Thursday’s other #MeToo hearing on Capitol Hill – By Katy O’Donnell (politico.com) / Sept 26 2018
Housing regulator Mel Watt and his sexual harassment accuser are both set to testify.
Even as the nation is riveted by the high-stakes hearing about sexual assault allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, housing regulator Mel Watt will be facing his own simultaneous reckoning with the #MeToo movement in a room across the Capitol.
Watt, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and Simone Grimes, an employee who has accused him of repeated sexual harassment, will both testify Thursday at a session of the House Financial Services Committee. Grimes, whose complaints and tapes of Watt’s overtures were first reported by POLITICO in July, is expected to say that he repeatedly turned their conversations to sexual topics when she tried to discuss a pay raise.
Like Kavanaugh, Watt has denied wrongdoing. But the split-screen testimony of two women accusing powerful men shows that lawmakers are continuing to confront the #MeToo movement, even when it makes them uncomfortable.
Watt, a former North Carolina congressman, sat on the financial services panel and many of its members encouraged former President Barack Obama to appoint him to his current job overseeing mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. But Grimes is appearing on Thursday after one those supporters, California Democrat Maxine Waters, pushed for her to be given a chance to testify.
Grimes will appear first, followed by FHFA Inspector General Laura Wertheimer. The third panel will feature Watt and other housing officials.
Grimes filed a complaint with the FHFA earlier this year, accusing Watt of making repeated sexual advances during conversations ostensibly about her job and salary concerns. In transcripts of one 2016 conversation obtained by POLITICO, Watt steered the discussion to his feelings for Grimes. In a separate encounter, Watt asked about a tattoo on her ankle, saying, “If I kissed that one would it lead to more?”
The agency referred its administrative investigation to outside investigators for the U.S. Postal Service, while Wertheimer launched a parallel probe.
In a statement to POLITICO this summer, Watt said: “The selective leaks related to this matter are obviously intended to embarrass or to lead to an unfounded or political conclusion. However, I am confident that the investigation currently in progress will confirm that I have not done anything contrary to law.”
Committee members on both sides of the aisle initially met the news that their well-liked former colleague was under investigation with silence.
“This is something that hits close to home because this is a former colleague of ours who we have served with,” Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) told reporters this month. “But we want to ensure that there is a thorough and fair investigation.”
In the days after reporting the investigation, POLITICO sought comment from over two dozen lawmakers, including members like Waters who had spoken out in support of #MeToo before. All of them ignored repeated requests for comment.
But as Washington became consumed in recent weeks with a newly partisan #MeToo grappling in the fight over Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, Waters pushed to have Grimes testify.
“We must face the reality that women throughout all sectors feel that existing practices and procedures have worked against them and left them silenced when they have complaints about discrimination and harassment,” Waters wrote in a letter to Hensarling on Monday. “Therefore, given the seriousness of this matter, I am requesting that you invite Ms. Grimes to testify at the hearing this Thursday.”
Grimes’ counsel, Diane Seltzer Torre, first requested that the committee get involved in the investigation and compel Watt to testify in a letter Aug. 20. Seltzer Torre wrote to Hensarling and Waters again on Sept. 18 requesting that they give Grimes an audience with the committee. Hensarling’s office on Monday offered a chance for Grimes to speak to investigative counsel but did not invite her to testify until after Waters sent her letter.
Grimes’ goal in testifying, Torre said, is to “communicate and have the committee understand the impact that this has had upon her, that this has had upon the agency, and that it could have on the agency going forward if it’s not addressed and corrected. This problem affects more than Simone Grimes.”
Watt has refused to participate in the USPS investigation of Grimes’ complaint, according to portions of a report obtained by POLITICO, arguing that he is exempt from the agency’s harassment rules as a presidential appointee. He pledged to participate in the inspector general’s probe. Wertheimer, meanwhile, is herself under investigation, in part over claims she is too close to Watt.
Grimes is also suing the agency for $1 million for allegedly paying her less than the man who held her position before her, claiming the raise was denied because she rejected Watt’s advances.
The FHFA oversees the $5.4 trillion portfolio of Fannie and Freddie, the government-sponsored mortgage financiers that stand behind most of the U.S. housing market. They have been under government conservatorship since 2008, when Treasury took control of the companies to prevent their collapse during the housing crisis. Watt’s five-year term as FHFA director expires in January.
Legislative attempts to overhaul the mortgage giants have stalled in recent years, a failure Hensarling has said is his greatest regret as he leaves Congress. He and Rep. John Delaney (D-Md.) this month introduced a bipartisan bill that would Fannie and Freddie’s congressional charters and create an explicit government guarantee under Ginnie Mae.
Hensarling acknowledged that the bill has no chance in the current Congress but said he hopes his draft will serve as a guide for the next Congress. He was expected to use Thursday’s hearing to build support for that effort by digging into concerns about Fannie and Freddie’s growing footprint in the housing market.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/09/26/watt-hearing-metoo-harassment-812495
