Report urges ending the unauthorized Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
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The Competitive Enterprise Institute today released a report supporting the dismantling of a legally dubious office within the U.S. Department of Labor: the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
“The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs created an expansive and costly regulatory regime and imposed it on private parties—federal contractors and subcontractors – without any authority from Congress,” explained David McFadden, author of the report.
President Trump drew attention to the OFCCP in January 2025 when, soon after assuming office, he revoked a 1965 Executive Order issued by President Lyndon B. Johnson (E.O. 11246) that led to the establishment of the OFCCP. The Trump E.O. 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” ordered the OFCCP to cease requiring contractors to implement affirmative action plans, among other activities unauthorized by Congress. Since then, the Labor Department has indicated plans to shut the office down.
The CEI report discusses the illegitimacy of OFCCP and the burdens it has imposed on federal contractors. It also endorses specific ways to dismantle and disperse OFCCP responsibilities, like having the office rescind its regulations that implement President Johnson’s EO 11246 and having the Labor Department transfer OFCCP authority to the Veterans’ Employment and Training Office and the Office of Disability Employment Policy, respectively.
“Along with all other employees, the federal contracting workforce is just as protected by equal opportunity laws as it was before the Trump executive order,” said McFadden. “The positive reform happening now is that federal contractors and subcontractors have been relieved of onerous requirements and bureaucratic oversight and enforcement mechanisms illicitly adopted by the Department of Labor.”