by Fred Satterwhite, Senior Consultant, DCI Consulting Group
Almost nine months after OFCCP submitted to the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) a proposed rule updating the regulations implementing affirmative action requirements for veterans, the OIRA completed its review of the rule on March 30, 2011.
The proposed rule, titled "Affirmative Action and Nondiscrimination Obligations of Contractors and Subcontractors; Evaluation of Recruitment and Placement Results Under the VEVRAA of 1974, As Amended," was received by the OIRA on July 2, 2010, and the review had been extended beyond the maximum 90-day period required by Executive Order 12866. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will be published in the Federal Register sometime in the near future, with a public comment period to follow.
According to the Fall 2010 Unified Agenda and Regulatory Plan, this NPRM will update the AAP regulations for covered veterans, requiring contractors to "conduct more substantive analyses of recruitment and placement actions taken under VEVRAA and would require the use of numerical targets to measure the effectiveness of affirmative action efforts."
The NPRM was carried over from the Spring 2010 agenda (which listed an original target date of December 2010). The Fall 2010 agenda showed a target publication date of January 2011, with the public comment period to end in April 2011.