United States – On Monday, Janet Yellen, the U.S. Treasury Secretary, stated that the abuses documented in the report on the workplace problems at the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation were totally unacceptable and not in line with the Biden administration’s core values.
Yellen did not answer when asked after an event in Fredericksburg, Virginia, if FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg should quit after an independent report by the law firm Cleary Gottlieb cited accounts that he had bullied and verbally abused people, as reported by Reuters.
However, she dismissed the alleged performance at the FDIC, an independent agency not under the supervision of the Treasury.
Biden Administration Values Clash with FDIC Report Findings
“The kind of abuses that were documented in the report are totally unacceptable ways to treat employees at the FDIC and are not in line with the core values of the Biden administration,” Yellen told reporters.
Calls for Change
The Cleary Gottlieb report, which was based on a Wall Street Journal investigation, referred to testimonies from over 500 persons.
The report showed the agency where sexual harassment, racial discrimination and bullying were the norm at every level and senior leaders for years tolerated them and when someone raised a complaint of misconduct he/she was retaliated against.
McHenry Renews Demands for Gruenberg’s Resignation
The findings prompted new demands for the removal of Gruenberg, a Democrat who has been a senior leader at the agency for close to twenty years, as reported by Reuters.
After the report, Representative Patrick McHenry, a Republican who is the chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, again asked for Gruenberg’s resignation, a long-time Democrat within the agency, and stressed the need for new leadership.