An article from Dive Brief DOL pauses contractor hiring discrimination enforcement after Trump order

The decision is the result of a Jan. 22 executive order that rescinded a half-century-old effort to prohibit discrimination by federal contractors.

Published Jan. 29, 2025 Ryan Golden Senior Reporter

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The U.S. Department of Labor's headquarters in Washington, D.C., is seen on Feb. 6, 2023. The agency's acting secretary announced Friday that DOL would "cease and desist" all investigation and enforcement of federal contractor anti-discrimination regulations. Kate Tornone/Higher Ed Dive

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Listen to the article 3 min This audio is auto-generated. Please let us know if you have feedback. Dive Brief:

• Acting Secretary of Labor Vince Micone ordered the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs to cease and desist all investigation and enforcement of discriminatory hiring practices by federal contractors, according to a Friday press release.
• The decision follows President Donald Trump’s Jan. 22 executive order that rescinded a 1965 executive order, which, in its most recent amended form, prohibited discrimination by federal contractors on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin. 
• Micone’s order applies to all DOL employees, including all members of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Office of Administrative Law Judges and the Administrative Review Board. The agency “no longer has any authority” under the rescinded 1965 executive order, Micone said.

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In rescinding an anti-discrimination directive that dated back to former President Lyndon Johnson’s administration, Trump said his Jan. 22 order targeted “radical DEI preferencing in federal contracting,” an extension of his broader efforts — including multiple other executive orders — to rid the federal government of diversity, equity and inclusion altogether.

On the day of his inauguration, Trump also signed orders ending Biden-era DEI programs within federal agencies. A separate order denied the validity of transgender identity and erased all mention of gender identity, outside of sex assigned at birth, from any federal agency interpretation or application of statutes, regulations or guidances.

Under the Biden administration, DOL enforced federal contract antidiscrimination regulations on multiple fronts. Last year, for example, DOL tagged Leggett & Platt, Inc. with more than $400,000 in back wages and interest payments to Black, Hispanic and White applicants for jobs at a North Carolina production facility. It also published federal contractors’ pay data in response to a legal dispute involving a series of Freedom of Information Act requests.

In the Jan. 22 order, Trump said his order barred OFCCP from “pushing contractors to balance their workforce based on race, sex, gender identity, sexual preference, or religion,” but added that it “requires simple and unmistakable affirmation that contractors will not engage in illegal discrimination, including illegal DEI.”

Trump also has tasked federal agencies with investigating and ending DEI programs operated by private-sector employers.

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