On July 29, 2025, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued updated guidance setting forth the administration’s position on how federal antidiscrimination laws—including Title VI and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and...more
8/11/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Hostile Environment ,
New Guidance ,
Title IX ,
Title VI ,
Title VII ,
Training ,
Unlawful Practices
On March 14, 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit granted the federal government’s request to stay, pending appeal, a nationwide preliminary injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the District of...more
Host Jonathan Porter welcomes to the show Michael Schrier, a Washington-based partner in Husch Blackwell’s Government Contracts practice, to discuss a recent executive order (EO) issued by President Donald Trump that could,...more
Our prior alert on President Trump’s executive order revoking Executive Order 11246 addressed the certification, investigation, and other legal risks posed and related private sector impact on DEI programs. On February 21,...more
2/25/2025
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Compliance ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
First Amendment ,
Popular ,
Preliminary Injunctions ,
Trump Administration
On January 27, 2025, the United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a pause, set to go into effect at 5 p.m. on January 28, to all “federal financial assistance programs and supporting activities.” The order...more
1/29/2025
/ Compliance ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Budget ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Funding ,
Funding ,
Grants ,
Loans ,
Nonprofits ,
OMB ,
Regulatory Freeze ,
Regulatory Requirements ,
Reporting Requirements
Executive Order (E.O.) 11246 was issued by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965 to combat discrimination in employment (following the then-recent passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964) by requiring federal contractors and...more
1/23/2025
/ Affirmative Action ,
Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Civil Rights Act ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Disability Discrimination ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Donald Trump ,
Employment Discrimination ,
Employment Policies ,
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) ,
Executive Orders ,
False Claims Act (FCA) ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
OFCCP ,
Section 503 ,
Title VII ,
Veterans ,
Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA)
On January 5, 2023, the Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed rule that, if enacted, would amount to a near-total ban on the use of non-compete agreements and leave employers with fewer legal means of protecting their...more
As we wrote back in November 2021, the Biden Administration issued Executive Order 14055 reinstating most of the concepts from the Obama Administration era nondisplacement Executive Order 13495....more
7/21/2022
/ Acquisitions ,
Anti-Retaliation Provisions ,
Back Pay ,
Contractors ,
Department of Labor (DOL) ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Job Offers ,
Joe Biden ,
Prime Contractor ,
Proposed Regulation ,
Service Contract Act ,
Subcontractors ,
Suspensions & Debarments ,
Willful Violations
In Part Two of this discussion regarding the impact of the Executive Order, we explore how this requirement of PLAs for construction agreements greater than $35 million may indeed be another avenue that unions might use to...more
On February 4, 2022, President Biden issued Executive Order 14063, requiring certain federal construction contractors and subcontractors “to negotiate or become party to a project labor agreement with one or more appropriate...more
On December 7, 2021, the U.S. District for the Southern District of Georgia, in Georgia v. Biden, No. 1:21-cv-163, granted a preliminary injunction that temporarily stayed the Biden administration's vaccine mandate for...more
As predicted, another Obama Administration “oldie but goodie” has made a return in the Biden Administration. On November 18, 2021, President Biden issued a new Executive Order entitled “Executive Order on Nondisplacement of...more
Executive Order 14042 (Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors), the resulting guidance and the recent array of class deviation contract clauses create interesting and novel federal contract...more
11/1/2021
/ Best Practices ,
Continuing Legal Education ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Employee Retention ,
Employer Mandates ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Contractors ,
Flow Down Clause ,
Government Agencies ,
Human Resources Professionals ,
Masks ,
New Guidance ,
Noncompliance ,
OSHA ,
Penalties ,
Religious Exemption ,
Social Distancing ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations ,
Webinars ,
Workplace Safety
President Biden’s September 9, 2021 Executive Order 14042, Ensuring Adequate COVID Safety Protocols for Federal Contractors, directs the federal Safer Federal Workforce Task Force (“Task Force”) to develop COVID-19 workplace...more
9/28/2021
/ Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) ,
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ,
Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Covered Employees ,
Documentation ,
Executive Orders ,
Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) ,
Federal Contractors ,
Federal Employees ,
Joe Biden ,
Masks ,
OSHA ,
Religious Exemption ,
Service Contract Act ,
Social Distancing ,
Subcontractors ,
Vaccinations
On September 9, 2021, President Biden held a press conference introducing the administration’s “Plan to Stop the Delta Variant and Boost COVID-19 Vaccinations.” At this conference, the President announced a pair of executive...more
On April 27, 2021, President Biden issued a new Executive Order that raises the federal contractor minimum wage to $15 per hour, from the current $10.95 per hour, starting January 30, 2022...more