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BE SMART ABOUT: Paul Watkins Worked at a LGBTQ Hate Group, Now CFPB’s Director of Innovation
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BE SMART ABOUT is an important series highlighting examples of those in power (or in danger of acquiring power) who you need to stay informed about so you can share this knowledge and together we can Be Smart and Actively Dissent.
Today we discuss Paul Watkins, head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office of Innovation, a new department created by White House Chief of Staff and right-wing ideologue Mick Mulvaney.
Just five months after Watkins was appointed, the CFPB proposed a dramatic revision of its.... policies that will reduce regulatory requirements for new financial technologies. In a nutshell, these policies will ultimately allow the bureau to exempt entire industries from laws that protect LGBTQ consumers, while granting businesses potentially indefinite exemptions from fair lending laws, safe harbor from federal and state enforcement actions, and immunity from private lawsuits.
Watkins is one of the people spearheading these proposals.... soon be in a position to wield enormous influence over which antidiscrimination laws companies have to abide by. Eighty consumer and community groups — including the NAACP — wrote a letter to Watkins listing all the reasons these changes will negatively impact consumers.
Back to Watkins specifically. We need to be smart about him because he's yet another evil far-right winger put into a position of power by this administration. He previously worked on behalf of an organization labeled as a HATE GROUP.
... for nearly two years, Watkins worked as an attorney for Alliance Defending Freedom, which the Southern Poverty Law Center designated a hate group for a number of reasons. Some of them include ADF’s support for “the recriminalization of homosexuality in the U.S. and criminalization abroad,” its defense of “state-sanctioned sterilization of trans people abroad,” and its linkage of “homosexuality to pedophilia and claims that a ‘homosexual agenda’ will destroy Christianity and society.”
During Watkins’s tenure at ADF, the organization worked with the state of Arizona to legalize discrimination against LGBTQ people and ban same-sex marriage.
The @CFPB’s Director of the Office of Innovation was Senior Counsel at an anti-LGBTQ organization labeled as a hate-group by the @SPLCenter. @RepKatiePorter, @RepPressley & I don’t think he should have a job at the CFPB. pic.twitter.com/Oo4TNSF9RJ
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) June 28, 2019
As noted in the tweet above, Democratic leaders such as Senator Warren are calling for Watkins to be removed from government service. Warren stated that, "Paul Watkins’ role at CFPB lets him scrap anti-discrimination laws for tech companies that are supposed to protect LGBTQ consumers. CFPB Director Kraninger should explain how the former lawyer of a homophobic hate-group got this job."
Democratic lawmakers are calling on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to reconsider the hiring of Paul Watkins as the assistant director of the innovation office, following reports he worked for a group deemed by some as an anti-LGBTQ hate group.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Reps. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., and Katie Porter, D-Calif., told CFPB Director Kathy Kraninger in a letter Tuesday that they are concerned about Watkins’ fitness for his job considering the discretion his position has to exempt certain companies from complying with anti-discrimination laws.
"Mr. Watkins' role at the CFPB gives him wide discretion to exempt companies — or even entire industries — from anti-discrimination laws and given his past work at a homophobic hate group, we are deeply concerned that he will use this power to scrap crucial protections for the LGBTQ consumers," the lawmakers said. "We therefore ask that you reconsider his employment and his role at the bureau."
The lawmakers are asking Kraninger whether the CFPB was aware of his prior employment at Alliance Defending Freedom, why he was selected for the role, and what their processes for vetting job candidates are. They also asked whether Watkins has an ethics agreement and if he is recused from any decisions related to CFPB activities regarding LGBTQ discrimination.
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