The House Financial Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee heard testimony from witnesses who say the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau suffers from a culture of racial and gender discrimination. Angela Martin, who currently serves as a senior enforcement attorney at the CFPB, testified that she has been a victim of ongoing retaliation since reporting her concerns to bureau management.
“Sadly, my story is not unique,” Martin told subcommittee members on April 2. “My colleagues likewise have suffered and are suffering at the hands of inexperienced, unaccountable managers.”
Martin, who also serves as a board member of the CFPB employees’ union, said the agency “is sorely in need of effective oversight.”
“Bureau management needs to be held accountable, particularly with regards to its internal management practices,” Martin said.
Allegations that CFPB managers have engaged in discrimination and created “a hostile work environment” were chronicled in a March 6 American Banker article. According to agency data reviewed by American Banker, “CFPB managers show a pattern of ranking white employees distinctly better than minorities in performance reviews used to grant raises and issue bonuses.”
Misty Raucci, an outside investigator who was hired by the CFPB to investigate Martin’s claims, testified that the investigation “found that the general environment … is one of exclusion, retaliation, discrimination, nepotism, demoralization, devaluation and other offensive working conditions which constitute a toxic workplace for many [CFPB] employees.”
Martin said she filed a complaint of discrimination and retaliation in December 2012 and immediately suffered further retaliation in the form of threatened legal action and diminished job duties. She said she’s heard from several other bureau employees who have received similar treatment.
“Emotionally, I’m devastated,” said Martin, a former member of the military. “I sadly say the bureau should establish its own Wounded Warrior program for the number of employees that have lost sleep, are emotionally scarred and are in permanent counseling because of this. I’m positive even I still don’t know the amount of devastation.”
Despite her experience at the CFPB, Martin told lawmakers that it would be a tragedy if the bureau was weakened in its ability to protect American consumers. She said that, while the bureau currently faces difficulties, she is confident it will ultimately emerge a stronger and better agency.
“I would say the overwhelming majority of employees believe in the bureau’s mission,” Martin said. “[Employees] who have been aggrieved, even seriously aggrieved like I have, we are not leaving the bureau. The bureau plays a vital mission; we have fought for its existence.
“This is a dark day for the bureau, but … by shining the light, we can fix these things and we can make it a stronger bureau,” Martin continued.
The CFPB declined to send witnesses to the hearing, despite invitations by the subcommittee.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., ranking member of the Financial Services Committee, and Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, sent a formal, written request to committee Republicans for a follow-up hearing with senior management from the CFPB.
“In scheduling this follow-up hearing, we would ask that you not invite witnesses who may be involved in a confidential or on-going complaint or grievance resolution process, to avoid creating a legal basis for senior officials at CFPB to decline to testify,” Waters and Green said in their letter.
At the close of the hearing, Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., said lawmakers would consider whether to subpoena the CFPB to provide testimony. He also encouraged potential CFPB whistleblowers to contact his office.
“The Angela Martins that don’t have her legal background or her counsel should still be allowed to come out from the shadows and tell their story,” McHenry said.