Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., said he now supports President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Kennedy previously withheld his vote for Travis Hill until the agency provided a detailed account of how it addressed widespread workplace misconduct.
"I intend to vote to confirm Mr. Travis Hill as FDIC Chairman," Kennedy said. "This is no country for creepy old men."
As part of his support for Hill, Kennedy's office released the report he had requested which showed how the agency plans to improve its workplace culture.
The report found 26 employees left the agency after facing "substantiated allegations of misconduct" in fiscal year 2025, either because they were fired or resigned before they would be fired.
"I have instituted new leadership across the agency, and today not a single FDIC executive with substantiated allegations of misconduct remains with the agency," Hill wrote in the report.
In May 2024, the FDIC released a third-party review conducted by law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton, which found that for "far too many employees and for far too long" the agency "failed to provide a workplace safe from sexual harassment, discrimination, and other interpersonal misconduct."
More than 500 current and former employees contributed to the review. The report faulted management's responses to allegations as "insufficient and ineffective," noting a patriarchal, insular culture that allowed misconduct to persist.
A follow-up report from the agency's Office of Inspector General found that more than one-third of employees surveyed had either experienced or witnessed harassment, and that disciplinary decisions were inconsistently documented and poorly tracked.
The culture probe followed earlier public reports of bullying, inappropriate conduct, and favoritism at the FDIC under former Chair Martin Gruenberg, who ultimately announced he would resign once a successor was confirmed.
Sam Barron ✉
Sam Barron has almost two decades of experience covering a wide range of topics including politics, crime and business.
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