When employers think about discrimination risk, they usually focus on familiar protected categories such as race, sex, ethnicity, age, disability, or religion. But a recent settlement announced by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) underscores a growing and less understood enforcement area: discrimination against U.S. workers based on citizenship and…
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As 2026 approaches, the compliance landscape shaped by Executive Order 14173, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” is entering a more enforcement-focused phase. Based on the recent HR Unlimited Roundtable with former OFCCP and EEOC leaders, federal contractors must brace for a dramatic and high-stakes shift in anti-discrimination enforcement in 2026. The focus is…
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When Executive Order 14173 was issued in January 2025, many employers assumed that the revocation of Executive Order 11246 marked the end of federal oversight of affirmative action and diversity initiatives. Eight months later, that assumption has been proven dangerously wrong. While the structure of oversight has changed, enforcement has not disappeared. It has shifted….
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When Executive Order 14173 was issued in January 2025, revoking Executive Order 11246, many federal contractors took a sigh of relief. To some, it appeared that decades of affirmative action planning and federal oversight had come to an end. Yet eight months later, the reality has become unmistakable: EO 14173 did not eliminate compliance requirements….
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For Federal Contractors, EO 14173 Raises the Stakes—and Continuing EO 11246 Practices Protects Your Bottom Line When Executive Order 11246 was revoked and replaced with EO 14173, some federal contractors—especially those under private equity ownership—interpreted the shift as a green light to pause their long-standing nondiscrimination practices. This would be a critical misstep. Not…
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