Statement of Jocelyn Frye, President of the National Partnership for Women & Families
WASHINGTON, D.C. – January 29, 2024 – This week, the Trump Administration unlawfully attempted to fire two of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s sitting commissioners – Chair Charlotte Burrows and Jocelyn Samuels. The dismissals are the latest example of blatant overreach beyond existing authority and gross misuse of power by the administration, all in an effort to disrupt vigorous enforcement of employment discrimination laws. If left unchallenged, this action could leave the Commission without a quorum, effectively thwarting the agency’s ability to take action on critical enforcement questions, and undermining its overall enforcement efforts.
Since its inception, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has been on the front lines of civil rights enforcement. The Commission, established by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, was created as an independent agency with a bi-partisan leadership structure consisting of five commissioners — two Republicans, two Democrats, with the political affiliation of the fifth slot alternating to align with the party of the President in office. Commissioners are nominated by the President and confirmed by the US Senate and serve five-year terms. The Commission is tasked with investigating and remedying employment discrimination charges filed with the agency to advance equal opportunity for all. For 60 years, workers have relied on the Commission to use its resources to do the hard work – analyzing facts, reviewing documents, and making legal determinations – to pursue charges of discrimination on their behalf. Since 2009, the EEOC has investigated thousands of charges against discriminatory employers and reached resolutions for many.
The following is the statement of Jocelyn C. Frye, President, National Partnership for Women & Families in response to the administration’s actions:
“We condemn the administration’s unlawful attempt to fire sitting EEOC commissioners and leave the Commission without the necessary quorum to conduct votes on agency actions. This reckless decision will have devastating consequences for workers waiting for the agency to take legal action against employers engaged in discrimination, and severe ramifications for the agencies’ ability to function effectively and enforce labor and civil rights protections. The EEOC was created to be the frontline offense for workers seeking help to challenge employment discrimination. In FY2023 alone, the Commission received more than 81,000 charges alleging discrimination — from sex discrimination, to race discrimination, age discrimination, disability discrimination, and more. Workers who are depending on the EEOC to do its job should not have to endure discrimination because of political stunts intended to undermine civil rights enforcement.
“This decision is another example of the administration’s effort to sabotage the existing infrastructure used to enforce civil rights laws. Landmark laws passed by Congress and embraced by the public — including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Equal Pay Act of 1963, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and Pregnant Workers Fairness Act — rely on the EEOC to vindicate the rights of workers and combat employment discrimination. This effort is an aggressive attempt to hamstring the agency’s ability to make critical decisions, and is little more than a back-door way to avoid and disrupt robust enforcement of laws that the agency is required to uphold. Moreover, this attempted removal is part of a much larger, ongoing and relentless effort to dismantle government structures that are essential to ensuring that our laws are implemented fairly, as they were intended, informed by the expertise and experience of those working in agencies dealing with these laws everyday.
“While this new administration continues to show its true colors and its disdain for meaningful, effective civil rights enforcement, the National Partnership will continue to work with our allies to safeguard the rights and the freedoms of all workers so that they are treated fairly in workplaces that are free of discrimination.”
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