Whistleblowers Invited to Testify on CFPB "Discrimination and Retaliation"

The House Financial Services Committeern(FSC) Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee appears to be picking up thernpace in its investigation of alleged racial and gender discrimination at thernConsumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). rnToday the subcommittee voted to subpoenas two more whistleblowers who haverncome forward asking to testify about alleged discrimination and retaliation.rnAccording to FSC’s press release, CFPB Examiner Ali Naraghi and former Bureaurnemployee Kevin Williams asked to be subpoenaed “in order to protect theirrninterests and guard against further retaliation by the Bureau.”<br /<br /The subcommittee has held two earlier hearings on the discriminationrnclaims.  On April 2 there was testimony fromrntwo whisleblowers, Angela Martin a current CFPB Senior Enforcement Attorney employeernand Misty Raucci a former investigator from the Defense Investigators Group whornclaimed CFPB had what they termed “a culture of racial and genderrndiscrimination and retaliation against its employees.”  </p

Martin presented lengthy testimony atrnthe hearing about the discrimination she claims to have faced and about allegedrnretaliation for filing complaints over that discrimination.   Raucci, whose company was hired torninvestigate Martin’s complaint, said she had submitted extensive documentationrnto CFPB suggesting a pervasive disregard for employee rights and that “the corrosivernenvironment of the CFPB workplacernwas engendered by the bureau’srnperpetual failurernto uphold its own EEO policies.” </p

In a second hearing on May 21, thernSubcommittee heard testimony from two subpoenaed witnesses: Liza Strong, thernDirector of Employee Relations at the CFPB, and Ben Konop, Executive VicernPresident of Chapter 335 of the National Treasury Employees.  Strong said the Bureau had investigatedrnMartin’s complaints on several occasions including hiring the DefensernInvestigators Group to conduct an independent assessment.  Their work, Strong said, did not even meet “minimalrnstandards” and the Bureau was, at the time of the hearing, still trying to fillrnthe gaps in Raucci ‘s final report. </p

Strong said that the Bureau worked veryrnhard to accommodate Martin’s demands, paying her a monetary settlement andrntwice essentially creating positions for her in two different divisions at thernsame pay and grade, attempting to design each to Martin’s specifications.  She declined one, Strong said, and is nowrndissatisfied with the other.</p

Konop testified that women and minorityrnemployees were being underpaid when compared to similarly situated white malerncolleagues. “To date, the Bureau has denied each of these grievances at allrnstages, often using inconsistent reasoning, despite what I feel is convincingrnevidence of low pay for numerous women and minority workers.”</p

However, Konop said, in recent days CFPB Director RichardrnCordray had acknowledged for the first time that “there were broad-basedrndisparities in the way performance ratings were assigned across our employeernbase in both 2012 and 2013.  Inrnparticular, Director Cordray agreed with the union’s findings that there was arn”broad-based, statistically significant disparit in many areas, includingrnrace/ethnicity, age, [and] bargaining unit membership eligibility…”   </p

Konop said the directive retroactively compensates thernmajority of employees harmed by the evaluation system and was a solid firstrnstep in the Bureau’s process of accountability. </p

In a press release announcing the new subpoenas Oversight and InvestigationsrnSubcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) said, “When allegations ofrndiscrimination at the CFPB were first uncovered, my subcommittee committed torninvestigating these claims and providing all affected Bureau employees a forumrnto share their stories of mistreatment by agency leaders.  We are continuing these important efforts byrnsubpoenaing two more employees who have experienced both discrimination andrnretaliation while at the Bureau. This behavior has no place in our governmentrnand my subcommittee will not rest until we have exposed those CFPB leadersrnresponsible.”

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