EEOC Adopts New National Enforcement Plan, Signaling Shift In Civil Rights Priorities

Key Takeaways:

• On June 4, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (the “EEOC”) approved a new National Enforcement Plan (NEP) for fiscal years 2025–2029, replacing the Biden-era 2024–2028 Strategic Enforcement Plan.
• The NEP prioritizes intentional (disparate treatment) discrimination claims, scrutiny of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, expanded religious accommodation enforcement, and cases applying recent Supreme Court precedent.
• In light of the EEOC’s reoriented enforcement focus, employers should review their DEI initiatives, hiring and visa-sponsorship practices, religious accommodation protocols, and policies touching on sex and gender identity.

On June 4, 2026, the EEOC approved a new four-year National Enforcement Plan that will guide the agency’s outreach, investigation, and litigation priorities through fiscal year 2029. The NEP replaces the Strategic Enforcement Plan adopted under the Biden administration, which had been slated to run through 2028.

The NEP identifies several substantive enforcement priorities. The agency will focus on intentional discrimination arising from broad-based employment policies, including patterns of preference for guest worker visa holders over U.S.-born workers and practices tied to DEI programs. It will also prioritize cases applying recent Supreme Court decisions, including Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services (rejecting a heightened burden for “majority group” Title VII plaintiffs), Muldrow v. City of St. Louis (adopting the “some harm” standard), and Groff v. DeJoy (expanding employers’ religious accommodation obligations). The plan further targets claims under Bostock v. Clayton County and seeks to clarify the scope of that decision with respect to “the employer’s right to express the binary nature of sex.” Additional priorities include protecting vulnerable workers, such as teenagers and individuals with intellectual disabilities, and safeguarding the integrity of the agency’s own investigation and conciliation processes.

Support for the NEP was divided along party lines. EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, a Trump appointee, described the NEP as reaffirming the agency’s “unwavering commitment to merit-based, evenhanded enforcement of our nation’s civil rights laws.” However, the agency’s sole Democratic commissioner, Kalpana Kotagal, voted against the plan, stating that it “furthers the weaponization of the agency” by redirecting limited resources toward the Administration’s preferred priorities rather than protecting all workers.

In light of the new NEP, employers should consider the following steps:

1. As the Firm has advocated previously, clients should audit DEI programs and related policies. This includes, among other things, reviewing recruiting, hiring, promotion, mentorship, sponsorship, employee resource group, and training programs for features (such as group-based eligibility or preferences) that the EEOC may now treat as intentional discrimination.
2. Clients should review their immigration and workforce-sourcing practices, including guest worker visa sponsorship, contractor staffing models, and related hiring criteria, for patterns the agency may characterize as preferring foreign workers over U.S.-born applicants.
3. Clients should review and update their religious accommodation procedures to reflect the heightened employer obligations recognized in Groff v. DeJoy. (Our alert on the Groff decision can be found here).
4. Clients should prepare for an increase in “reverse” and majority-group discrimination claims. HR and in-house counsel should be educated on the Ames and Muldrow decisions, and companies should assess whether existing complaint-intake, investigation, and disciplinary processes adequately address claims from all employee groups.