President Trump has revoked President Biden’s EO that increased the minimum wage for federal contractor employees. This action is part of a broader effort by Trump to reverse several of Biden’s executive orders, marking a significant shift in federal policy. (Refer to EO “Additional Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.”) Read more.

OFCCP’s website reflects Michael Schloss has been appointed to the Deputy Director for Policy Role within the Agency. Michele Hodge, former Acting Director is listed as Deputy Director while the Director role remains vacant. The Deputy Director for Policy would traditionally act in an Acting Director role in this type of situation. As such, the National Office Directory for OFCCP reflects Schloss will hold both positions. OFCCP has made no official announcement regarding the appointments.

Schloss’s appointment adds to the questions and uncertainty swirling around OFCCP’s current and future state as contractors await notices of audit closures and further direction regarding remaining VEVRAA and Section 503 obligations.

This continues to be a developing story so stay tuned for updates.

In response to President Trump revoking Executive Order 11246, Acting U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Vincent Micone issued an Order on January 24th, instructing DOL employees including OFCCP to stop all enforcement activity under the rescinded Executive Order 11246. Specifically, the order instructs OFCCP to

Cease and desist all investigative and enforcement activity under the rescinded Executive Order 11246 and the regulations promulgated under it. This includes all pending cases, conciliation agreements, investigations, complaints, and any other enforcement-related or investigative activity.

Notify all regulated parties with impacted open reviews or investigations by January 31, 2025, that the EO 11246 component of the review or investigation has been closed and the Section 503 and VEVRAA components of the review or investigation are being held in abeyance pending further guidance.

As indicated in the Order, by January 31st federal contractors with open audits or investigations pursuant to EO 11246 should receive communication from OFCCP that their reviews are closed. 

Additionally, given Section 503 (Individuals with a Disability) and VEVRAA (Protected Veterans) reviews are on hold until OFCCP and contractors receive further guidance, contractors presumably are under no obligation to submit VEVERAA and Section 503 related materials to OFCCP in connection with any open reviews.

We will continue to monitor developments. Please reach out to your Jackson Lewis attorney if you have questions about federal contractor compliance during this transition period.

Late in the day on January 23, 2025, the Office of Federal Compliance Programs (OFCCP) sent out its first official agency communication since President Trump’s historic Executive Order “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” revoked Executive Order 11246 (Equal Employment Opportunity).

In an email to stakeholders, OFCCP acknowledged the revocation of EO 11246, noting contractors may continue to comply with the regulatory scheme in place prior to the signing of the EO for 90 days. The message also reiterated the order from the White House that the Agency

shall immediately cease:

  • Promoting ‘diversity’
  • Holding Federal contractors and subcontractors responsible for taking ‘affirmative action’”’; and
  • Allowing or encouraging Federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in workforce balancing based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin.

The communication confirmed, as has been reported, that requirements under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. 793, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), 38 U.S.C. 4212, which are statutory, “remain in effect,” noting both statutes are “enforced by OFCCP.”

While the government contractor community is anxiously awaiting further details on the implications of the executive order on their current and future obligations, OFCCP’s notice provided only a simple statement that

Additional information regarding OFCCP’s current activities will be forthcoming in the upcoming weeks.

The communication directed questions to be submitted to the OFCCP Customer Service Helpdesk.

We will report on any further developments and information as it become available.

President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” (EO). Its stated purpose is to end illegal diversity, equity, and inclusion and diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (together, DEI). The EO does not change existing law, but it signals the Administration’s focus on targeting organizations that violate existing anti-discrimination laws in their employment practices. Read more.

Bloomberg Law reported late Tuesday night that President Donald Trump has revoked Executive Order 11246 as part of a broader executive order addressing diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the federal government and for private employers generally.

This is a breaking news story. We will follow up as soon as the White House publishes the text of the executive order.

In one of numerous Executive Orders signed on January 20, 2025, President Trump issued an order entitled, “Initial Rescissions of Harmful Executive Orders and Actions.” The Executive Order revokes a long list of Executive Orders and actions by his predecessor, President Joe Biden.

As expected, many Biden Executive Orders revoked by President Trump were those in furtherance of diversity and inclusion efforts but included others, including those on pay transparency and COVID-19 protections that had not yet been rescinded by President Biden. Some highlights of the rescinded Executive Orders include:

Today’s Executive Order makes clear

[t]he revocations within this order will be the first of many steps the United States Federal Government will take to repair our institutions and our economy.

As such, today’s Executive Order is the first in what we expect will be a wave of executive actions issued by President Trump early in the new administration. We will monitor these developments and continue to provide updates and insights on the implications for federal contractors.

Please reach out to your Jackson Lewis attorney if you have questions during this transition period.

Citing limited time in the remaining administration and desire to focus on “other priorities”, the Federal Acquisition Regulatory Council announced its withdrawal of the pending proposed rule requiring federal contractors disclose pay information in job postings and prohibiting federal contractors from seeking and considering information about job applicants’ compensation history.

The Pay Equity and Transparency in Federal Contracting rule was introduced in January 2024 and slated for finalization this month per the FAR’s regulatory calendar.

With the withdrawal of this rule federal contractors will no longer need to develop practices to comply with what seemed likely to be a burdensome pay transparency obligation, but there is still work to be done as contractors need to contend with the ever-growing patchwork of state pay transparency obligations. With the lack of a uniform federal rule on the subject, the task of advancing pay transparency will continue to fall solely on state and local governments.

As always, we will continue to monitor and report on new developments.

OFCCP announced it is reinstating a monthly reporting requirement (CC-257 Report) for federal construction contractors, nearly 30 years after discontinuing it.  Beginning April 15, 2025, covered construction contractors must submit a report to OFCCP by the 15th of each month, with detailed data on its number of employees and work hours by race/ethnicity and gender. 

In its announcement, the Agency explained it will use the monthly report to further its “mission of protecting workers in the construction trades, as employment discrimination continues to be a problem in the construction industry.”  OFCCP says the report will allow the Agency to strengthen both enforcement and compliance assistance. 

OFCCP proposed reinstating CC-257 in February 2024, and in its Supporting Statement, indicated that the report would allow the Agency to “better identify if there are potential hiring or job assignment issues that warrant further investigation during a compliance evaluation.”

The new reporting requirement will include data on number of employees and trade employees’ hours worked by race and gender within each Standard Metropolitan Statistical Area (SMSA) or Economic Area (EA) each month. For contractors with employees working on multiple projects, either within a SMSA/EA or across several areas, gathering and preparing the relevant data each month may prove challenging. Contractors must also include whether the work performed is designated by OFCCP as a Megaproject.  Other requirements include the contractor’s unique entity identifier (UEI) or Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) number, both of which OFCCP uses to identify entities doing business with the federal government, and a list of the federal agencies funding their projects.

The Agency published Frequently Asked Questions on its CC-257 Report landing page and intends to provide additional compliance assistance, including a webinar, in early 2025. 

Please reach out to your Jackson Lewis attorney with any questions or for assistance in preparing for this new reporting requirement.

The contractor community has been anticipating the release of OFCCP’s next list of contractors selected for audit. Its here.

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has published the latest Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) for supply & service contractors. The list is composed of 2,000 federal contractors and subcontractors. As a reminder, the CSAL is advance notification of audits that are slated to be initiated at an upcoming time.

As it has been doing for several years, OFCCP also published the accompanying methodology used to develop this list.

A notable change from the last list, OFCCP has increased to the maximum number of potential audits for a single parent company to ten (10) establishments. OFCCP prioritized contractor and subcontractor establishments with the highest employee count in each district office’s jurisdiction and then looked at all U.S. establishments with at least 400 employees for each parent company as eligible for selection.

Interestingly, the methodology OFCCP selected only one hospital for review per OFCCP region and only two colleges/universities for review per OFCCP region.

We are continuing to digest the list and methodology and will update with any additional insights.