Democratic members of the House Financial Services Committeehave called for the cancellation of an April 2 hearing that willfocus on allegations of employee discrimination at the CFPB.

In a press release on Monday, the Democratic committee membersannounced their opposition to the hearing, which was scheduled byFinancial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) inresponse to allegations made in an American Banker articlein early March.

“We are very concerned with claims of discrimination at the CFPBand have requested that the Inspector General investigate thoseallegations, as well as personnel practices within all federalfinancial agencies. However, we take exception with the unorthodoxmanner in which the upcoming hearing was empaneled and organized,”the lawmakers wrote to Hensarling in a letter dated March 28.

“It appears now that the hearing will focus exclusively on anindividual employee's claim, which our understanding is the subjectof a confidential and on-going grievance resolution process, and adiscussion of which potentially jeopardizes the individualemployee's case and the disclosure of the privacy of other CFPBemployees,” the letter also said.

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In a previous letter dated March 24, Financial ServicesCommittee Ranking Member Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and otherDemocrat lawmakers asked Federal Reserve Inspector General MarkBialek to investigate allegations that CFPB managers had been ranking white employees “distinctlybetter” than minority employees on performance reports.

The liberal lawmakers also asked for a review of internaloperations at other federal agencies, including the NCUA, FDIC andTreasury Department, in order to “determine whether any personnelpractices have created a discriminatory workplace or otherwisesystematically disadvantaged minorities from obtaining seniormanagement positions.”

Hensarling and House Financial Services Oversight andInvestigations Subcommittee Chairman Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.)refuted the Democrats' claim that the allegations are based on theaccount of one CFPB employee.

The lawmakers said they invited five witnesses with connectionsto the CFPB, but the bureau refused to allow them to testify.

“This attempt to silence and intimidate whistleblowers isdisappointing. Discrimination and retaliation are unacceptable. Wehope Democrats on the subcommittee will be respectful of thewitnesses and give this hearing the attention it deserves,” saidMcHenry in a statement on Monday.

“One of those witnesses, who was hired by the CFPB toinvestigate workplace issues at the CFPB, says she found a 'generalenvironment … of exclusion, retaliation, discrimination, nepotism,demoralization, devaluation, and other offensive working conditionswhich constitute a toxic workplace for many of its employees.' It'sextremely disturbing that Democrats and the CFPB want to sweep thisunder the rug,” he added.

Among those invited to testify are Angela Martin, seniorenforcement attorney at the CFPB and Misty Raucci, formerinvestigator at the Defense Investigators Group, who was hired bythe CFPB to investigate Martin's claims.

In a letter sent to the Democratic members on Monday, Hensarlingand McHenry said Martin was scheduled to discuss the unfairtreatment of minorities in the CFPB's employee review process.

They also said the other CFPB officials that were invited,including Liza Strong, director of employee relations and M. StaceyBach, assistant director at the Office of Equal OpportunityEmployment, have direct knowledge of the employee evaluationpractices.

Hensarling and McHenry said the hearing would proceed asplanned.