Democratic Lawmakers Urge U.S. Department of Labor to Abandon Proposal to Dismantle OFCCP

Quick Hits

• A group of forty lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives sent a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Labor urging her to abandon proposed plans to drastically reduce and restructure OFCCP.
• The lawmakers raised concerns that the cuts could leave federal contractor workers vulnerable to potential discrimination.
• The letter comes amidst other OFCCP-related efforts by lawmakers, including the introduction of legislation to codify now-revoked Executive Order 11246.

The April 11 letter, jointly signed by twenty members of the U.S. Senate and twenty members of the U.S. House of Representatives, raises concerns with the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) proposal to reduce the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) by approximately 90 percent through reducing the number of OFCCP personnel, offices, and regions.

Led by Senator Patty Murray (WA) and Representative Shontel Brown (OH), the legislators urged Secretary Chavez-DeRemer to “abandon” the proposed plans while touting OFCCP’s commitment to federal contract workers.

“For decades, OFCCP has worked effectively to prevent and address unlawful discrimination by investigating individual complaints from workers and by proactively reviewing federal contractors’ employment practices,” the lawmakers said in their letter. “This unique power to proactively review whether employers were complying with the law allowed OFCCP to identify discrimination that might have otherwise gone unreported or undiscovered.”

Further, the lawmakers explained that they believe “[d]rastic cuts to staff and shuttered offices in our communities would leave workers vulnerable to discrimination.”

The April 11 letter is signed by several prominent lawmakers, including Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) and Senator Bernie Sanders (VT), among others. Additionally, prior to leading the April 11 letter, Rep. Brown also led sixty-eight of her colleagues in the House on February 5, 2024, cosponsoring and introducing legislation, H.R. 989, that seeks to codify the now-revoked Executive Order 11246.

In early April, Secretary Chavez-DeRemer renewed offers of deferred resignation and voluntary early retirement to OFCCP personnel, after initially offering them in January 2025. These offers were available until April 14. This move comes after the DOL proposed restructuring OFCCP in late February, before the appointment of Catherine Eschbach as the OFCCP’s new director on March 24.

On April 16, 2025, OFCCP may have taken its first steps towards this proposed restructuring through placing much of OFCCP’s workforce on administrative leave.  

Exactly how OFCCP may ultimately be restructured or operates in the future remains to be seen as the Department of Labor moves forward amid congressional calls to abandon those same actions.

Ogletree Deakins will continue to monitor developments and will provide updates on the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Compliance, Employment Law, Government Contracting and Reporting, and Governmental Affairs blogs as additional information becomes available.

This article and more information on how the Trump administration’s actions impact employers can be found on Ogletree Deakins’ New Administration Resource Hub.

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