July 01, 2019

Van Hollen, Senators Demand Answers from HUD for Hiring Eric Blankenstein

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) along with Senators Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Jack Reed (D-RI), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV) are demanding answers on HUD’s hiring practices following press reports that disgraced former CFPB political appointee Eric Blankenstein was hired as Senior Counsel of HUD’s Office of General Counsel, just one month after resigning from CFPB. Blankenstein, while employed at CFPB, was under investigation for racist and sexist blog posts that were uncovered by the Washington Post in 2018.

“In our country, private citizens may espouse whatever views they have, even abhorrent ones. What they do not have a right to is a six-figure federal job.  HUD has an important mission to “’create strong, sustainable, inclusive communities and quality affordable homes for all. It needs employees that can carry out and bolster that mission, not ones that call HUD’s commitment to it into question,” the Senators wrote. 

Full text of letter can be found HERE.