Kennedy: honestly surprised, I thought you would pounce like a ninja; FDIC’s Gruenberg resign

Kennedy asks Su to call for FDIC’s Gruenberg to resign in Appropriations 05 09 24

On 5/9/2024, during tense questioning by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) asked Su at the hearing on the Biden administration’s fiscal 2025 budget request for the Department of Labor if she would use her “legal authority” to open an investigation of the FDIC amid the ongoing scandal. “I am deeply concerned anytime a working person goes to work and does not get the dignity and respect that they deserve,” Su said, while noting she is “charged with enforcing certain laws based on the powers that Congress has given to the Department of Labor.”

“I appreciate that you are raising an issue involving working people who have experienced clearly horrific … ” she said. “And what it demonstrates is that too often workers may feel like they have to endure [what] no one should have to endure because of a power imbalance in the workplace.”

Kennedy then pressed Su on whether she plans to “do anything about it,” such as calling on FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg to resign, while arguing Su has a “legal and moral authority to investigate Labor.”

“I’m honestly surprised. I thought you would pounce on this like a ninja,” he said, to which Su responded, “Like a what?”

Kennedy said he’d “heard that expression in movies” before accusing Su of “waffling” during his line of questioning.

“Are you or are you not going to call for Martin Gruenberg, who runs the FDIC and has been there since God was a corporal, and the senior leadership over there to resign?” he said.

Su didn’t specifically answer that question, but defended the administration’s budget request for the Labor Department.

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Kennedy: honestly surprised, I thought you would pounce like a ninja; FDIC’s Gruenberg resign

Transcript Highlights

The following is transcribed from the video audio:

• Many supervisors and some members of the senior leadership at the FDIC are pigs
• Number two, this issue has been out there for some time since the Wall Street Journal broke the story at least six months
• And so far, the Department of Labor has said nothing
• In fact, I think you said you haven’t even read the reports and aren’t familiar with the issue
• Number three, Madam Secretary, you have a long history that I know you’re proud of, of passionate activism on behalf of employees
• Are you or are you not going to use your legal authority and moral authority to open an investigation of the FDIC and help those young women over there and help those young people of color over there
• Senator, I am deeply concerned any time workers may feel like they have to endure things that no one should have to endure because of a power imbalance in the workplace
• Excuse me for interrupting, and I’m sorry, but I’ve only had five minutes
• I mean, I answered the question about what, there’s an agency in the federal government who presumably, if the complaint has been made, you’re not going to do anything about it
• But this is gut check time for you, Madam Acting Secretary

Full transcript: 528 words transcribed via Whisper AI.