On March 26, 2026, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) titled Addressing DEI Discrimination by Federal Contractors. The EO declares diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) “activities” “unethical and often illegal,” and imposes new obligations on federal contractors and subcontractors related to DEI programming. Contractors that do business with the federal government — or that work as subcontractors for companies that do — should review the EO closely to determine the extent to which they are compliant with the new requirements.
Continue Reading Déjà Vu? New Executive Order Outlines Restrictions on Contractor and Subcontractor DEI Activity
Fastest 5 Minutes: DOJ Guidance re DEI, White House AI Action Plan
This week’s episode covers developments involving DOJ’s guidance for federal funding recipients regarding DEI and the White House AI Action Plan, and is hosted by Peter Eyre, Katie Erno, and Matthew F. Ferraro. Crowell & Moring’s “Fastest 5 Minutes” is a biweekly podcast that provides a brief summary of significant government contracts legal and regulatory
What Private Employers Should Know Following President Trump’s Executive Order On Sex and Gender Identity
The first day of the Trump Administration included the issuance of 26 executive orders(“EOs”), the most in modern presidential history. Among these EOs, President Trump signed the Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government Executive Order (the “EO” or “Order”). While focused on federal policy, the Order has broad implications for private sector employers.
Continue Reading What Private Employers Should Know Following President Trump’s Executive Order On Sex and Gender IdentityTrump Targets OFCCP, DEI in Executive Order
Late on the night of January 21, 2025, President Trump signed the “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” Executive Order (the “EO”). This EO, like a number of the executive orders issued on his first day in office, took aim at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (“DEI”) programs by, among other things, broadly directing executive agencies and departments to terminate all “discriminatory and illegal preferences, mandates, policies, programs, activities, guidance, regulations, enforcement actions, consent orders, and requirements;” curtailing the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) operational authority and directing agencies to scrutinize the DEI practices of private sector employers. Additionally, this language raises questions about the future and status of certain programs, preferences, and set-aside procurements administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, and other agencies.
Continue Reading Trump Targets OFCCP, DEI in Executive OrderUpdated Guidance Suggests that Federal Government May Enforce Contractor Vaccine Mandate
The Safer Federal Workforce Task Force issued updated guidance for federal contractors on October 14, 2022, announcing that it will reevaluate enforcement of the federal contractor vaccine mandate and safety requirements issued under Executive Order 14042. This is the first pronouncement from the Task Force after it had indicated that it would not enforce the
OFCCP Extends the EEO-1 FOIA Objection Deadline to October 19, 2022
As outlined in our prior client alert, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (the “OFCCP”) published a Notice in the Federal Register to federal contractors of a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request for disclosure of Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Report data submitted by all federal contractors and first-tier subcontractors from 2016 until
Federal Government Will Not Enforce the Contractor Vaccine Mandate Absent Further Notice
On August 31, 2022, the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force announced that the Federal Government “will take no action to implement or enforce Executive Order 14042,” the contractor vaccine mandate, “to ensure compliance with an applicable preliminary nationwide injunction, which may be supplemented, modified, or vacated, depending on the course of ongoing litigation.”
This announcement
Federal Contractors Have Until September 19, 2022 to Object to Disclosure of EEO-1 Data Subject to Pending FOIA Request
On August 19, 2022, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (the “OFCCP”) published a Notice in the Federal Register to federal contractors of a Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) request from Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting (“CIR”) for disclosure of Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Report data submitted by all federal contractors and first-tier subcontractors from 2016 until 2020. In order to determine whether this information is protected from disclosure under FOIA Exemption 4, which protects disclosure of confidential commercial information, the OFFCP requested that federal contractors whose information would otherwise be subject to this request submit objections to the OFCCP by September 19, 2022. Type 2 EEO-1 reports are one of the mandatory submissions that multi-establishment employers file annually, consistent with their obligations under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the OFCCP’s regulation. They consist of a consolidated report of demographic data for all employees by employer establishment, categorized by race/ethnicity, sex and EEO-1 job category. Notably, the FOIA request at issue does not seek production of Component 2 compensation data included in the EEO-1 reports submitted by federal contractors and subcontractors in 2017 and 2018.
Continue Reading Federal Contractors Have Until September 19, 2022 to Object to Disclosure of EEO-1 Data Subject to Pending FOIA RequestGeorgia District Court Addresses Scope of Nationwide Injunction of Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate
On January 21, 2022, the District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued an Order in Georgia v. Biden, No. 2:21-cv-163 (S.D. Ga. Jan. 21, 2022), which responded, in part, to the Government’s requests for clarification regarding the scope of the court’s nationwide injunction of the federal contractor vaccine mandate promulgated under Executive
A Georgia District Court Enjoins the Government from Enforcing the Federal Contractor Vaccine Mandate Nationwide
Earlier today, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia issued a preliminary nationwide injunction of the contractor vaccine mandate in Executive Order 14042. This injunction will bar the Government “from enforcing the vaccine mandate for federal contractors and subcontractors in all covered contracts in any state or territory of the United States