During last week’s hearing to review continuing allegations of discrimination and other inappropriate activity at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), House Financial Services Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Sean Duffy (R-WI) delivered a strong message to the bureau.
“Today’s hearing marks the fifth in this committee’s investigation into allegations of discrimination and retaliation at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Duffy said. “Democrats have championed the agency. And yet, since its doors opened in July 2011, this committee has spent two years and more than five Congressional hearings giving a voice to the victims of abusive, unfair and unlawful discriminatory behavior of CFPB managers. We are here again today because their messages have clearly not been heard.”
Duffy said mounting evidence exists that shows that the CFPB continues to have a problem with managers discriminating against employees based on race, age, gender and sexual orientation.
“Of all the federal financial agencies, the CFPB has the worst track record of protecting its own employees against discrimination,” Duffy said. “The per capita number of Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaints at the CFPB is far higher than at other federal agencies. Despite disturbing reports of low morale and Congressional investigations, the leadership at the CFPB continues to turn a blind eye to the treatment of its own people.”
Duffy said that the agency’s leadership has not taken any meaningful action in order to prevent such behavior or protect its employees.
“The CFPB is more concerned with bad press than the underlying problem, and has done little more than run an ineffective internal PR campaign to assuage employee concerns,” Duffy said. “What’s worse, the CFPB unit tasked with managing EEO complaints – the Office of Civil Rights – is at the heart of perpetuating this troubling work environment. The well has been so poisoned that CFPB employees are afraid to come forward to report abuse and discrimination for fear of retaliation.”
Duffy concluded his statement by referring to quotes from CFPB employees who have cited rampant “cronyism, favoritism, discrimination and incompetence in the agency’s leaders.”
“There are scores of similar comments from other employees who struggle with this same reality every day – things continue to get worse, and no one seems to be listening,” Duffy said. “How can an agency founded on principles of equality and fairness carry out its mission when it can’t even protect its own employees from the very practices it seeks to abolish?”