| Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | |
|---|---|
| Agency overview | |
| Formed | July 2, 1965 |
| Headquarters | Washington, D.C. |
| Employees | 2,539 (March 2011) [1] |
| Annual budget | $344 million (2009)[2] |
| Agency executives | Jacqueline Berrien, Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru, Commissioner Chai Feldblum, Commissioner Victoria Lipnic, Commissioner Constance Barker, Commissioner |
| Website | |
| Equal Opportunity Commission | |
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,[3] disability (such as alcoholism)[4] and retaliation for reporting and/or opposing a discriminatory practice. It is empowered to file discrimination suits against employers on behalf of alleged victims and to adjudicate claims of discrimination brought against federal agencies.[5][6]
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The EEOC was established on July 2, 1965; its mandate is specified under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA),[7] the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.
All Commission seats and the post of general counsel to the commission are filled by the President of the U.S. subject to confirmation by the Senate.[8] Stuart J. Ishimaru, a Commissioner who was Senate-confirmed in 2003 and 2006,[9] served as Acting Chair of the Commission from January 20, 2009 until December 22, 2010, when the U.S. Senate confirmed Jacqueline Berrien to be the chairman. She had been nominated as chairman by President Barack Obama in July 2009.[10] In September 2009, Obama chose Chai Feldblum to fill another vacant seat,.[11] Feldblum has been reported by Fox News to be controversial among conservatives and certain religious groups because of her prior activism on gay rights.[12]
On March 27, 2010, Obama made recess appointments of three Commission posts: Berrien, Feldblum and Victoria Lipnic. With the appointments, the Commission had its full complement of five commissioners: Ishimaru, Berrien, Feldblum, Lipnic and Constance Barker, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2008 to be a Commissioner. Obama also made a recess appointment of P. David Lopez to be the EEOC's General Counsel.[13]
On December 22, 2010, the Senate gave full confirmation to Berrien, Feldblum, Lipnic and Lopez.
In 1975, when backlog reached more than 100,000 charges to be investigated, President Gerald Ford's full requested budget of $62 million was approved. A "Backlog Unit" was created in 1978 in Philadelphia to resolve the thousands of federal equal employment complaints inherited from the Civil Service Commission.
In June 2006, civil rights and labor union advocates publicly complained that the effectiveness of the EEOC was being undermined by budget and staff cuts and the outsourcing of complaint screening to a private contractor whose workers were poorly trained. In 2006 a partial budget freeze prevented the agency from filling vacant jobs, and its staff had shrunk by nearly 20 percent from 2001. A Bush administration official stated that the cuts had been made because it was necessary to direct more money to defense and homeland security.[14] By 2008, the EEOC had lost 25% of its staff over the previous eight years, including investigators and lawyers who handle the cases. The number of complaints to investigate grew to 95,400 in fiscal 2008, up 26 percent from 2006.[15]
Although full-time staffing of the EEOC was cut between 2002 and 2006, Congress increased the commission's budget during that period (as it has almost every year since 1980). The budget was $303 million in fiscal year 2001[2] to $327 million in fiscal year 2006.[15] The outsourcing to Pearson Government Solutions in Kansas cost the agency 4.9 million and was called a "huge waste of money" by the president of the EEOC employees' union in 2006.[14]
Some employment-law professionals criticized the agency after it issued advice that requiring a high school diploma from job applicants could violate the ADA. The advice letter stated that the longtime lowest common denominator of employee screening must be "job-related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity." A Ballard Spahr lawyer suggested "[t]here will be less incentive for the general public to obtain a high school diploma if many employers eliminate that requirement for job applicants in their workplace."[16]
Luther Holcomb, 1965-1974
Aileen Hernandez, 1965-1966
Vicente T. Ximenes, 1967-1971
Samuel C. Jackson, 1965-1968
Richard Graham, 1965-1966
Elizabeth Kuck, 1968-1970
Ethel B. Walsh, 1971-1980
Colston A. Lewis, 1970-1977
Raymond L. Telles, 1971-1976
J. Clay Smith, 1978-1982
Armando Rodriguez, 1978-1983
Cathie Shattuck, 1982-1983
Tony E. Gallegos, 1982-1994
R. Gaull Silberman, 1984-1995
Joy Cherian, 1987-1993
William Webb, 1982-1986
Fred Alvarez, 1984-1987
Evan J. Kemp, Jr., 1987-1993
Joyce Tucker, 1990-1996
Reginald E. Jones, 1996-2000
| No. | Chair of the EEOC | Picture | Start of Term | End of Term | President(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. | May 26, 1965 | May 11, 1966 | Lyndon Johnson | |
| 2 | Stephen N. Shulman | September 14, 1966 | July 1, 1967 | Lyndon Johnson | |
| 3 | Clifford J. Alexander, Jr. | August 4, 1967 | May 1, 1969 | Lyndon Johnson | |
| 4 | William H. Brown, III | May 5, 1969 | December 23, 1973 | Richard Nixon | |
| 5 | John H. Powell, Jr | December 28, 1973 | March 18, 1975 | Richard Nixon | |
| Acting | Ethel Bent Walsh | 1975 | 1975 | Gerald Ford | |
| 6 | Lowell W. Perry | May 27, 1975 | May 15, 1976 | Gerald Ford | |
| Acting | Ethel Bent Walsh | May 1976 | May 1977 | Gerald Ford | |
| 7 | Eleanor Holmes Norton | May 27, 1977 | February 21, 1981 | Jimmy Carter | |
| Acting | J. Clay Smith, Jr. | 1981 | 1982 | Ronald Reagan | |
| 8 | Clarence Thomas | May 6, 1982 | March 8, 1990 | Ronald Reagan | |
| 9 | Evan J. Kemp, Jr. | March 8, 1990 | April 2, 1993 | Ronald Reagan George H. W. Bush |
|
| Acting | Tony Gallegos | 1993 | 1994 | Bill Clinton | |
| 10 | Gilbert Casellas | September 29, 1994 | December 31, 1997 | Bill Clinton | |
| Acting | Paul Igasaki | 1998 | 1998 | Bill Clinton | |
| 11 | Ida L. Castro | October 23, 1998 | August 13, 2001 | Bill Clinton | |
| 12 | Cari M. Dominguez | August 6, 2001 | August 31, 2006 | George W. Bush | |
| 13 | Naomi C. Earp | September 1, 2006 | 2009 | George W. Bush | |
| Acting | Stuart J. Ishimaru |
January 20, 2009 | April 7, 2010 | Barack Obama | |
| 14 | Jacqueline A. Berrien | April 7, 2010[17] | Present | Barack Obama |