UPDATE: Aug. 5, 2019: The U.S. Senate voted on Thursday, Aug. 1 to confirm two of President Donald Trump's nominees to positions at the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Charlotte Burrows will serve a second term as commissioner expiring July 1, 2023, while Sharon Fast Gustafson has been confirmed as the EEOC's General Counsel for a term of four years.
Dive Brief:
- President Donald Trump is planning to send nominations for two seats on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to the U.S. Senate, according to a July 3 statement.
- The two nominees are Charlotte Burrows — who is currently serving a term on the EEOC that technically ended July 1, 2019 — and Keith Sonderling, a Trump administration official who is the current deputy administrator of the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour Division.
- If confirmed, Burrows' new term would expire July 1, 2023 and Sonderling's would expire July 1, 2024.
Dive Insight:
Trump's nominations follow the confirmation of the president's nominee for EEOC Chair, Janet Dhillon, who began the job officially in May. Prior to that, the agency had been operating without a quorum since the early months of 2019.
The Trump administration turned its attention to EEOC nominations following the exit of two previous nominees, former commissioner Chai Feldblum and Daniel Gade, who served on the National Council on Disability. Both withdrew their names from consideration during a heated confirmation process. Feldblum would later tell HR Dive in an interview that the controversy surrounding her re-nomination informed her decision to back out.
The nominations may be welcome news for an agency that has experienced an active past few months, with the biggest item on the list being the agency's collection of EEO-1 Component 2 pay data. Those forms, due from qualifying employers by Sept. 30, 2019, will be posted on the agency's web portal next week. Shortly before the July Fourth holiday, EEOC updated its Component 2 website with additional information for filers. The collection portal for the forms is set to open July 15, 2019, according to court documents.
