The highest-ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee criticized an independent investigation of sexual harassment and bad behavior at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC), stating that it unfairly targets the agency’s current Democratic leader without focusing enough on his Republican predecessors.
In a statement on Thursday, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) acknowledged the cultural issues at the FDIC revealed in the report produced by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, but expressed her support for FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg as he faces bipartisan pressure to step down.
“The Cleary report only emphasizes the Democratic chair's influence on the 'tone at the top', when the agency actually received positive ratings from its employees under his leadership, while it completely neglects the actions of the two previous Republican Chairs,” Waters stated in her Thursday message.
Waters also described the report's findings as “disturbing,” and acknowledged that it “confirms the need for the FDIC to change its policies and programs to enhance its work environment — particularly regarding anti-sexual harassment.”
Waters’ backing for Gruenberg puts her in conflict with some of her colleagues on the House Financial Services Committee, particularly Rep. Bill Foster (D-Ill.), the leading Democrat on the Financial Institutions subcommittee.
On Tuesday, Foster demanded Gruenberg’s resignation, expressing being “appalled” and “deeply disturbed” by the documented instances of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination in the report.
Several Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have already called for Gruenberg’s departure, a 20-year veteran of the FDIC who has held various positions within the agency.
Sexual harassment and a culture of fear have been issues at the FDIC for many years, highlighted as early as 2014 in a report by the regulator’s inspector general published in 2020.
A survey mentioned in that report discovered that 9 percent of FDIC employees had encountered sexual harassment between 2014 and 2016, a lower figure than the government-wide average of 14 percent.
The approximately 500 individuals who reported harassment to Cleary Gottlieb out of the agency’s workforce of 5,280 full-time employees aligns with the prevalence of sexual harassment in recent history.
The 2020 inspector general report found that the FDIC had not implemented an adequate program for preventing sexual harassment, a gap that appears to have remained in the years since.
Cleary Gottlieb did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Waters’ criticisms of the firm’s investigation.
Former FDIC Chairs Jelena McWilliams, who led the agency when the 2020 inspector general report was released, and Sheila Bair did not respond to requests for comment.
