As part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) continued focus on the construction industry amid the Biden administration’s infrastructure push, the agency is honing in on major construction projects funded by the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL).
On May 1, 2023, the Biden administration announced that it will end the COVID-19 vaccine requirement for federal contractors on May 11, 2023—which is the day that the COVID-19 public health emergency will end.
On April 25, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) approved the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) revised Voluntary Self-Identification of Disability Form (CC-305).
In response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs has released 2016–2020 Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Report data of federal contractors that did not previously object to disclosure of their information.
On March 20, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it will open its online Contractor Portal tool on March 31, 2023, for federal contractors and subcontractors to certify their compliance with Affirmative Action Program (AAP) requirements. Existing contractors must certify compliance through the portal by June 29, 2023.
The White House recently launched an effort to revise and update the statistical standards for race and ethnicity data collection across federal agencies with a stated goal of better reflecting the growing diversity of people in the United States. On January 26, 2023, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a notice in the Federal Register in OMB’s 1997 Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15).
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) posted an updated final notice of the agency’s impending release of EEO-1 Type 2 (Consolidated) reports for 2016–2020 to all entities that may be subject to the Center for Investigative Reporting’s Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. The deadline for contractors appearing on the non-objectors list to respond to OFCCP has been extended from February 7, 2023, to 11:59 p.m. EST on February 17, 2023.
On January 18, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a notice proposing to modify its complaint process by adding a pre-complaint step whereby a complainant would be able to lay out basic allegations to allow OFCCP to make an initial assessment on whether the complaint would be proper and would be worth investigating.
In response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the Center for Investigative Reporting, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is preparing to release the 2016-2020 EEO-1 Type 2 (Consolidated) reports of federal contractors that did not previously object to disclosure. OFCCP’s List of Non-Objectors identifies more than 13,000 entities whose EEO-1 reports OFCCP plans to release in response to the FOIA request.
On January 20, 2023, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a Corporate Scheduling Announcement List (CSAL) identifying 500 establishments of federal supply and service contractors and subcontractors for compliance reviews.
On January 12, 2023, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld most of a district court’s injunction blocking the federal contractor vaccine mandate in Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee.
On December 19, 2022, a panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 federal contractor vaccine mandate. The 2-1 panel decision in State of Louisiana v. Biden found that to allow the mandate would result in an “enormous,” “transformative,” and “truly unprecedented” expansion of the powers of the president without clear authorization from Congress.
We recently reported on a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request covering government contractors’ 2016–2020 Type 2 EEO-1 reports announced in the Federal Register, pursuant to which contractors had until October 19, 2022, to object to the disclosure of their data. The requesting investigative reporter and nonprofit news organization subsequently sued the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) under FOIA, alleging that the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) violated FOIA in response to the FOIA requests. OFCCP began contacting companies for which it claims to have no record of objections to the FOIA request, via email on November 22, 2022.
On November 10, 2022, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued proposed revisions to its Employer Information Report (EEO-1) Component 1 data collection to streamline the process for large employers with multiple establishments.
On November 15, 2022, an investigative reporter and a nonprofit news organization sued the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The investigative reporter previously submitted multiple FOIA requests for federal contractors’ and first-tier subcontractors’ Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Report data to the DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force recently issued updated guidance on the federal contractor vaccine mandate and COVID-19 safety requirements.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has extended the deadline for federal contractors and first-tier subcontractors to submit objections to a broad Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request filed by an investigative reporter.
On August 31, 2022, the Biden administration updated its Safer Federal Workforce Task Force guidance on the federal contractor COVID-19 vaccine mandate. According to the new guidance, “the Federal Government will take no action to implement or enforce Executive Order 14042.
On August 26, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit narrowed the scope of a nationwide injunction that had barred enforcement of President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 federal contractor vaccine mandate. In December 2021, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia had issued a nationwide injunction, finding that President Biden had likely exceeded his authority under the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act when he issued Executive Order 14042.
On August 24, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it had updated its guidance for educational institutions with federal contracts and/or subcontracts.
On August 22, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced it will launch a new online platform whereby “contracting officers, contractors, and applicants seeking federal assistance for construction projects (such as a state [Department of Transportation])” can securely upload details about an awarded federal or federally-assisted construction contract or subcontract.
On August 18, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued unpublished notice of a broad Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) that impacts the federal contracting community.
With the first six months of 2022 completed, this is a good time to review a busy government reporting season.
On March 31, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) released its second directive of the year, Directive 2022-02, entitled “Effective Compliance Evaluations and Enforcement.”
Though the 2021 EEO-1 landing page labels the opening and closing dates for the 2021 EEO-1 filing cycle as “tentative,” the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has notified prior filers that the 2021 filing platform will “officially open” on April 12, 2022, and close on May 17, 2022.
The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) has released its 2022 Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) hiring benchmark. The new benchmark, effective March 31, 2022, is 5.5 percent, a decrease from the 2021 benchmark of 5.6 percent. The VEVRAA hiring benchmark was established in 2014, and this year marks its eighth reduction.
On March 21, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) announced that it would publish a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM), entitled “Pre-enforcement Notice and Conciliation Procedures,” in the Federal Register on March 22, 2022. OFCCP’s proposal would modify a 2020 final rule that had codified various procedures to resolve potential employment discrimination.
While the Paycheck Fairness Act (S. 205) is stalled in the U.S. Senate, the White House has called for action on issues relating to pay equity. On March 15, 2022, which was women’s “Equal Pay Day” for 2022 in the United States, President Biden issued an executive order “promoting pay equity and transparency” within the federal workforce and among federal contractors.
In the first internal agency directive during Jenny Yang’s tenure as director, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) issued Directive 2022-01, entitled “Pay Equity Audits” on March 15, 2021.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) recently announced its effort to modernize the agency’s EEO data collection by revising the procedures for professional employer organizations (PEOs), administrative services organizations (ASOs), human resource outsourcing organizations (HROs), and other similar organizations (“third-party human resource organizations”) to file EEO-1 Component 1 on behalf of a “client employer” or “client company.”
