Twice a year—in the spring and the fall—the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) publishes a regulatory agenda. It lists, among other things, all the regulations scheduled for review or development in the next twelve months.

The EEOC’s fall 2013 regulatory agenda—released on November 26, 2013—reveals the EEOC’s increased focus on disability-based employment discrimination. The EEOC has identified the following proposed revisions to enforcement procedures:

March 2014

Proposed revisions to provide for better coordination between the EEOC, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Justice on:

  •  Complaints/charges of employment discrimination based on disability subject to the Americans With Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
  • Complaints/charges of employment discrimination based on disability filed against employers holding government contracts or subcontracts
  • Complaints of employment discrimination filed against recipients of federal financial assistance

April 2014

Proposed revisions to the federal government’s affirmative employment obligations regarding individuals with disabilities under the Rehabilitation Act—for example, more detailed explanation on how federal agencies as “model employers” should “give full consideration to the hiring, placement and advancement of qualified individuals with disabilities.”

September 2014

Proposed revisions to the federal government’s regulation on time limits for filing a civil action in response to Bullock v. Berrien, 688 F.3d 613 (9th Cir. 2012), in which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit determined that a former EEOC employee did not fail to exhaust her administrative remedies by withdrawing her optional administrative appeal and filing a lawsuit in district court without waiting 180 days from the filing of the notice of appeal.

Stay tuned for our spring 2014 update on the EEOC’s next regulatory agenda.