Ernst: FDIC Misconduct Must Be Fully Prosecuted, Top to Bottom
“No amount of mops could completely clean the FDIC frat house. It’s time to throw away the current leadership’s keys and permanently change the locks, so we can close the door on this chapter of abuse.”
WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) released the following statement on the third-party investigation into the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s (FDIC) workplace culture that revealed even more rot at the agency:
“After today’s report, no one can deny the depth of the FDIC cesspool that I have been sounding the alarm on for months. The culture Chairman Martin Gruenberg has allowed and perpetuated at the FDIC for over a decade is a failure of leadership and a degradation of humanity. He should have resigned months ago.
“Even though he has refused, he cannot escape consequences. Culture is driven by the top, but Chairman Gruenberg is not the only official who must be held accountable. Everyone at the FDIC who stood idly by while criminals ran unchecked must answer for their inaction, and we must prosecute all those who committed crimes to the fullest extent of the law.
“President Biden must order his Department of Justice to investigate the FDIC from top to bottom, or else he is complicit in subjecting the women of the FDIC to more abuse and discrimination.
“No amount of mops could completely clean the FDIC frat house. It’s time to throw away the current leadership’s keys and permanently change the locks, so we can close the door on this chapter of abuse.”
Background:
Following reports of sexual harassment and discrimination at the FDIC, Ernst was one of the first senators to call for FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg’s resignation. In November 2023, she followed up by conducting critical oversight of this behavior at the FDIC and demanding any evidence of criminal wrongdoing by agency employees be turned over to the Department of Justice and local law enforcement for potential prosecution.
When the FDIC blew through her deadline for a response without answering her oversight questions, she introduced legislation to ensure federal employees and contractors who are found guilty of sexual misconduct face serious consequences for their actions, including termination.
After an FDIC senior official’s guilty plea on child pornography production charges, Ernst followed up on her promise to hold bureaucrats at the FDIC accountable for its culture of sexual misconduct and called on them to clean house.
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