On Wednesday, July 2, 2025, the OFCCP issued a notice (referred to as a “Stakeholder Message”) regarding the agency’s renewed enforcement activity.
In short, the OFCCP will:
- Resume processing complaints against federal contractors alleging discrimination on the basis of disability and/or protected veteran status;
- Administratively close all pending audits in their entirety;
- Leave the AAP certification period closed (for now); and
- Extend an existing moratorium suspending the enforcement of affirmative action obligations for Veterans Affairs Health Benefits Program (VAHBP) providers.
Earlier this year, then Acting Secretary of Labor issued Secretary’s Order 03-2025, which directed the OFCCP to “cease and desist all investigative and enforcement activity under the rescinded Executive Order 11246,” and to hold in abeyance (suspend) the disability and veteran portions of open audits. As a result, the OFCCP suspended all open audits, pending cases, conciliation agreements, investigations, and complaints in order to “untangle” EO 11246 activity from matters pertaining to the OFCCP’s surviving authority under Section 503 of the of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 503) and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA).
Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer has now issued Order 08-2025, described in the new Stakeholder Message, allowing OFCCP to resume activity related to their Section 503 and VEVRAA authority.
As a result, the OFCCP will resume processing Section 503- and VEVRAA-related complaints. The message also made clear that contractors must continue to comply with their obligations under the Section 503 and VEVRAA regulatory schemes, including by preparing annual AAPs.
With respect to the Section 503 and VEVRAA audits that were held in abeyance, the OFCCP has chosen to exercising its enforcement discretion to “administratively close all pending compliance reviews and will take no further action related to the scheduling list released in November 2024,” meaning the agency will not schedule new audits based on that list. Contractors with open or pending audits will receive “formal notification of the administrative closure” from the OFCCP.
The OFCCP will also keep the 2025 AAP certification period “closed” as the agency continues to revise processes and systems to reflect changes to the scope of OFCCP’s authority. Currently, that means the revocation of EO 11246, but note that the current White House budget proposal seeks to close the OFCCP entirely by the end of the federal government’s fiscal year, and transfer Section 503 and VEVRAA authority to other agencies, specifically the EEOC and DOL’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service respectively.
The OFCCP’s Stakeholder Message also notes that the agency reviewed OFCCP Directive 2021-01 Revision 1 issued during the Biden administration that extended prior directives exempting TRICARE providers from the OFCCP’s affirmative action requirements to also cover VAHBP providers. Those providers were originally exempted until May 7, 2023. The OFCCP is now extending that moratorium to May 7, 2027. The moratorium means that the OFCCP will not schedule audits for affected healthcare providers but will continue to process discrimination complaints. To the extent that any audits of VAHBP providers were opened between May 7, 2023, and now, those audits will be administratively closed along with all others.
Contractors with open or pending audits should expect to receive an official administrative closure in the coming days. Although audits under Section 503 and VEVRAA are not resuming, all contractors must continue to prepare annual Section 503 and VEVRAA AAPs and comply with all other parts of the current regulatory scheme. And, although the OFCCP certification portal remains closed, contractors are reminded that they certify their compliance with these requirements as part of the government contracting process in the System of Award Management (SAM) database.
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