Number: RS20897
Title: The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the Equal Opportunity Survey
Authors: Linda Levine, Domestic Social Policy Division 
Abstract: The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is an enforcement agency within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). In addition to other equal employment measures, the OFCCP oversees E.O. 11246, which prohibits discrimination in covered employers' workplaces on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, and gender. The Johnson-era order further requires certain federal contractors and subcontractors to carry out affirmative actions to ensure that protected classes of workers have equal employment opportunities. After decades without substantive change, the Clinton Administration issued revised regulations in 1997 and 2000 - the most controversial component of which is the mandatory annual Equal Opportunity (EO) Survey. While it continued to send the survey to contractors through December 2004, the OFCCP hired Abt Associates in late 2002 to assess the survey's usefulness as a tool for focusing agency resources on those employers most likely to engage in systemic discrimination. The agency proposed, on January 20, 2006, to eliminate the EO survey based upon the results of the Abt study. The EO survey was rescinded effective September 8, 2006.
Pages: 6
Date: September 14, 2006