On July 21, 2026, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) voted 2-1 to issue a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that would rescind regulations requiring employers to maintain records related to workforce demographics and file reports related thereto, including EEO-1 reports. The EEOC’s regulations currently require all organizations covered by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to file annual reports that disclose data on employees’ race and sex. The EEOC estimates that the current data-collection requirement “imposes costs of almost $275 million on employers every year as well as almost $4 million of costs on the EEOC to administer this data collection.” In the NPRM, the EEOC states that “the EEO Data Reports are inconsistent with equal employment opportunity law, may raise constitutional concerns, and collect data that is not narrowly tailored or necessary to enforce anti-discrimination statutes.” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas says that he EEOC’s proposal to rescind the EEO data reports “is consistent with the text of Title VII and Supreme Court precedent.” In her dissent, EEOC Commissioner Kalpana Kotagal asserted that workforce demographic data has long been a critical enforcement tool for identifying systemic discrimination and allocating agency enforcement resources.” The EEOC’s NPRM will be published in the Federal Register for public comment shortly. Employers should note that, until the NPRM successfully steers through the federal rulemaking process, it is of no force or effect. So covered employers should continue complying with federal data-collection and reporting obligations. You can read the EEOC’s announcement here. You can see a video from EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas here.
The Exceptional Views of Glacier National Park.
