By Joanna Colosimo
On February 11, 2026, OFCCP notified contractors that the Ninth Circuit district court lifted a temporary stay on the release of EEO-1 records from 2016-2020 as a part of an ongoing suit (Center for Investigative Reporting v. U.S. Department of Labor). As of February 11, 2026, 19 consolidated (Type 2) EEO-1 records from five objecting organizations were released to the public. The remaining Type 2 EEO-1 reports for all other federal contractors who objected to their release will be made public on February 25, 2026.
The five “bellwether” objecting contractors, whose 2016-2020 Type 2 EEO-1 reports were released on February 11, 2026, were:
Background
As previously reported in 2025, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the Department of Labor must release EEO-1 reports for federal contractors in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request from the Center for Investigative Reporting. Although contractors were allowed to object to disclosure under FOIA Exemption 4, essentially arguing that those reports contained commercial information, the court rejected that argument. The court clarified that the information qualifies as “commercial” only if it is an object of commerce or directly relates to commercial activity. Because EEO-1 reports merely reflect workforce demographic information and do not reveal competitive or financial information, they are not considered commercial, the court ruled.
What Does This Mean for Contractors?
At this point, there is not much federal contractors can do to prevent the release of their 2016-2020 EEO-1 Type 2 reports if they were a part of the initial objectors. Instead, these organizations should prepare for potential public scrutiny of their information and reporting trends of their demographics from Will Evans, one of the plaintiffs in the suit, and the Center for Investigative Reporting. Please contact your DCI consultant for more information on ways to consider analyzing the data over time to determine trends. We will continue to monitor developments and provide updates as needed.