Rep. Maxine Waters Implores CFPB Employees To Report Wrongdoing

California Representative Maxine Waters has written an open letter to employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) and urged them to provide information and assistance from inside the organization, according to reports.

“If, in the course of your work, you are a witness to waste, fraud, abuse or gross mismanagement, please do not hesitate to alert me and my staff,” the chair of the House Financial Services Committee wrote on Feb 21.

Waters said she wants to keep the agency moving forward in its mission of protecting the consumers of financial products.

“Let me assure you that actions to weaken the Consumer Bureau from within as Director Mulvaney attempted to do will not go unchecked or unnoticed,” she wrote. “I will fight against any and all efforts to weaken the Bureau and make sure that your important work to protect consumers, as Congress intended, can continue. I will also be conducting careful oversight of the agencies under the Committee’s jurisdiction, including the Bureau.”

The letter also contained a link to a whistleblower form, for employees to have an easy resource to pass along information.

“Please use the form below to alert the Committee to unlawful activity, mismanagement, waste of funds or abuse of authority in your federal agency or other organization,” the form says. “Any personal information you provide us will be kept in strict confidence.”

Last month, Waters said that bolstering the CFPB and the oversight of the regulators appointed by President Trump were top priorities for the panel. She also commended the current employees.

“The reports regarding a significant drop over the past year in the state of morale at the CFPB are troubling to me as a policymaker, because the Bureau should be a place where you are not only proud of your work, but are also confident of the value you provide in protecting the consumers of our country from unfair, deceptive or abusive acts or practices of bad actors,” she wrote. “I am writing to reassure you of the importance and value of your work, and to let you know, in no uncertain terms, that the anti-consumer actions mandated by Trump appointees will not be tolerated.”