Andrea Lucas says reports risk justifying discrimination
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s Republican majority voted 2-1 Tuesday to rescind a 60-year-old requirement for tens of thousands of private sector employers to submit workforce demographic data each year, the agency announced.
The move is part of a broader effort under President Donald Trump to overhaul federal civil rights enforcement, ending a practice that has endured through 10 administrations regardless of party, the commission said.
EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity and inclusion initiatives who has urged white men to come forward with discrimination complaints, argued that requiring companies to file the annual demographic reports risked encouraging them to justify discriminatory practices as efforts to diversify their workforce.
The proposal now enters a 30-day public commentary period before the agency can finalize the change. A Democratic commissioner voted against the measure.