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Washington D.C. – National Treasury Employees Union President Tony Reardon told Congress Thursday that employees at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have lost confidence in Eric Blankenstein because of his history of racially derogatory statements.

Blankenstein, who is about to oversee the reorganized Office of Fair Lending at CFPB, wrote multiple blog posts in 2004 containing opinions that run counter to the nation’s civil service principles and conflict with the anti-discrimination work of the fair lending office.

Reardon initially shared the employees’ concerns in a Monday letter to CFPB Acting Director Mick Mulvaney. On Thursday, Reardon sent copies of the letter to members of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee because they oversee CFPB.

“NTEU believes that every federal employee should have a workplace where they are confident they are treated fairly and without discrimination,” Reardon wrote to legislators. “In speaking with our members at CFPB it is clear to me that those under Eric Blankenstein’s leadership do not have this confidence.”

In his letter to Mulvaney, Reardon said Blankenstein is unfit to hold a leadership position in the federal government.

NTEU represents 150,000 employees at 33 federal agencies and departments.