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EO Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity

On January 21, 2025, President Trump issued an Executive Order (EO) titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. The EO states that employers across industries, including the Federal government, and other institutions such as colleges and universities have “adopted and actively use dangerous, demeaning, and immoral race- and sex-based preferences under the guise of so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI)”  The president’s EO rescind a number of previous Executive Orders that established core anti-discrimination protections and advanced efforts to improve equity in the federal workforce. 

Most notably, the EO rescinded EO 11246, which was issued in 1965 by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and for the first time directly charged the Department of Labor with enforcing anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunity requirements in federal contracting. Prior to President Trump’s Executive Order, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) played a crucial role in protecting workers civil rights. Under the most recently amended version of EO 11246, federal contractors could not discriminate against an “ employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin”. Furthermore, federal contractors were required to take affirmative action to ensure that individuals were treated during employment without regard to the protected classes listed above, including as it related to: “…upgrading, demotion, or transfer; recruitment or recruitment advertising; layoff or termination; rates of pay or other forms of compensation; and selection for training.” It has been under the authority of EO 11246 that the OFCCP has been able to initiate investigations and bring enforcement against federal contractors, directly protecting more than 10.3 million workers through its worksite investigations over the last ten years and securing financial relief for more than 250,000 workers over the same period.    

By rescinding EO 11246, the efforts of the OFCCP have come to a halt. On January 24, 2025 the Acting Secretary of Labor issued an order for all DOL employees to “cease and desist all investigative and enforcement activity under the rescinded Executive Order 11246 and the regulations promulgated under it.”  

The EO also directs agencies to develop plans to discourage private sector institutions, including employers, higher educational institutions, nonprofit and philanthropic associations, and other private groups from voluntarily taking on their own efforts to improve hiring or other equitable outcomes along lines of race, gender, disability, or other characteristics.