By Rick Manning
“Drunken debauchery, creepy conversations, and an all-around inappropriate atmosphere. Sounds like a frat house – but it’s the @FDICgov. There must be real consequences..”
And, “When is Martin Gruenberg’s last day? When will President Biden order his DOJ investigate the @FDICgov from top to bottom?
That’s what Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) posted on X after a scathing bombshell independent report was released outlining abuses at the federal bank regulating Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).
But Senator Ernst doesn’t have to wait for Biden’s Justice Department to act.
South Carolina’s Tim Scott is the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee and Gruenberg will be testifying to the Committee, Thursday, May 16.
Senator Scott can and should pick up the ball and ask the top banking regulator about his long-time leadership – he has been Chairman for ten out of the past thirteen years – over an Agency that an independent report commissioned by its Board of Directors makes look like an episode of ‘Banker’s Gone Wild.’
Senator Scott can and should ask Chairman Gruenberg, why he hasn’t resigned or been fired already based upon President Joe Biden’s first day in office promise to the American people, ‘If you’re ever working with me and I hear you treat another colleague with disrespect, talk down to someone, I promise you I will fire you on the spot. On the spot. No ifs or buts.’
All this partying, sexual harassment and verbal abuse was occurring at the same time as banks Gruenberg oversaw were experiencing as much as $600 billion in unrealized losses after U.S. Treasuries’ interest rates exploded due to Bidenflation.
Senator Scott finds himself in the right place at the right time, where he can both stand up for sound bank management from federal regulators while holding the FDIC Chairman accountable for fostering an environment in the Agency that might have been acceptable in the television show Mad Men but isn’t in the real world.
The independent report, ordered by the Special Review Committee of the FDIC’s Board of Directors in response to employee complaints about abuses at the bank regulator, paints a damning picture of the culture fostered by Gruenberg charging, “the FDIC has failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct.”
The report specifically found that beyond creating an atmosphere of extremely bad behavior, Gruenberg personally has a history of verbally abusing employees by demonstrating a volatile temper.
Senator Scott has the chance to hold the FDIC Chairman accountable and stand against blatant abuses of power allowed by this political appointee against the lower ranking civil service personnel seeking to keep our banking system safe. America needs a boring bank regulatory that just does its job, not a ‘frat house’ filled with intimidated employees.
Senator Tim Scott should take the opportunity to repeat his colleague, Joni Ernst’s recent refrain by asking, “When is Martin Gruenberg’s last day?” And demand that it be today!
Rick Manning is the President of Americans for Limited Government.
