- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
-
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 
Agency overview Formed July 2, 1965 Headquarters Washington, D.C. Employees 2,539 (March 2011) [1] Annual budget $344 million (2009)[2] Agency executives Jacqueline Berrien, Chairman
Stuart J. Ishimaru, Commissioner
Chai Feldblum, Commissioner
Victoria Lipnic, Commissioner
Constance Barker, CommissionerWebsite Equal Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is an independent federal law enforcement agency that enforces laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination complaints based on an individual's race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, perceived intelligence,[3] disability (such as alcoholism)[4] and retaliation for reporting and/or opposing a discriminatory practice. It is empowered to file discrimination suits against employers on behalf of alleged victims and to adjudicate claims of discrimination brought against federal agencies.[5][6]
Contents
Background
The EEOC was established on July 2, 1965; its mandate is specified under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA),[7] the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990, and the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.
All Commission seats and the post of general counsel to the commission are filled by the President of the U.S. subject to confirmation by the Senate.[8] Stuart J. Ishimaru, a Commissioner who was Senate-confirmed in 2003 and 2006,[9] served as Acting Chair of the Commission from January 20, 2009 until December 22, 2010, when the U.S. Senate confirmed Jacqueline Berrien to be the chairman. She had been nominated as chairman by President Barack Obama in July 2009.[10] In September 2009, Obama chose Chai Feldblum to fill another vacant seat,.[11] Feldblum has been reported by Fox News to be controversial among conservatives and certain religious groups because of her prior activism on gay rights.[12]
On March 27, 2010, Obama made recess appointments of three Commission posts: Berrien, Feldblum and Victoria Lipnic. With the appointments, the Commission had its full complement of five commissioners: Ishimaru, Berrien, Feldblum, Lipnic and Constance Barker, who was confirmed by the Senate in 2008 to be a Commissioner. Obama also made a recess appointment of P. David Lopez to be the EEOC's General Counsel.[13]
On December 22, 2010, the Senate gave full confirmation to Berrien, Feldblum, Lipnic and Lopez.
Staffing, workload, and backlog
In 1975, when backlog reached more than 100,000 charges to be investigated, President Gerald Ford's full requested budget of $62 million was approved. A "Backlog Unit" was created in 1978 in Philadelphia to resolve the thousands of federal equal employment complaints inherited from the Civil Service Commission.
In June 2006, civil rights and labor union advocates publicly complained that the effectiveness of the EEOC was being undermined by budget and staff cuts and the outsourcing of complaint screening to a private contractor whose workers were poorly trained. In 2006 a partial budget freeze prevented the agency from filling vacant jobs, and its staff had shrunk by nearly 20 percent from 2001. A Bush administration official stated that the cuts had been made because it was necessary to direct more money to defense and homeland security.[14] By 2008, the EEOC had lost 25% of its staff over the previous eight years, including investigators and lawyers who handle the cases. The number of complaints to investigate grew to 95,400 in fiscal 2008, up 26 percent from 2006.[15]
Although full-time staffing of the EEOC was cut between 2002 and 2006, Congress increased the commission's budget during that period (as it has almost every year since 1980). The budget was $303 million in fiscal year 2001[2] to $327 million in fiscal year 2006.[15] The outsourcing to Pearson Government Solutions in Kansas cost the agency 4.9 million and was called a "huge waste of money" by the president of the EEOC employees' union in 2006.[14]
EEOC Commissioners
Luther Holcomb, 1965-1974
Aileen Hernandez, 1965-1966
Vicente T. Ximenes, 1967-1971
Samuel C. Jackson, 1965-1968
Richard Graham, 1965-1966
Elizabeth Kuck, 1968-1970
Ethel B. Walsh, 1971-1980
Colston A. Lewis, 1970-1977
Raymond L. Telles, 1971-1976
J. Clay Smith, 1978-1982
Armando Rodriguez, 1978-1983
Cathie Shattuck, 1982-1983
Tony E. Gallegos, 1982-1994
R. Gaull Silberman, 1984-1995
Joy Cherian, 1987-1993
William Webb, 1982-1986
Fred Alvarez, 1984-1987
Evan J. Kemp, Jr., 1987-1993
Joyce Tucker, 1990-1996
Reginald E. Jones, 1996-2000Chairs of the EEOC
No. Chair of the EEOC Picture Start of Term End of Term President(s) 1 Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr. 
May 26, 1965 May 11, 1966 Lyndon Johnson 2 Stephen N. Shulman 
September 14, 1966 July 1, 1967 Lyndon Johnson 3 Clifford J. Alexander, Jr. 
August 4, 1967 May 1, 1969 Lyndon Johnson 4 William H. Brown, III 
May 5, 1969 December 23, 1973 Richard Nixon 5 John H. Powell, Jr 
December 28, 1973 March 18, 1975 Richard Nixon Acting Ethel Bent Walsh 1975 1975 Gerald Ford 6 Lowell W. Perry 
May 27, 1975 May 15, 1976 Gerald Ford Acting Ethel Bent Walsh May 1976 May 1977 Gerald Ford 7 Eleanor Holmes Norton 
May 27, 1977 February 21, 1981 Jimmy Carter Acting J. Clay Smith, Jr. 1981 1982 Ronald Reagan 8 Clarence Thomas 
May 6, 1982 March 8, 1990 Ronald Reagan 9 Evan J. Kemp, Jr. 
March 8, 1990 April 2, 1993 Ronald Reagan
George H. W. BushActing Tony Gallegos 1993 1994 Bill Clinton 10 Gilbert Casellas 
September 29, 1994 December 31, 1997 Bill Clinton Acting Paul Igasaki 
1998 1998 Bill Clinton 11 Ida L. Castro 
October 23, 1998 August 13, 2001 Bill Clinton 12 Cari M. Dominguez 
August 6, 2001 August 31, 2006 George W. Bush 13 Naomi C. Earp 
September 1, 2006 2009 George W. Bush Acting Stuart J. Ishimaru
January 20, 2009 April 7, 2010 Barack Obama 14 Jacqueline A. Berrien
April 7, 2010[16] Present Barack Obama See also
- Equal Pay Act of 1963
- Title VII Civil Rights Act of 1964
- Pregnancy discrimination
- Race and ethnicity (EEO)
- ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (ADAAA)
- Another good news article is http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/18/nyregion/discrimination-suit-against-bloomberg-lp-is-dismissed.html?_r=1&ref=equalemploymentopportunitycommission which discusses the fairly recent case involving allegations against Bloomberg unfairly treating pregnant women. Bloomberg won because of a lack of statistics on the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's part. However, it is still possible for the federal government to appeal and the witnesses can individually sue Bloomberg for discrimination.
References
- ^ FedScope
- ^ a b "EEOC Budget and Staffing History". Archives. EEOC.gov. Last update May 12, 2009. http://archive.eeoc.gov/abouteeoc/plan/budgetandstaffing.html.
- ^ http://www.iq-tests.eu/iq-test-Use-of-IQ-in-the-United-States-legal-system-910.html
- ^ http://www.swtimes.com/news/article_975a7724-ca70-11e0-8a6c-001cc4c03286.html
- ^ See "42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2 - Unlawful Employment Practices". http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/42/21/VI/2000e-2. and "42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3 - Other Unlawful Practices". http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/42/21/VI/2000e-3.
- ^ In addition, The EEOC, the Departments of Labor and Justice, the Civil Service Commission and the Office of Revenue Sharing have adopted Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures to assist employers in complying with federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. "Uniform Guidelines On Employee Selection Procedures". http://www.uniformguidelines.com/uniformguidelines.html#129. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ 29 U.S.C. 621 et seq., as amended
- ^ "42 U.S.C. § 2000e-4 - Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". http://codes.lp.findlaw.com/uscode/42/21/VI/2000e-4.
- ^ "Nominations PN845-110 and PN1029-108". Thomas (Library of Congress. http://thomas.loc.gov/. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ^ Press Office (July 16, 2009). "President Obama Announces Pick to Head Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-Pick-to-Head-Equal-Employment-Opportunity-Commission/.>
- ^ Press Office (September 14, 2009). "President Obama Announces More Key Administration Posts". http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/President-Obama-Announces-More-Key-Administration-Posts-9/14/09/.
- ^ Bream, Shannon (December 10, 2009). "Obama's EEOC Nominee Draws Fire for Gay Rights Activism". Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/12/10/obamas-eeoc-nominee-draws-gay-rights-activism/.
- ^ http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/president-obama-announces-recess-appointments-key-administration-positions
- ^ a b Lee, Christopher (June 14, 2006). "EEOC Is Hobbled, Groups Contend: Case Backlog Grows as Its Staff Is Slashed, Critics Say". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061301418.html.
- ^ a b Vogel, Steve (March 31, 2009). "EEOC Willfully Violated Pay Law, Arbitrator Rules". Washington Post. p. A15. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033002901.html.
- ^ "Jacqueline A. Berrien Becomes Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". U.S. Senate Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 2010-04-07. http://www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/newsroom/release/4-7-10.cfm. Retrieved 2010-11-16.
External links
Categories:- Civil rights organizations in the United States
- Disability rights organizations
- Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Government agencies established in 1964
- Independent agencies of the United States government
- United States administrative law
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