The EEOC is beginning a new, periodic retrospective review of its existing significant regulations to determine whether any such regulations should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed, to make the EEOC’s regulatory program more effective and/or less burdensome in achieving its regulatory objectives. The EEOC is acting pursuant to Executive Order 13563, which applies across the federal government. 76 Fed. Reg. 3821 (Jan. 21, 2011), http://federalregister.gov/a/2011-1385.

The EEOC’s mission is to promote equality of opportunity in the workplace and enforce federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment. Our regulatory program supports effective enforcement of six employment nondiscrimination laws:

  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended;
  • the Equal Pay Act of 1963, as amended;
  • the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, as amended;
  • Titles I and V of the Americans with Disabilities Act, as amended;
  • Sections 501 and 505 of the Rehabilitation Act, as amended; and
  • Title II of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act.

Input on EEOC’s Plan for Retrospective Review of its Significant Regulations

The EEOC wants your help in designing our plan for this review.  For example, you may have suggestions about factors we should consider in doing the review, or about the process we should use to select rules for review.  Or, you may believe that the review should be focused on particular types of regulations.  Ultimately, our plan must be integrated with other existing legal requirements for regulatory reviews.  (For example, the Regulatory Flexibility Act, 5 U.S.C. § 610, requires agencies to publish in the Federal Register a plan for periodic review of the rules issued by the agency which have or will have a significant economic impact upon a substantial number of small entities. This provision calls for review of agency rules every ten years.) It also will be tailored to reflect our resources and rulemaking priorities.

Input Regarding Specific Regulations

We are interested in what you think should be included in EEOC’s initial list of regulations for review over the next two years. You can offer input on specific regulations including:

  • why you believe the regulation should be modified, streamlined, expanded, or repealed;
  • any available data on the costs and benefits of the regulation; and
  • how we can better achieve the regulation’s objective.

We are accepting your comments from now through March 22, 2011. Late-filed comments will be considered to the extent practicable. We will not be able to acknowledge individual comments, but we value your input and will give your ideas careful consideration. We plan to post the retrospective review plan on this website.

Thank you in advance for your input on this important effort.

Please submit all public comments to Public.Comments.RegulatoryReview@eeoc.gov.