FDIC Nomination Hearing: Travis Hill Faces Scrutiny
Observers might be excused for thinking Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. Acting Chair Travis Hill’s nomination to lead the agency permanently would breeze through the Senate and its banking committee.
After all, Hill is a known quantity, having served as the FDIC’s vice chair from 2022 until January – and before that, as a policy deputy for the last Republican leader of the agency.
However, even given a Republican majority, Hill’s bid may be in peril for what was found to have happened at the FDIC under a Democrat’s watch.
Addressing Workplace Toxicity
When The Wall Street Journal in 2023 reported dozens of allegations of workplace toxicity at the FDIC, including sexual harassment, Hill called for the agency to provide “transparency and accountability,” among its “top priorities.”
A year later, as probes into the FDIC’s culture concluded, Hill said “holding those who commit misconduct accountable is perhaps the most important part of transforming the culture at the FDIC.”
“I appreciate that we have been able to reach consensus on a path forward today, but the months of unnecessary delay is another example of the lack of leadership and accountability at the agency,” he said in a statement last November.
Challenges and Criticisms
In January, Hill included workplace culture reform among his 15 priorities for the agency. But, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-MA, asserted Thursday during a hearing on Hill’s nomination, that the FDIC acting chair has been less vocal on the matter since taking charge of the agency.
“The public deserves to know what progress has been made to improve FDIC culture and whether your interest in doing so is genuine or only exists as part of an effort to stymie the agency’s work when there’s a Democrat as president,” Warren said during Thursday’s hearing.
The apparent disappointment wasn’t contained to Democrats, though. Republican Sen. John Kennedy, for one, threatened Thursday to vote not to advance Hill’s nomination.
“I heard you talk about transparency and accountability, those are pretty words,” Kennedy, of Louisiana, said Thursday. “I want to know who’s been fired. I want to know who’s been prosecuted. If your name came up in front of me right now, I wouldn’t vote for it.”
Response and Further Inquiries
Kennedy demanded a report, with regard to transforming the FDIC’s culture, within 30 days.
A “no” vote from Kennedy – if other lawmakers voted along party lines – would still allow Hill’s nomination to pass to the full Senate by a 12-11 margin.
At least one other Republican, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, interceded on damage control.
“I do know that a lot of what’s motivating Senator Kennedy is we were so frustrated by all the violations that were occurring in plain sight,” Tillis said Thursday. “I view you as part of the solution, not a part of the problem.”
Warren, for her part Thursday, said she’s still awaiting a response from Hill on a request for information on the FDIC’s effort to remake its culture.
But she also questioned the acting chair over the FDIC’s goal to eliminate 1,250 jobs, or 20% of the agency’s headcount. Warren first raised the issue in an April letter to Hill. Those cuts come in addition to roughly 200 bank examiner job offers the FDIC rescinded in February in relation to a federal hiring freeze.
When Warren asked Thursday if the FDIC has increased or decreased its stable of bank examiners since January, Hill said “we made small decreases on the safety-and-soundness side.”
Warren, however, expressed displeasure that she didn’t receive that information when she first asked for it.
“You refused to provide this committee with a breakdown of the staff reductions when my office requested them last April,” she said. “So you don’t get to come in here now and say, ‘Oh, I didn’t cut any of the people you would care about.’ If you weren’t cutting any of the people I cared about, you should have told me that last April.”
