Laphonza Butler Presses FDIC Chair Nominee: There’s ‘A Real Crisis In Leadership’

2 months ago

Earlier this month, Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) questioned nominees on banking policy during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

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Transcript

00:00Senator Butler from California is recognized.

00:04Thank you, Chairman Brown.

00:05I want to join my colleagues in just congratulating all of you for being nominated, celebrating

00:11your families for their sacrifices, for you all to achieve the level of success that has

00:18landed you at this table as a nomination of the President of the United States.

00:24It is no small feat, and it definitely takes the whole team.

00:30So thank you all for doing it.

00:34Ms. Goldsmith-Romero, thank you, Commissioner, for spending a little bit of time with me

00:41and my team, extensively going through your credentials, experience, preparation, background,

00:49has already been stated, this taking on the role of FDIC Chair in this moment is no small

00:57task.

00:58And the Godly Report is quite substantive, in my opinion, and raises real concerns, not

01:08just about the culture of supervision and personnel policies at FDIC, but a real crisis

01:16in leadership.

01:18And so I want to ask this a very specific question.

01:20I feel like I was clear with Mr. Ruhenberg about the requirement to not just have a plan

01:29that sits on a shelf or a report that is nice that everyone reads when it's in the Wall

01:35Street Journal, but the leadership that is required to actually execute and turn things

01:43around.

01:45So a very simple question.

01:46What are the first three things that you will do if you are confirmed?

01:54Thank you, Senator, very much appreciated our discussion.

01:58So the first thing I would do is send a clear message that harassment, discrimination, retaliation

02:04will not be tolerated.

02:07That includes putting a system in place that has an EEO process that employees could trust.

02:15Having everyone encourage employees to use that so that management can see that.

02:20I think we would be doing investigations, conducting investigations, bringing accountability.

02:24I think a number of things described in the report, warrants removals.

02:29And then I'd change this litigation adverse culture so that it's not kick the can down

02:35the road or move things around, but you address it right away.

02:40Thank you for the specific response.

02:43It's consistent very much with ideas that you shared with our team yesterday and similar

02:49to Senator Warnock.

02:51I think this committee, through his subcommittee, but I do believe broadly through the leadership

02:57of our chair, is committed to being fully connected to the plan that is moving forward

03:06and applying appropriate levels of accountability from the seats in which we sit to be able

03:12to assist as much as possible, as much as is required, but I think most importantly

03:18to be able to help to do our part to restore confidence with the employees at the FDIC

03:25and the work that you are going to be asked to do if you were confirmed.

03:30Mr. Ito, it was a pleasure to spend time with you yesterday and your leadership on the island

03:39of Hawaii has just, I think, goes underappreciated as an insurance commissioner and just a public

03:47servant committed to the state.

03:51And it just was a great time talking with you and learning about your work and your

03:56perspective and what you would like to bring to FSOC if you were confirmed.

04:02Just a quick question, I wanted to make sure we had an opportunity to get your voice on

04:08the record here.

04:10We talked a good deal about local economies and the property insurance, the rising costs

04:16for consumers, and the concerns that insurers and bad years that insurers are having relative

04:27to climate impacts.

04:31I'd love for you to talk about how you believe FSOC and relevant government agencies, including

04:37insurance commissioners, should capture climate risk data and how we could measure the potential

04:45economic losses from the insurance market.

04:49First of all, Senator, I enjoyed our conversation the other day.

04:54With respect to getting data, the NEIC and FIO at the present time are collecting data

05:03on homeowners specifically.

05:07It's called a property and casualty market intelligence data call that NEIC and FIO are

05:14working through, and I'm glad that they are cooperating.

05:17I think this is a good first step in collecting data and identifying what stresses are occurring

05:24in the property and casualty market throughout the country.

05:29It's also, I believe, really a good first step in analyzing the data.

05:34If I'm confirmed, that's something I really want to get into, and really analyzing and

05:40assessing what's happening in the entire United States marketplace on the property and casualty

05:46and the impact that's occurring, not only to insurers on financial solvency, but I think

05:52more importantly in terms of what's happening to the people who are the policyholders are

05:57purchasing those policies, and being currently, I can attest for Hawaii, there's quite a bit

06:04of homeowners, condo owners that are really being financially stressed because of the

06:10catastrophic losses, the unfortunate event that happened in Maui, as well as the very

06:14hard market that we're in at the present time.

06:17Thanks, Senator Butler.

Laphonza Butler Presses FDIC Chair Nominee: There’s ‘A Real Crisis In Leadership’

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