Financial Services Committee Ranking Member Maxine Waters(D-Calif.) said Tuesday that Democrats did not request cancelationof the CFPB discrimination hearing held last week.

Waters was responding to remarks from Financial ServicesChairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) during a full committee hearingtitled “Who's in Your Wallet: Examining How Washington Red TapeImpairs Economic Freedom.”

“The Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee receivedtestimony from a high-ranking CFPB whistleblower concerning seriousallegations of discrimination and retaliation at thebureau. Her testimony was corroborated by the CFPB's ownindependent investigator,” Hensarling said. “Both testified as tomany other CFPB employees who have lodged these sameallegations.

“What was the response from Democratic leadership on thecommittee? They demanded the hearing be canceled. In other words,the matter would regrettably be swept under the rug. Hidden frompublic view. Ignored,” the Texas Republican said.

Waters shot back, saying, “I must set the record straight and Imust share with this committee that the Democrats did not ask for acancellation of the hearing. We asked that the hearing be canceledbecause in fact you had set out to hold a hearing based on a reportthat was aired in the American Banker. You changed themakeup of that hearing and went in another direction.”

As CU Times previously reported, Waters and Oversightand Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member Al Green (D-Texas)wrote a letter to the majority asking for the hearing to becanceled.

“It is our hope that in canceling the hearing, you will insteadcommit to working in a bipartisan manner to fully investigatepotential discrimination, as well as efforts to achieve equality ofopportunity within all federal agencies, as well as the variousindustries within our committee's jurisdiction,” Waters and Greenwrote on March 28. “It is only under a careful andintentional committee investigation that we may begin to unravelthese disparities and identify workable solutions to achieve ourshared goals.”

The hearing was ultimately held on April 2. Angela Martin,senior enforcement attorney at the CFPB, detailed alleged gender and racial discrimination among CFPBmanagers.