Andrea Lucas Confirmed to Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

New York Times

3 days ago

The Senate confirmed Andrea Lucas on Thursday for a renewed term as commissioner at the Equal Opportunity Commission, pushing forward the Trump administration's efforts to reshape the priorities of the nation's primary regulator of workplace discrimination. Ms. Lucas has been at the forefront of President Trump's war on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Ms. Lucas, 39, was confirmed by a party-line vote of 52 to 45. She was first appointed as a commissioner to the E.E.O.C. in 2020 during the first Trump administration and was appointed acting chair in January.
Ms. Lucas has moved swiftly to redirect the agency's focus to White House priorities, including scrutinizing D.E.I. programs and 'enforcing the binary nature of sex.' In doing so, she has upended the E.E.O.C.'s traditional role as a bipartisan agency focused on enforcing civil rights law in the workplace.
'In just a few short months as acting chair, Andrea Lucas has warped the mission of the E.E.O.C. beyond recognition and weaponized the agency,' said Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington State and a vocal opponent of Ms. Lucas's confirmation.
In March, the E.E.O.C. began questioning law firms over their D.E.I. policies, raising alarm among current and former agency employees who believe the commission is being used by Mr. Trump to seek retribution against law firms the president dislikes. The agency has also brought investigations against Ivy League universities, long targets of Mr. Trump, including Harvard and Columbia University. Last week, Columbia agreed to pay $21 million to settle the investigation.
Under Ms. Lucas's direction, the agency has reversed its traditional enforcement of transgender discrimination claims, dismissing cases it had previously filed on behalf of transgender employees and withholding state funds to process transgender discrimination claims. On Tuesday, legal groups filed a lawsuit against the E.E.O.C., alleging that the agency unlawfully refused to enforce federal workplace protections for transgender employees.
Some legal experts have argued that the agency's activities under Ms. Lucas, such as shading over references to sexual orientation and gender harassment on the E.E.O.C.'s harassment guidance, amount to policy changes that sit outside her authority without a quorum vote. The agency normally has five commissioners, but Mr. Trump fired two of the agency's Democratic commissioners in January. That has left it operating with only two of the three required commissioners for a quorum.
'She's acting outside the E.E.O.C. on procedure and rules, which require a majority vote of the commission to change policy documents like the harassment guidance,' said Maya Raghu, a director at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, an advocacy group.
While the confirmation secures Ms. Lucas another five-year commissioner term, she is still awaiting an appointment by the president from her position as acting chair to chair of the agency, which would formalize her leadership role.