President Trump appoints Andrea Lucas Acting Chair

President Trump appointed Andrea Lucas Acting Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) on January 21, 2025. Interestingly, hers was the only nomination that was announced as Acting, which may mean she will be replaced as Chair by a subsequent nomination. In the first Trump administration, the president named Vicki Lipnic as Acting Chair and then nominated Janet Dhillon, who became Chair. Lucas’s term ends in July 2025.

In addition, the president fired former Chair Charlotte Burrows and former Vice Chair Jocelyn Samuels—both Democrats—leaving the commission without a quorum. For more on the firing of the EEOC commissioners, see “EEOC commissioners and NLRB member fired, leaving both panels in limbo.”

Lucas outlines new priorities

Acting Chair Lucas, currently the only Republican on the EEOC, has stated that she was honored to lead the agency and that she looked forward to restoring evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans. She said that her priorities include “rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination,” “defending the biological and binary reality of sex,” and “protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination.” She also will work to protect workers from religious bias and harassment, including anti-Semitism.