directed the agency to cease all activities under , which President Trump earlier this week. Executive Order 11246 DOL’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to review contractors’ employment data, including hiring and pay practices, for the purpose of identifying instances of potential discrimination and determining whether financial penalties should be issued. The agency contractors to establish affirmative action programs, including setting “placement goals” to increase representation of underrepresented groups, such as women and minorities, and developing outreach and recruitment initiatives.
The DOL office has that its audits were assigned on a random basis and conducted to verify whether government contractors and subcontractors were complying with equal employment opportunity regulations. In some instances, violations identified by the OFCCP during these audits worth millions of dollars, and in rare situations, they escalated to litigation in order to enforce compliance with anti-discrimination and affirmative action laws.
Trump has several executive orders designed to promote diversity and uphold civil rights laws through his order on “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.” Among these were , which required federal agencies to address the environmental and health impacts on minority and low-income communities;, which created a government-wide initiative to promote diversity and inclusion in the federal workforce; and , which expanded protections against discrimination in federal employment and contracting to include sexual orientation and gender identity.
“The Trump administration continues to reverse decades of civil rights and equity work at shocking speeds. We are no longer looking at just attacks on LGBTQ+ rights and protections, but protections against blatant racism,” LGBTQ legislative researcher Allison Chapman told Truthout. “This was never going to end with transgender people and always was about reversing the United States to be a country where only white cisgender men have rights.”
Meta, Google, and Amazon were among the companies for compliance evaluations by OFCCP this fiscal year. In the last year, all three companies significantly their DEI initiatives. In December, Amazon it was “winding down” certain diversity and inclusion efforts, Meta shut down both its and, and Google its DEI initiatives. Each company also contributed to Trump’s inauguration fund and had representatives .
“Businesses and organizations continue to bend the knee in an attempt to be seen favorably by the US government,” Chapman said. “It’s not at all surprising that these are the very organizations that are going to benefit from this change.”
This article originally appeared in Truthout on January 28th, 2025
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