On June 27, 2025, OFCCP Director Catherine Eshbach issued a letter to government contractor employers inviting them to use the OFCCP Contractor Portal as a vehicle for voluntarily demonstrating how they unwound compliance under Executive Order 11246. “OFCCP is providing all federal contractors with the opportunity to volunteer information in narrative form about what actions they have taken in response to EO 14173.”

Until we learn whether there are negative consequences for organizations that don’t submit anything, we recommend that employers do not submit information to the portal. If organizations want to follow this list and conduct a privileged assessment of their current compliance posture, in case it’s needed down the road, we would be pleased to assist.

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The OFCCP’s letter invites employers to provide information confirming:

1. That they have reviewed their EO 11246 affirmative action efforts;
2. Whether they believe any modifications to employment and recruitment practices are necessary; and
3. If so, what those changes are and steps the federal contractors may have taken to modify those practices.

The OFCCP offered examples of practices that contractors may have unwound:

• Making trainings, sponsorship programs, leadership development programs, educational funding, or other privileges of employment available only to employees of a certain race or sex;
• [Setting] placement goals that were based on race or sex;
• [Obtaining] ratings by diversity organizations that graded employers on factors that included the provision of resources designed to promote the rise of non-white, non-male employees;
• Using applicants’ or employees’ participation in race- or sex-related (internal or external) groups or organizations as a “plus factor” or proxy for race or sex in employment and hiring decisions;
• Tying executive compensation to meeting race- or sex-based hiring, promotion, retention, representation, or other employee-demographic-related goals;
• Mandating courses, orientation programs, or trainings that are designed to emphasize and focus on racial stereotypes; and
• Encouraging employees to make recruitment efforts to, or employment referrals of, certain candidates based on race or sex.

This seems like an admission against interest because if you state that you unwound any of this in 2025, it has the potential to create the misimpression that you were somehow violating Title VII in the past. We have five additional observations:

1. Portal Instructions: The OFCCP stated that “[f]urther instruction on how to provide this voluntary information is available on the OFCCP’s Contractor Portal.” Once you log into your employer account, a notice appears on the second screen under the Company ID prompt:
   “Pursuant to Executive Order 14173, Section 3(b)(2) and Director Eschbach’s June 27, 2025 letter, all federal contractors are being provided a voluntary opportunity to provide information to the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs regarding actions taken in response to the recission of Executive Order 11246 and the directive to contractors in Executive Order 14173, Section 3(b)(1). Below is a free form text box where contractors may provide a narrative with any information that they are choosing to provide. The text box has a limit of 20,000 characters. A contractor may also instead choose to voluntarily provide by email this information or any additional documents related to any information they choose to provide in the text box. That email is OFCCP-ContractorPortal@dol.gov. A contractor who is choosing to provide any of the voluntary information by email may wish to note in the text box that it has done so (or will do so) to help ensure all voluntary information submitted is efficiently processed.”
2. Construction Employers: The OFCCP contractor portal was never a vehicle for construction contractors and subcontractors to certify compliance with OFCCP’s laws and regulations. They currently don’t have user accounts or login information, so the portal would be completely new for them. The portal landing page prior to login does not appear to address this omission, and although the OFCCP is offering an email option, it encourages any employer submitting information by email “to note in the text box that it has [submitted by email].” But, again, construction employers don’t have accounts so they can’t put a note in the text box unless they first create an account.
   
   
3. The Fiscal Year 2026 Budget: The House of Representatives has advanced a FY26 budget that allocates $0.00 to OFCCP. It’s not going to be funded after September 30, 2025. The administration’s proposal is to send enforcement of Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and its implementing regulations to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) (it already enforces the Americans with Disabilities Act) and to send enforcement of the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and its implementing regulations to the Veterans’ Employment and Training Service (VETS) within the Department of Labor. [The Senate Education and Labor Committee’s reconciliation of the House bill is heavily focused on the Education components and does not restore any funding for OFCCP.]
   
   
4. Portal Sunset: In light of Congress’s vision of eviscerating OFCCP after September 30, 2025, we suspect that any future anti-DEI enforcement will be addressed by EEOC or the Department of Justice (DOJ), not OFCCP. So, we’re not clear on the purpose of submitting this information to an agency that is disappearing 3 days after the portal closes. Collect it and send it to EEOC? Collect it and send it to the DOJ? We also have no reassurances that employer responses would be confidential, so we would have to presume that responses are public.
   
   
5. EEOC Quorum: The Senate seems likely to re-authorize Andrea Lucas as a Commissioner on the EEOC soon, but the second Republican-nominated Commissioner (Brittany Panucci) has yet to be calendared for a confirmation hearing, although we don’t have any reason to think that she won’t be confirmed. Once the EEOC has a quorum, we’ll try to monitor how or whether any of this “unwinding” information is being used.

Download PDF of Client Update


Supporting Documents

• Executive Order No. 11246 - EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY
• Executive Order 14173 of January 21, 2025 - Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity
• Letter from OFCCP Director Eschbach - PDF