STATEMENT: Andrea Lucas EEOC Confirmation Threatens Civil Rights Protections for Workers

July 31. 2025

For Immediate Release
Jul 31, 2025

Media Contact
Nazirah Ahmad
[email protected]

Statement from Noreen Farrell, Executive Director of Equal Rights Advocates, on today’s Senate confirmation of Andrea Lucas to serve a second term as a commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

SAN FRANCISCO, July 31, 2025 – This evening, the Senate confirmed Andrea Lucas, in a vote of 52-45, to serve a second term on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Her confirmation is a grave threat to equal employment opportunities and civil rights protections for all workers. By confirming a nominee with an overtly aggressive anti-trans agenda and a troubling record of weaponizing civil rights laws against employment diversity initiatives, the Senate has abdicated its responsibility to ensure competent leadership at the EEOC.

Equal Rights Advocates (ERA), which has spent 50 years fighting for gender justice in workplaces and schools across the country, strongly condemns the Senate’s decision to confirm Lucas. As Acting Chair, Lucas has taken actions directly contrary to the EEOC’s mission. She has improperly politicized the Commission, falsely asserting that it is an Executive Branch agency, threatened organizations with diversity and inclusion programs without authority, and improperly failed to enforce anti-discrimination laws on behalf of all workers, abandoning transgender workers facing discrimination.

ERA had formally opposed Lucas’s confirmation in a letter to the Senate, warning that Lucas “has let workers down at every turn” and has consistently prioritized Trump’s political agenda over the agency’s legal obligations to workers. Lucas’ confirmation comes amid an alarming rollback of workplace civil rights protections.

Under Lucas’ leadership, the EEOC has consistently abandoned enforcement of the law in order to enforce the will of President Trump. For example, the EEOC has turned its back on enforcing anti-discrimination laws on behalf of transgender workers–under the guise of complying with Trump’s “gender ideology” executive order–despite the Supreme Court’s holding in Bostock v. Clayton County that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on gender identity. Since being installed as Acting Chair, Lucas has moved to dismiss at least seven pending lawsuits brought on behalf of transgender workers, directed staff to deprioritize all gender identity discrimination charges, and erased transgender workers from EEOC resources and data collection forms.

With Lucas as Acting Chair, the EEOC has abandoned its independent mission and has become a weapon against the very workers it was created to protect. She has claimed the EEOC is “an executive branch agency, not an independent agency,” fundamentally misunderstanding Congress’ intent to create a bipartisan commission insulated from political interference. As evidence that she will blindly execute the priorities of the Trump Administration, she sent intimidating letters to major law firms demanding information about their diversity practices, which exceeds her legal authority and are designed to coerce employers into abandoning programs that help prevent discrimination.

We are deeply concerned that Lucas will accelerate these dangerous trends, undermining decades of progress toward ensuring equal opportunity in the workplace. Lucas has a record of voting against critical worker protections, including the EEOC’s updated Enforcement Guidance on Workplace Harassment and the final rule implementing regulations under the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA). With a second term, and as Chair of a Trump-controlled EEOC, we are gravely concerned about her intent to dismantle long-standing and important EEOC worker protections.

Equal Rights Advocates will continue to defend workers’ rights through litigation, policy advocacy, and direct support, ensuring that attempts to dismantle crucial protections are met with fierce resistance.

To request an interview with ERA experts, contact Blake Case at [email protected] or (601) 832-6079.

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About Equal Rights Advocates

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. www.equalrights.org