Employment / 2 min read
On February 28 2025, the Washington Post reported that Federal agencies are dismantling civil rights, CEO offices. The Trump Administration fired back condemning the reports as fake news because the administration had not (yet) made cuts at the EEOC. The President did, however, remove two Democratic appointed EEOC Commissioners and terminated the EEOC General Counsel. President Biden similarly fired the EEOC General Counsel President Trump appointed at the end of his first term. However, the EEOC’s workforce remains intact… for now. Will DOGE eventually make cuts at EEOC? I think not, or certainly not to the extent of the significant cutbacks taken at other federal agencies. The Administration’s response to the Washington Post story combined with the President’s directive to dismantle DEI initiatives suggests that the EEOC’s workforce will remain intact.
The policy agenda has obviously changed, but I think the EEOC will be spared from the mass layoff. That said, I anticipate that the EEOC might not replace persons who “voluntarily” leave the EEOC.
We have seen DOGE’s influence on EEOC responsiveness. Since President Trump took office, EEOC investigators have kicked into high gear. Perhaps they read and took seriously the now legendary Musk email. It is no coincidence that we are hearing from the EEOC at vastly faster speed on pending Charges of Discrimination. In years past, I could rarely predict to clients how long it would take for the EEOC to investigate and issue a decision on a Charge of Discrimination. Some EEOC offices mimicked a black hole. It could take years to hear from them. Often after many months an investigator would pick up a file to ask my client questions about a termination decision made long ago. One Texas EEOC Regional Office routinely asked me to resend position statements filed long ago admitting to me that they may have lost the position statement or not known if it was ever filed.
I can assure you the EEOC is moving vastly faster. An investigator out of Memphis called me recently about a recently filed Charge of Discrimination, he told me to expect a very different speed in the processing of discrimination claims. Within weeks of that conversation, EEOC investigators have emailed and called me to push forward on Charges of Discrimination that have been sitting with the Commission for many months. This is all good news in terms of government efficiency.
There is a flip side, I find that the government’s delay investigating Charges of Discrimination tended to decrease the number of claims that result in litigation. Slow action by the EEOC gave former employees time to move on with life and their past grievances. Very few Charges of Discrimination result in a lawsuit. It will be interesting to see how a more efficient EEOC impacts the percentage of Charges of Discrimination that result in litigation. Time will tell.