On December 29, 2025, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a request (RIN 3046-ZA03) with the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), under the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in the Executive Office of the President. The request seeks authorization for the EEOC to cancel its 2024 Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace, more specifically requesting authorization to cancel the policy by issuing a final rule without the opportunity for public comment before the rescission takes effect.
The move appears to be the latest step in the EEOC’s efforts rescind its harassment enforcement guidance. In May 2025, a court in the Northern District of Texas issued a summary judgment decision vacating portions of the enforcement guidance relating to harassment on the basis of gender identity. In response to the court’s decision, the EEOC announced that it was annotating the portions of the enforcement guidance which it contended were vacated by the court’s order, but that it could not yet proceed with rescinding or modifying the enforcement guidance because the Commission at the time lacked quorum. With the restoration of quorum at the Commission in November 2025, that impediment no longer applied. The present OIRA request appears to be intended to now formally modify the enforcement guidance. While the details of the EEOC’s OIRA request were not published, the title (“Rescission of Enforcement Guidance on Harassment in the Workplace”) appears to indicate an intent to rescind the harassment enforcement guidance in its entirety, rather than merely striking the portions annotated by the EEOC after the court’s decision. The EEOC’s request is also for issuance of a final rule, suggesting an intent to bypass notice-and-comment rulemaking and instead rescind the harassment enforcement guidance through a summary notice in the Federal Register. This would eliminate the opportunity for public comment in the regular notice-and-comment rulemaking procedure under the Administrative Procedures Act.
The revisions also appear to be part of the Administration’s larger push against protections for gender identity and sexual orientation protections under federal discrimination law, as previously analyzed in this blog. Ultimately, however, the EEOC does not get the final say on the precise scope of harassment protections under Title VII; as the Texas court noted in its opinion, “the EEOC is only authorized to issue procedural rules implementing Title VII as written and interpreted by the Supreme Court,” and just last term the Supreme Court reaffirmed that Title VII covers sexual orientation discrimination claims in a case (Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services ) involving promotion and demotion issues.
EEOC’s request to OIRA was made under the pre-rulemaking authorization process required by Executive Order 12866. As OIRA’s website explains, “The period for OIRA review is limited by Executive Order 12866 to 90 days. There is no minimum period for review. Under the Executive Order, the review period may be extended indefinitely by the head of the rulemaking agency; alternatively, the OMB Director may extend the review period on a one-time basis for no more than 30 days.” During the review period, interested parties can request to meet with OIRA regarding the proposed rule. Opponents of the EEOC’s OIRA request have already raised public criticism of the move.
If you are a federal employee suffering discrimination and wish to discuss your rights under the law, consider contacting Gilbert Employment Law. P.C. to request an initial consultation.