New Report Urges for the Codification and Expansion of EO 11246

By Joanna Colosimo

BLOG OVERVIEW: On June 11, 2026, the National Partnership for Women & Families, Equal Rights Advocates, and The 75 Million Project released a report urging Congress to codify and expand the protections formerly provided under Executive Order 11246, which was rescinded in 2025. The report goes beyond restoring the prior status quo, calling for strengthened nondiscrimination requirements, rebuilt OFCCP enforcement infrastructure, modernized pay transparency and data-reporting obligations, and broader coverage and remedies for workers.

The rescission of Executive Order (EO) 11246 marked a pivotal shift in federal contractor policy, removing a decades-long framework that prohibited discrimination and required affirmative action in the workplace of federal contractors while strictly prohibiting quotas, preferences and set-asides and required merit-based employment. For many practitioners, policymakers, and employers, the implications extend far beyond a single EO revocation and signal a broader turning point in how equal employment opportunity is enforced.

On June 11, 2026, the National Partnership for Women & Families, Equal Rights Advocates, and The 75 Million Project issued recommendations for Congress to restore various equal employment opportunity (EEO) protections, including codifying EO 11246. The report also outlines a framework that emphasizes the restoration of nondiscrimination requirements, the reestablishment of enforcement infrastructure, and the modernization of protections to reflect today’s workforce realities. This includes a renewed focus on systemic issues such as pay equity, transparency, and data-driven accountability.

Viewed through a forward-looking lens, the report reads less as a reaction to the rescission of Executive Order 11246 and more as a policy roadmap (think of it, for instance, as a civil rights group plan for Project 2029). Federal contractor obligations have long evolved through cycles of expansion, retrenchment, and renewal, often shaped by changes in political leadership. These recommendations could provide a ready foundation for future legislative or executive action, particularly given their alignment with long-standing civil rights priorities. For federal contractors, the report underscores the importance of preparing now for the next policy inflection point.

Specifically, the report outlines the following types of recommendations to Congress as it relates to federal contractors:

1. Return to previous policies by expressly prohibiting discrimination by federal contractors based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or national origin through codifying previous policies.
2. Define sex discrimination as a part of the prior recommendation to include pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions, gender identity, transgender status, sexual orientation, sex characteristics, and sex stereotyping.
3. Include disparate impact as defined under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act (Title VII) as a form of unlawful discrimination.
4. Update policy to prevent intersectional discrimination (which goes beyond EO 11246) to prohibit discrimination not just based on one protected characteristic but also because of the combination of two or more protected characteristics.
5. Prohibit compensation discrimination and codify previous policies.
6. Prohibit retaliation against workers who discuss pay by codifying previous policies.
7. Prohibit the use of prior salary/compensation history and require salary ranges in job postings (which was a pending proposal that was withdrawn prior to President Trump taking office).
8. Prohibit contractors from retaliation, by codifying prior policies.
9. Update prior policies by requiring a future Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to issue additional regulations around conducting effective utilization and barrier analytics related to hiring, promotion, termination and compensation data. This goes beyond the utilization analysis to the workforce and is similar to barrier analysis approaches that expands data reporting protocols. Codify previous policy for construction contractors and also allow OFCCP to determine benchmarks for race/ethnicity and gender in each location and each trade.
10. Update prior policies around data collection and analysis, requiring contractors to collect demographic and compensation data to support an analysis of employment practices including recruitment, and compare personnel transactions to industry, geographic and location benchmarks, proactively, to identify barriers.
11. Codify previous policies to prevent and remedy discrimination.
12. Update previous policies to require contractors to submit EEO-1 reports, allow OFCCP to publicly disclose data, and require contractors to regularly publish summary workforce data.

Additionally, the report provides recommendations on revising who is covered under contract thresholds, as well as other dynamics. This includes the following set of recommendations:

1. Set the non-discrimination threshold for jurisdiction to $50,000 instead of $10,000, and make regular adjustments based on inflation.
2. Codify previous policy by covering federally assisted construction contractors.
3. Abandon the previously used religious exemptions.

The final set of recommendations outlined in the report focuses on compliance and enforcement and recommends the following:

1. Explicitly authorize OFCCP as the enforcement agency in the statute.
2. Update prior policies by requiring compliance assistance and authorizing grants for worker outreach and education about worker rights.
3. Codify previous policy by having OFCCP use neutral criteria to select Mega Construction project programs with compliance assistance and partnership facilitation.
4. Update prior policy by providing OFCCP with broad authority to conduct investigations and gather data, and coordinate with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
5. Extend deadlines for complaints to be filed.
6. Update prior policy to ensure OFCCP conducts regular audits and require contracting agencies to certify they have consulted with OFCCP before awarding a contract as well as require contractors to be subject to pre-award compliance evaluations before a $10 million or more contract is awarded.
7. Update policy to grant the Solicitor of Labor authority to bring civil suits in federal court and provide OFCCP with authority to access and subpoena information.
8. Update the previous policy to grant workers access to the courts.
9. Update previous policy to expand remedies for workers after a violation, including authorizing OFCCP to seek injunction relief.
10. Update previous policy to ensure the agency has more enforcement tools by publishing a list of contractors that are in violation and provide OFCCP with the authority to withhold payments of contracts.
11. Update prior policy to expand recordkeeping retention requirements to four years.
12. Update prior policy to include additional information in postings about workers’ rights.
13. Codify previous policy to provide public access to enforcement data.
14. Ensure robust funding for OFCCP.

For employers, particularly federal contractors, the implications are for the long-term, even in the absence of new regulations and the current revocation of EO 11246. Organizations that completely dismantle compliance infrastructure during the current administration may find themselves unprepared for future shifts, given the robust set of recommendations made in this report.

If a future administration were to act on these ideas, the result may not simply be a reinstatement of Executive Order 11246, but rather a ‘Restoration 2.0’ approach. Such an approach could incorporate enhanced pay transparency expectations, more sophisticated data reporting requirements, and stronger integration with existing statutory frameworks such as Title VII, Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act. Advances in workforce analytics and technology would likely play a central role, enabling more precise identification of disparities and more targeted enforcement strategies.

Maintaining robust data, conducting pay equity analyses, preserving documentation, analyzing workforce data for risk, and aligning EEO and compliance strategies with legal defensibility are therefore prudent risk management strategies in an uncertain regulatory environment.

Ultimately, this report is less about a single proposed policy change and more about the signals it sends. Advocacy reports, legislative proposals, and administrative actions often foreshadow broader trajectories in employment policy and the current debate over federal contractor protections is no exception. The key question moving forward is not whether these types of protections will return, but how they will evolve to meet the demands of a modern workforce and a data-driven compliance landscape.

For further updates, make sure to keep an eye on the DCI blog.