Martin Gruenberg, chairman of the embattled Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), was fronting the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday morning following a scathing report of widespread sexual harassment and discrimination at his agency. I took a seat.
“Coming to the floor today is not an act of courage. It’s an act of hubris,” Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Patrick McHenry, RN.C., told Gruenberg. McHenry and many other Republicans have called for Gruenberg to resign.
Mr. Gruenberg has been under pressure for months since the Wall Street Journal published a bombshell report last year documenting a culture of sexual harassment, misconduct and retaliation at the bank’s top regulator. A report released last week by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton confirmed the magazine’s findings and highlighted shocking instances of inappropriate conduct.
Democrats are divided on whether Gruenberg should resign. Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) accused Cleary Gottlieb of political bias by focusing on Gruenberg rather than the agency’s Republican leaders.
“The report appears to downplay workplace concerns and harassment complaints that arose under previous Republican agency leadership,” Waters said.
But the growing number of Democrats at Wednesday’s hearing suggested it was time for Gruenberg to move on.
“You’re on a short leash. To be honest, a lot of people here would like you to go away. I don’t know if you’re the one to make a difference, but maybe Maybe you can prove it to us. I don’t know, I don’t know,” Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) told Gruenberg.
Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.) said it’s hard to envision Mr. Gruenberg as the right person to root out the FDIC and its culture of retaliatory intimidation.
“I’m stuck thinking, ‘I’m the right person to solve this,'” he says.
Rep. Greg Meeks (D.N.Y.) said he had no other words to describe the report than to be “offended.”
“Honestly, I’m angry. I heard people talking. [being] “I’m upset and appalled, but I’m angry — that’s my language, that’s where I come from,” he said.
The rebuke came as Mr. Gruenberg appeared at a hearing alongside other banking regulators considering a new set of rules.
A series of major banking reforms known as the Basel III Endgame are currently being implemented by the financial regulators of the FDIC, Federal Reserve System, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, but the Fed and some lawmakers are calling for an alternative to Basel III. ing. International banking plans that require increased capital requirements.
“My current position on the issue of Basel III is that fundamentally flawed proposals must be scrapped or, at best, re-proposed,” the chairman, Rep. Andy Barr (R-Ky.), said in a statement. I want to make that clear.” Financial Institutions Subcommittee.
Updated at 11:14 p.m. EDT.
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