As anticipated, immediately upon his inauguration, President Trump took swift action in the labor and employment arena. His initial appointments and Executive Orders left no doubt that his administration will make an abrupt and definitive break with his predecessor.

President Trump first appointed new leaders to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) and the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”), and then took additional actions aimed at halting and reversing many Biden-era initiatives and policies. In perhaps the action that garnered the most publicity, he issued an Executive Order dismantling federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”) programs, including a repeal of Executive Order 11246 governing affirmative action for federal contractors and subcontractors, including plans to target certain private sector organizations.

At the EEOC, Andrea Lucas, the only current Republican commissioner, was appointed acting chair. Though Commissioner Lucas must grapple with a five-seat commission slated to hold a Democratic majority through 2026, employers can look to her track record to anticipate the agency’s likely shift in priorities.

During her tenure with the EEOC, Commissioner Lucas frequently has taken issue with employers’ DEI programs, reflecting the opposition to such programs by many members of the new administration. In line with other members of the Trump Administration, Commissioner Lucas also publicly opposed various guidance issued by the EEOC during the Biden administration. She raised concerns regarding the EEOC’s final regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, arguing that the agency’s interpretation of the statute led to overly broad protections. She also took issue with the agency’s advice related to gender identity protections in the EEOC’s final workplace harassment guidance. Religious freedom is also expected to become an agency priority, as Commissioner Lucas has expressed interest in bolstering protections against religious discrimination.

Consistent with these positions, upon her appointment, Commissioner Lucas stated that her priorities will include “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.”

At the NLRB, in December, former chair Lauren McFerran failed to receive Senate confirmation for a second five-year term. Had she received the appointment, the Board would have retained a Democratic majority until 2026. Instead, President Trump tapped Marvin Kaplan, the only sitting Republican member of the Board, as the chair of the agency. President Trump will also be able to appoint two new Board members, cementing a Republican majority for years. Employers should expect the new Board to work swiftly to undo many of the controversial decisions issued during President Biden’s term and which greatly broadened protections for employees and unions.

President Trump did not take immediate action to fire the General Counsels for the EEOC and NLRB, moves that had been widely anticipated for his first day in office, although those actions are expected soon. Once made, the moves will further shift those agencies away from their Biden-era policies toward, to some extent, more business-friendly approaches with some significant caveats evident in the President’s initial Executive Orders. 

In his first week in office, President Trump issued a torrent of orders, including ones that directed the U.S. Department of Labor and the EEOC to recognize only two sexes when enforcing anti-discrimination laws, eliminated the federal government’s DEI policies and programs, placed federal DEI workers on leave, ordered a return-to-office mandate for federal workers, and reversed dozens of Executive Orders issued by his predecessor and prior Democratic administrations. Indeed, President Trump rescinded President Lyndon Johnson’s 1965 Executive Order 11246, which banned discrimination by federal contractors and subcontractors and required them to maintain affirmative action programs for women and minorities. President Trump further ordered the heads of “all” federal agencies to submit proposed strategic enforcement plans to “deter DEI programs or principles,” and eliminate illegal discrimination allegedly wrought by those programs. This will include identification of up to nine (9) private sector employers (including publicly traded companies, large educational institutions, foundations and other non-profits, and bar and medical associations) for potential compliance investigations.

Ballard Spahr’s Labor and Employment Group is monitoring new developments from the second Trump administration and regularly issuing alerts and advising employers across the nation on the far-reaching changes enacted by the administration.