The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been busy since President Trump took office on January 20, 2025. On January 21st, 2025, the President appointed Andrea Lucas as Acting Chair of the EEOC. She has served as an EEOC Commissioner since 2020, when President Trump nominated her during his first term. Prior to being appointed to the EEOC, Lucas worked in labor and employment law.
Following the appointment of Lucas as Acting Chair, President Trump terminated Karla Ann Gilbride, the EEOC’s General Counsel, and removed two of the three Democratic Commissioners on the five-seat EEOC. Gilbride was appointed by President Biden to a four-year term as General Counsel of the Commission, with responsibility for overseeing all Commission litigation, in 2023. Burrows chaired the EEOC during the Biden administration, and her term was not set to expire until July 1, 2028. Samuels was the vice-chair of the Commission under President Biden, and her term was not set to expire until July 1, 2026.
This is the second time an EEOC General Counsel has been terminated by the President, with President Biden first doing so when he terminated former EEOC General Counsel Sharon Gustafson in 2021. This is the first time a sitting commissioner has been removed by the White House before the end of their term since the EEOC was established. Both Burrows and Samuels have stated that they are exploring legal options to challenge their removal.
President Trump’s actions mean that the EEOC does not have a working quorum of at least three members, which is required to carry out significant policy changes or issue legal guidance. However, in December 2024 the Commission adopted a resolution that allows it to continue normal operations and routine investigations if the agency does not have a quorum.
Following the removal of Samuels and Burrows, Acting Chair Lucas issued a statement outlining her views on gender identity in the workplace and providing an overview of the actions she’s taken to return the agency to “its mission of protecting women from sexual harassment and sex-based discrimination in the workplace by rolling back the Biden administration’s gender identify agenda.” In the communication Lucas outlines the steps she has taken to comply with Executive Order 14168, “Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” These include:
- removing the agency’s “pronoun app” which allowed employees to opt to identify pronouns in their Microsoft Outlook and Teams profiles
- ending the use of the “X” gender marker and removing “Mx.” from the intake process for filing a discrimination charge
- reviewing the content of EEOC’s “Know Your Rights” poster, and
- removing materials promoting gender ideology on the Commission’s internal and external websites and documents.
The statement goes on to note that based on her existing authority, the Acting Chair cannot unilaterally remove or modify certain other Commission documents that are subject to Executive Order 14168, including the Commissions’ Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, the EEOC Strategic Plan 2022-2026, and the EEOC Strategic Enforcement Plan Fiscal Years 2024 – 2028. However, the communication states that the Acting Chair voted against each of these documents and goes on to explain her opposition to these portions of the EEOC’s guidance.
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