The EEOC’s new “National Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Years 2025-2029,” issued on 6/4/26, significantly affects equal employment opportunity (EEO) policies and enforcement procedures. Among other things, the new plan commits the EEOC to:
- Prioritize disparate treatment theories of liability;
- Eliminate the use of disparate impact liability theories in investigations “to the maximum degree possible;” and
- Not commence, develop, or continue to pursue litigation advancing disparate impact claims.
The EEOC is stating that, while disparate impact remains a valid statutory theory codified in the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the EEOC will no longer be the vehicle through which these claims are advanced. Private plaintiffs of course remain free to pursue such disparate impact theories.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) and similar initiatives will be targeted. The Agency will prioritize investigations or programs labeled as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion or “similar euphemisms.” This includes using race or sex-based quotas or “aspirational goals;” including training, internship, and mentorship programs; sharing employee race or sex data with managers or other non-HR or legal personnel; and tying compensation or bonuses to diversity goals.
Another priority is to develop and apply recent Supreme Court decisions. These new decisions include Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, finding there is no higher standard of pleading in cases by members of “majority” classes; Muldrow v. St. Louis, expanding the scope of actionable employment decisions to any that demonstrate “some harm;” Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard, addressing the consideration of race in college admissions; and Groff v. DeJoy, raising the burden for employers seeking to deny religious accommodation requests as undue hardships.
Attention is also shown in the new plan regarding LGBTQ issues. The EEOC will apparently seek to clarify or limit the scope of a prior Supreme Court ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, in respect to employees’ right to single-sex intimate spaces, and to employees’ right to religious accommodations for sincerely held religious beliefs.
The priorities will address first, repeated, overt and intentional discrimination, including job advertisements excluding or encouraging certain individuals to apply; staffing agencies that exclude individuals from employment based on protected characteristics; mass denials of accommodation; and systematic harassment. There is specific mention of protecting American workers from being disadvantaged in favor of visa holders.
A third priority is a focus on vulnerable workers, “including teenage workers, persons with limited literacy or education, individuals employed in low wage jobs, survivors of sexual assault, and workers with developmental or intellectual disabilities.”
A fourth priority is protecting the EEOC’s enforcement process, including claims of retaliation, or denying the EEOC access to information.
Another priority is “evenhanded enforcement,” suggesting that the EEOC does not view enforcement limited to historically disadvantaged groups.
This article is part of our August 2026 Newsletter.
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