Advocates Release New Report Urging Congress To Restore Federal Contractor Employees’ Rights After Trump’s Rescission of E.O. 11246

June 11. 2026

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For Immediate Release
Jun 11, 2026

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

The groups’ recommendations aim to ensure taxpayer dollars aren’t funding discrimination.

WASHINGTON, D.C. —Today the National Partnership for Women & Families, Equal Rights Advocates, and The 75 Million Project issued recommendations for Congress to restore and strengthen critical anti-discrimination and equal employment opportunity protections for workers employed by federal contractors. These legislative recommendations are part of a new brief explaining the importance of protections established under Executive Order 11246, which President Trump rescinded upon taking office in January 2025. 

The groups’ recommendations include:

• Codifying E.O. 11246’s anti-discrimination requirements and anti-retaliation protections for workers who discuss pay and include additional provisions that would further protect workers against pay discrimination;
• Requiring contractors to collect and analyze workforce data and take action to prevent and remedy discrimination; and
• Providing OFCCP with more enforcement tools and providing additional remedies for workers.

“Workplace discrimination continues to be a barrier to opportunity in too many workplaces, resulting in workers being excluded or treated unfairly because of race, gender, disability, and other forms of bias, and affecting industries and sectors across our economy,” said Jocelyn Frye, president of the National Partnership for Women & Families. This new brief pushes for a robust enforcement infrastructure and rejects the current administration’s dismantling of rules governing federal contractors – rules established by President Johnson’s landmark E.O. 11246 to help identify, respond to, and combat discriminatory practices such as pay discrimination, hiring discrimination, harassment, and systemic discrimination. E.O. 11246 has played a critical role over decades expanding opportunities for women workers, workers of color, and other workers historically underrepresented or marginalized.”

“For 60 years, every presidential administration has maintained these critical protections, which have expanded access to jobs for women and other underrepresented groups, including in high-wage industries like the construction trades,” said Jessica Ramey Stender, Policy Director and Deputy Legal Director at Equal Rights Advocates. “Americans don’t want their hard-earned tax dollars funding discrimination.” 

“The Trump administration took a sledgehammer to hard-won workplace civil rights protections, making it harder for women to participate in the workforce,” Maya Rupert, campaign manager for The 75 Million Project, said. “Congress has the opportunity to restore a safeguard that has protected women’s rights at work for decades.”  

Signed by President Johnson in 1965 and strengthened through amendments in subsequent years, E.O. 11246 made it illegal for companies with federal contracts to discriminate based on race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity. The order also required federal contractors to collect and analyze data and take proactive steps to identify and eliminate barriers to equal employment opportunity. E.O. 11246 also helped combat pay discrimination by ensuring workers could discuss their pay without fear of retaliation, which is key to uncovering unlawful gender and race wage gaps. The gender wage gap recently widened two years in a row—the first time since the 1960s when recordkeeping began. 

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) at the U.S. Department of Labor enforced these requirements, and the federal contractors under its jurisdiction employed more than 20 percent of the overall workforce. E.O. 11246’s requirements—and OFCCP’s authority to review contractor data and policies—strengthened accountability across the federal contractor community and increased access to employment for women and other underrepresented groups.

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Equal Rights Advocates fights for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country. Since 1974, they have been fighting on the front lines of social justice to protect and advance rights and opportunities for women, girls, and people of all gender identities through groundbreaking legal cases and bold legislation that sets the stage for the rest of the nation.

The National Partnership for Women & Families is a nonprofit, nonpartisan advocacy group dedicated to promoting fairness in the workplace, reproductive health and rights, access to quality, affordable health care and policies that help all people meet the dual demands of work and family. 

The 75 Million is a national movement fighting for the 75 million women in America’s workforce who power our economy. It promotes their rights, wages, safety, and opportunity at work. It opposes extremist attacks on workplace protections and holds policymakers and corporations accountable for advancing substantive economic justice for women.