Shortly after taking office, President Trump made several changes to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). First, President Trump terminated the EEOC’s previous General Counsel, Karla Gilbride, and appointed Andrew Rogers into the position, an action that was largely expected. President Trump also terminated two EEOC Commissioners: Jocelyn Samuels, whose term was not expected to end until July 2026, and Charlotte Burrows, whose term was not expected to end until July 2028. Because the EEOC is meant to be an independent, bipartisan agency, these removals were unexpected and are unprecedented.
To have a quorum, the EEOC needs three commissioners. However, currently, the agency only has two (of the possible five) commissioner positions filled and, therefore, does not have a quorum. Without a quorum, the EEOC cannot adopt new regulations, issue legal guidance, or rescind guidance documents. The agency is, however, still able to investigate, process, and resolve charges.
President Trump also designated current EEOC Commissioner Andrea Lucas as the Acting Chair of the EEOC. Although the EEOC cannot currently take significant action due to the lack of a quorum, Commissioner Lucas has outlined the EEOC’s priorities under her leadership and current administration as follows:
- Rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination;
- Protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination;
- Defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, including women’s rights to single‑sex spaces at work;
- Protecting workers from religious bias and harassment, including antisemitism; and
- Remedying other areas of recent under-enforcement.
The EEOC has issued two press releases in recent weeks detailing its stance on anti-American national origin discrimination, as well as “rolling back the Biden administration’s gender identity agenda.”
Once the agency retains a quorum, we expect the EEOC to quickly take action to further Commissioner Lucas’s new priorities, such as rescinding Biden-era guidance on gender identity harassment and the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act and issuing new guidance on how the EEOC will interpret and enforce Title VII and other anti-discrimination laws.
The Labor and Employment Practice Group at Frantz Ward will continue to monitor the EEOC’s updates.
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