President Trump has nominated a Republican attorney, Brittany Panuccio, to fill one of the three open seats on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). If confirmed by the Senate, this would restore the Commission’s statutorily required quorum, enabling the agency to vote on major policy and regulatory changes.
The EEOC has lacked a quorum since the president fired two of the three sitting Democratic commissioners shortly after taking office, leaving Republican Andrea Lucas (who has since been named Acting Chair) and Democrat Kalpana Kotagal. Andrea Lucas is herself awaiting Senate confirmation as her first term as EEOC Commissioner is set to expire July 1, 2025.
Panuccio graduated from Northwestern University School of Law in 2016 and is licensed to practice law in Illinois and Florida. She spent one year as an Associate in the Labor and Employment practice of the law firm Jones Day, then began her government service, first with a brief stint as Nominations Counsel for the Department of Justice (DOJ), then two years with the Department of Education. Ms. Panuccio then spent two years clerking for U.S. Courts of Appeals in Texas and Washington, DC before rejoining DOJ as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in West Palm Beach, Florida.