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Category: Agency Enforcement

Trump Seeks Significant Cuts to FY26 Budget of Workplace Regulators

President Trump’s proposed budget for fiscal year 2026 would eliminate the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) and substantially cut funding for most agencies that regulate the workforce. The President submitted his budget request to Congress May 30. DOL’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) would assume OFCCP’s enforcement of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA,...
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Category: Affirmative Action and Diversity

President Trump Proposes Eliminating OFCCP

President Trump’s FY 2026 budget request proposes abolishing the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs. Under this proposal, OFCCP’s enforcement of the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) would shift to the Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (DOL-VETS), and OFCCP’s enforcement of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act would shift to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The proposed...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

DOJ Launches Civil Rights Fraud Initiative Targeting Federal Contractors

The U.S. Department of Justice has launched a civil rights fraud initiative that will use the False Claims Act (FCA) to investigate federal contractors’ civil rights violations, DOJ announced May 19. The initiative will be led jointly by DOJ’s Civil Division's Fraud Section — which enforces the False Claims Act, and DOJ’s Civil Rights Division — which enforces civil rights laws....
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Category: Agency Enforcement

EEOC Subpoena Enforcement Suggests Focus on Anti-American Discrimination

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is seeking to enforce a subpoena against Mauser Packaging Solutions in connection with a Commissioner’s charge alleging unlawful steering and discrimination against American workers. The EEOC asserts that Mauser has not complied with its information requests seeking an electronic database of job candidates and incumbent employees at eight facilities over four years, including demographic, personnel, and contact...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

President-Elect Trump Picks Former EEOC Commissioner Keith Sonderling for Deputy Secretary of Labor

President-elect Trump has announced Keith Sonderling as his choice to serve as Deputy Secretary of Labor. The Deputy Labor Secretary is DOL’s second-in-command and generally manages the department’s day-to-day operations. Sonderling served as an EEOC Commissioner from September 2020 until August 2024. Before that, he served as Acting Administrator of DOL’s Wage and Hour Division. President Trump will have to...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

EEOC Revises Rule Governing EEO Reporting Exemptions

The EEOC issued a final rule January 10, 2025, revising its regulations governing hardship exemptions from annual EEO-1 reporting.   To be exempt from EEO reporting requirements, an employer must show undue hardship. Previously, EEOC Commissioners voted on exemption applications. Now, however, the Chief Data Officer will process applications. Under the new rule, an exemption is more likely to be granted when: The filer...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Finalizes New Bounty Hunter Program

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has published a final rule implementing its bounty hunter program. The rule provides that NHTSA may pay a monetary award to a whistleblower who provides original information that leads to the successful resolution of an enforcement action for violations of laws related to the manufacture or sale of motor vehicles and motor vehicle equipment. The...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

EEOC and OFCCP Modify Long-Standing MOU; DOJ Ends Its Participation

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) December 17, 2024, outlining how they will share information and process discrimination charges and complaints. Before doing so, the agencies rescinded a similar 2020 MOU that included the Department of Justice. The EEOC enforces Title VII of the 1964 Civil...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Last Biden Regulatory Agenda Shows Limited Progress on Employment-Related Regulations

The Biden Administration has published the Fall 2024 semi-annual regulatory agenda. The unveiling of the current administration’s final regulatory agenda is largely an academic exercise in view of the Trump Administration’s imminent arrival, but it shows that the Biden Administration made little progress on workplace regulatory priorities in the last few months. According to the agenda: EEOC had planned to...
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Category: Agency Enforcement

Congress Again Averts Government Shutdown by Approving 3-Month Funding Extension

With the government scheduled to run out of funding on December 20, Congress approved a short-term stopgap measure to keep the doors open through March 28, 2025. This year, Congress again failed to pass an annual appropriations bill to fund the federal government before the new fiscal began October 1. Instead, lawmakers enacted a three-month Continuing Resolution that kept government...

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