two senators contend in a letter sent to the agency on Monday.

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa,[pictured] and Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland, asked the National Science Foundation to explain how the agency could have failed to detect the use of pornography that eventually involved more than 30 employees and extended over 10 years.

In one case, a senior staff member used his agency computer to view live sexual performances and engage in sex-oriented online “chatting” with performers.

“I am trying to learn how to use cam2cam capability on your asianbabes.com site,” he wrote in an e-mail message to the site from his agency computer. “I do not seem to be able to do that.”

Jeff Nesbit, an agency spokesman, responded that the employee was no longer with the agency and that other agency employees had been disciplined or dismissed. The agency is conducting a comprehensive review of the issue, Mr. Nesbit said.

But the senators’ letter noted that in 5 of 11 cases of employees viewing explicit material or being involved in sexual harassment cases, the agency had failed to take any personnel action, had failed to notify its inspector general of any action taken or had failed to investigate the cases itself.

The foundation has not disciplined one 20-year employee who has acknowledged visiting pornography Web sites on his agency computer, the letter said. The agency has said it had been “unable to substantiate allegations sufficiently enough to support disciplinary action” despite the employee’s admissions, it said.

The senators wrote that they did not understand “how or why N.S.F. failed to take action.”

Their letter also noted that two senior agency employees used government travel money to pursue intimate relationships with subordinates. And it said that all of the employees investigated for viewing sexually explicit material had been through the agency’s mandatory security awareness training.

“Clearly, N.S.F.’s current polices and their implementation are apparently insufficient to deter, among other things, inappropriate Web access for the purpose of viewing sexually explicit material,” the senators wrote.