DOL’s Veterans Office to Take on Contractor Oversight Duties

President Donald Trump wants to shift enforcement of veteran anti-discrimination rules for contractors to a Labor Department subagency that’s ill-equipped to handle that work, attorneys say.

The White House recently unveiled a proposal to shutter the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and transfer its oversight of contractors’ affirmative action obligations for veterans under the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act to the US Labor Department’s Veterans’ Employment and Training Service.

The move to shut down the OFCCP was long-sought by conservative groups and some businesses who argued that the contractor watchdog had no congressional authority to operate and that most of its work was already covered by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. On his first day in office, the president signed an action canceling the 1965 executive order establishing the OFCCP, setting in motion the agency’s dismantling.

Attorneys representing federal contractors say the DOL’s VETS office doesn’t have the staff, experience conducting proactive audits, or familiarization with affirmative action cases to replace the OFCCP. The office has also traditionally worked with individual veterans, not employers.

“They have no subject matter expertise, they have no auditors, and I think it’s potentially a real blow to veterans and ensuring non-discrimination and the affirmative action of veterans in federal contractors. So I think it could be a real problem,” said David Cohen, founder and president of DCI Consulting.

“They don’t have anyone who even understands the regulations or what’s required,” he added.

Staffing Crunch

The VETS office currently oversees various federal grant programs aimed at expanding employment, and also investigates claims under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, which establishes reemployment protections for veterans.

Any transition of the OFCCP’s veteran-specific affirmative action work to VETS will require training and more staff, like auditors, attorneys say, which could face some friction amid the Trump administration’s broad effort to reduce the size of the federal workforce.

The 2026 budget plan requested $7 million and 17 new full time employees for the veterans training service to administer the protections provided under VEVRAA, according to budget documents. By comparison, the OFCCP had nearly 500 full time staff on board to enforce affirmative action obligations involving veterans, workers with disabilities, and overall equal employment at federal contracting companies.

“There has to be training of individuals to investigate claims of discrimination, it’s possible they might reassign some OFCCP personnel over there so that there is at least some institutional knowledge, but there will definitely be a learning curve,” said Matthew Camardella, an attorney at Jackson Lewis P.C.

Another challenge, attorneys say, is that federal contractors trying to comply with affirmative action obligations for service members may be lost when it comes to determining what laws apply to them and which agency is enforcing them.

“A lot of employers are going to be left scratching their heads trying to figure out how to navigate whoever ultimately has responsibility for these laws,” Camardella added.

The Trump administration’s plans to divvy out the OFCCP’s remaining authorities to other agencies don’t necessarily signal that enforcement of these obligations for federal contractors will cease under this new regime, although it’s likely to change. The OFCCP had an established compliance manual and audit process, for example, said Christy Kiely, a partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP.

“So whether it’s going to look the same or be as robust, I just don’t think we can tell yet,” she said.

However, the current administration is very supportive of the military and of veterans, and the decision to fold the OFCCP’s former duties into VETS, instead of letting that enforcement fall to the wayside, suggests that some level of enforcement will continue, Kiely said.

“But, the whole mechanism that’s developed under the OFCCP will be gone,” she added. “They had a whole infrastructure for this enforcement that VETS does not have.”