Racial bias

Senate Democrats on Wednesday called for acting CFPB Director Mick Mulvaney to reveal the vetting process that led to the hiring of a political appointee whose past incendiary writings have caused an uproar at the agency.

The head of the National Treasury Employees Union said the appointment of Eric Blankenstein to a senior role “reflects poorly on CFPB management.”

Eric Blankenstein, a political appointee overseeing fair-lending policy at the agency, said in an email to staff that his blog posts from 14 years ago that used a racial epithet “reflected poor judgment.”

What started as a single senior official at the CFPB voicing concerns about blog posts written 14 years ago by Eric Blankenstein, a top agency political appointee, is rapidly becoming a rising chorus of discontent.

The head of the agency’s fair-lending office cast doubt on a proposed reorganization of her office and raised concerns about blog posts written years ago by the political appointee overseeing the project.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interpretive rule Friday to clarify changes made to the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act that were mandated by President Trump's regulatory relief law.

Racial and ethnic discrimination in mortgage lending may be misrepresented by "flawed" denial metrics that suggest a larger gap between the denial rates of racial groups than what actually exists, according to the Urban Institute.

The Trump administration has argued that the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule, issued in 2015, was too prescriptive.

The Democratic congresswoman said the department under Secretary Ben Carson has turned "its back on its mission."

The CFPB is looking to rescind Obama-era policy that allowed it to punish banks and financial firms for unintentional discrimination.