In our last column, we discussed the expanded whistleblower protections created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Pub.L. 111-203, signed into law on July 21, 2010 (Dodd-Frank). This month we focus on another provision within the financial reforms of Dodd-Frank—Section 342, titled “Office of Minority and Women Inclusion.” Section 342 could significantly impact the diversity practices of federal financial agencies, the private companies that those agencies regulate and the agencies’ contractors.
This provision was advocated by Representative Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who argued that it would deal with the “historic lack of access that minority and women individuals and institutions have had in hiring, decision-making, contracting and procurement opportunities” in the financial services sector. However, there are critics of Section 342′s potentially broad requirements. See, e.g., “Politicizing the Fed,” Wall St. J. (June 14, 2010) (declaring Section 342 “the biggest under-reported threat” of Dodd-Frank and “the most brazen attempt to hijack central bank policy since its founding nearly a century ago”).
OMWI
