OFCCP Director Pat Shiu opened the day today with a remote, hi-definition broadcast from Washington DC.  As you may know, OFCCP opted not to attend the Hawaii conference in person.   But it likely saved tax payers lots of money.  Of particular note, we learned from OFCCP that none of the Agency’s proposed regulations – separate proposals covering employer affirmative action for Individuals with a Disability and affirmative action for covered military Veterans –   will be published too soon.  Traditionally, OFCCP has used the National ILG conference to announce the final publication of proposed regulations.  While OFCCP had hopes of publishing both sets of proposed regulations earlier this year, or in time for this week’s conference, that was not to be.  That may be attributable to the concerns raised by many within the contractor community about the burdens the proposed regulations would impose. 

OFCCP said it hopes to see both sets of regulations published by end of the federal government’s fiscal year – September 30th – but made no commitment that publication would happen by then.  The opinion of many private sector attorneys, consultants and in-house professionals at the conference is that the proposed regulations may not be published at all — or only if significant revisions are made to reduce the burden on employers.  Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks and months.

That’s all for now from Hawaii.  Look for the next post tomorrow.  Mahalo!