Second Trump administration will target workforce agencies

President-elect Donald Trump is expected to make major changes to the federal government in his second term, including an overhaul of the workforce enforcement agencies such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor (DOL).

EEOC

The EEOC currently has three Democratic members including Chair Charlotte Burrows and one Republican, Andrea Lucas. It’s expected that EEOC General Counsel (GC) Karla Gilbride will be asked to resign or be fired by the incoming Trump administration much the same way President Joe Biden fired her predecessor, Sharon Gustafson, when she refused to resign in 2021. During the first Trump administration, Vicki Lipnic served as Acting Chair with the Democratic commissioners in the majority for two years until Janet Dhillon was confirmed in 2019.

The lack of a Republican majority for much of the second Trump term will limit the commission’s ability to revise the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA) regulations, to withdraw controversial harassment guidance, or to refocus the agency on religious discrimination and anti-DEI litigation. If the Trump administration wants to move the Democratic commissioners out before the end of their terms, they may decide to fire them by arguing their terms violate the Appointment Clause of the Constitution. The courts have upheld President Biden’s firing of the EEOC and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) GCs on that basis.