Labor Leaders Demand EEOC Leadership Testify and Turn Over Important Documents Related to Workplace Demographic Reporting
WASHINGTON – Today, House Education and Workforce Committee Ranking Member Robert C. “Bobby” Scott (VA-03) and House Workforce Protections Subcommittee Ranking Member Ilhan Omar (MN-05) called for an immediate, long-overdue oversight hearing with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) leadership to examine the EEOC’s budget request and the House Republicans’ proposed Fiscal Year 2027 (FY27) funding cut to the EEOC. The hearing would also explore the numerous actions the agency has taken over the past year that undermine the Agency’s mission, including the EEOC’s plan to roll back regulations requiring the collection of workplace demographic data, known as EEO-1.
Since becoming Chair of the EEOC, Andrea Lucas has rescinded workplace harassment guidance, halted processing of claims alleging gender identity-based discrimination, and prompted bar complaints alleging that her actions constitute a refusal to follow established law.
“We remain deeply concerned that, under Chair Lucas’ leadership, the EEOC has taken a number of actions that are contrary to the EEOC’s mission to ‘[p]revent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal opportunity for all in the workplace,’” wrote the Ranking Members to Chairman Walberg. “It is important for Committee Members to hear directly from Chair Lucas about the full implications of House Republicans’ proposed FY27 funding cut to the EEOC.”
In addition to urging Chairman Walberg to hold the first EEOC oversight hearing in four years, the Members demanded EEOC Chair Lucas turn over to the Committee all documents and information regarding the decision to drop the reporting requirements and its failure to announce the opening of the 2026 collection cycle, which would collect from employers the EEO-1 workplace demographic data from 2025.
“For nearly sixty-one years, the EEOC has been the leading federal agency focused on ensuring equal opportunity in employment, working toward fulfillment of creating fair and just workplaces through its enforcement of our civil rights laws. Taken together, the proposal to rescind longstanding regulations and the failure to fulfill existing obligations under those regulations to conduct the 2026 EEO-1 Data Collection Cycle undermine the EEOC’s mission,” wrote the Ranking Members to EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas.
Chair Lucas’s testimony and the documents related to EEOC’s above-mentioned decision regarding EEO-1 workplace data are critical to assessing whether the EEOC is fulfilling its statutory mission to prevent and remedy unlawful employment discrimination and advance equal opportunity for all in the workplace.
To read the letter to Chairman Walberg requesting a hearing, click here.
To read the letter to EEOC Chair Lucas requesting documents, click here.
###
Press Contact
Democratic Press Office, 202-226-0853
Previous Article