WASHINGTON – Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Workforce Protections Subcommittee Chairman Kevin Kiley (R-CA) sent aletterto Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Charlotte Burrows regarding potential gross mismanagement of congressionally appropriated funds, which nearly resulted in an administrative furlough for EEOC employees to “offset a funding shortfall.” Despite reversing the planned furlough, the proposal raises major flags about potential mismanagement at the EEOC.
In the letter, the lawmakers write:“This legislation [Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2024] maintained EEOC’s spending level of $455 million—the highest level in EEOC’s history. This enacted level has been known to you and other Biden-Harris administration officials for nearly five months, and yet you failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that EEOC would not have a service interruption. This included failing to adjust for security, rent, and contracting costs and to recalculate EEOC’s projections about staff departures. Further, you failed to account for the fact that the hiring of 493 new positions in FY 2023 would create additional spending restraints, which was obvious at the time.”
The lawmakers continue:“In January 2023, Chairwoman Foxx sent you alettercontinuing this oversight request during the 118th Congress. Despite the Committee’s concerns, EEOC leadership either continues to be stymied by—or is in agreement with—the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) as the union has successfully kept agency employees from fully returning to in-person work. This continued situation appears to have contributed to a decline in average productivity per employee—leading to your drive to hire nearly 500 new employees in a single year to help make up for the decreases in productivity and thereby increasing pressure on the annual budget… Your threat to furlough EEOC employees was reckless and avoidable. Despite your cancellation of the furlough, the Committee has questions about how this situation arose in the first place.”
The lawmakers conclude by requesting EEOC Chair Burrows provide additional information, including:
All documents and communications shared between EEOC and the Office of Management and Budget related to determining the need for the August 30 furlough, including but not limited to the consideration of other options to avoid the furlough and the decision to cancel the furlough;
All documents and communications shared between EEOC and the Office of Personnel Management related to the proposed August 30 furlough and the decision to cancel the furlough;
All documents and communications shared between EEOC personnel and the AFGE preceding EEOC management’s decision to notify staff of the proposed August 30 furlough and the decision to cancel the furlough;
An explanation of why August 30 was determined to be the date of the proposed furlough;
An analysis of the impact the August 30 furlough would have had on EEOC offices’ intake and processing of discrimination charges;
All documents and communications from EEOC employees to EEOC management in response to the proposed August 30 furlough; and
An assurance that EEOC will not propose another furlough during the remainder of FY 2024.
