Waters to push for Dodd-Frank diversity measures

Waters may push federal agencies to more quickly implement Dodd-Frank diversity measures

Published on March 6, 2013 by Sarah Jackson

Maxine Waters

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee, said recently that she and other members of Congress are pushing federal agencies to more quickly adopt Dodd-Frank diversity provisions.

Waters said that some agencies “have made more progress than others” in implementing a Dodd-Frank provision that mandates the establishment of offices of “minority and women inclusion” within several federal agencies. Section 342 of Dodd-Frank mandates that federal agencies recommend diversity measures, submit annual reports regarding each agency’s diversity-related activities and engage in outreach efforts aimed at the recruitment of minorities and women,American Banker reports.

The directors of each Office of Minority and Women Inclusion are currently drafting a joint proposal to assess diversity within each regulated agency.

“Because of the different organization structures of the agencies, some OMWI’s have to go through a more elaborate time-consuming process to vet any draft proposals within their agencies,” Waters said, according to American Banker. “I understand these different organizational hurdles and recognizes the need to carefully proceed with implementing section 342. But after more than a year since most of the OMWI’s have been in existence, I and other committee and [Congressional Black Caucus] members who fought for section 342 are growing a little bit impatient. If it takes very much longer for the OMWI’s to issue a draft proposal on these standards, for example, I and my colleagues may need to prod the agencies a bit to get them to move faster.”