WASHINGTON, D.C. (Law360) — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s plan to shed hundreds of workers in the coming year and a half would leave it with its leanest workforce since at least 1980, hampering a federal agency that experts say is already stretched thin.
In its budget request unveiled Friday, the EEOC projected its staffing levels dropping to just under 1,770 by fall 2026, nearly 500 workers short of the roughly 2,250 people it had on payroll in late 2024. The White House estimated the commission would slim down slightly more in that timeframe, to approximately 1,750, according to its separate budget proposal released on the same day.
While the commission’s staffing levels have slipped below 2,000 a few times in the past decade, the 60-year-old agency hasn’t had fewer than 1,900 people on staff for at least 45 years. The personnel data the EEOC reports on its site only goes as far back as 1980.
The commission is also mulling a leaner budget. Its $435.4 million budget request for fiscal year 2026 is $20 million less
than what Congress has allotted the EEOC in the past few years.
The EEOC’s current leader, acting chair Andrea Lucas, said in a message accompanying the plan that it “provides the resources necessary for the agency to make significant progress toward achieving President Trump’s civil rights agenda and ensuring the promise of equal opportunity in the American workplace.”
Former regional EEOC attorney Jeffrey Burstein, who retired in mid-2024 after nearly 17 years with the agency, told Law360 that the proposed staff reductions would be “pretty devastating.”
“The agency did not have a lot of slack when I was there,” said Burstein. “Additional cuts are going to be extremely problematic.”
The resulting effects, including delayed case processing times, will be “detrimental” for both workers and employers alike, added management-side attorney Mariah Berry, who is a senior associate at Muskat Devine LLP.
Exodus Already In Motion
The EEOC deferred to the White House on press inquiries about the proposed staffing plans, and representatives for the White House did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
However, documents Law360 obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests show a personnel downshift already underway.
Nearly 100 of the EEOC’s employees took the White House up on its late January buyout offer aimed at paring back the federal workforce. That program, which closed in mid-February, promised pay and benefits through the end of September for federal employees who opted to leave.
Another 21 employees resigned beyond the bounds of that initiative between inauguration day and April 2, and the EEOC fired 18 people within that 2 1/2-month span. The commission clocked its staff level at about 2,000 in a memorandum it sent to the White House in late May.
Several former agency attorneys who were among this initial wave of departures told Law360 that the commission’s reorientation to President Donald Trump’s priorities has contributed to the departures.
Acting EEOC chair Lucas’ approach to running the agency has been in lockstep with the strategy of the broader administration. She has prioritized combating anti-American and anti-Christian discrimination, scrutinizing employers’ diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and scaling back workplace protections for transgender and nonbinary workers.
“Really immediately after inauguration, with that first burst of executive orders, it started to impact our day-to-day work,” said one former EEOC lawyer who requested to remain anonymous out of fear of retaliation.
The initial round of exits likely won’t be the last, according to Jocelyn Samuels, the former vice chair of the EEOC who Trump fired in January.
“I would suspect that this is just the beginning of the departures,” said Samuels.
Longer Wait Times, New Enforcement Priorities
One area where additional losses are expected is the EEOC’s division that handles complaints from federal workers. The commission said in its public budget request that “reduced staffing levels” in its federal sector program will lead to an uptick in its pending case inventory.
“Without funding to hire to account for losses,” the agency said, “the workload is expected to increase.”
On the private sector side, Michael Fallings, a managing partner at worker-side firm Tully Rinckey PLLC, said workers should expect charge processing times to stretch out too.
“The employee could wait perhaps years for the EEOC to issue a determination. I have clients that have waited years,” Fallings said. “With lower staffing levels, that’s going to be more commonplace.”
Workers who don’t want to sit tight can request the commission’s permission to head to court once their charge has been with the agency for 180 days. In light of the potential elongated investigation times, Fallings said more people may take this route.
“The rules say, after 180 days, you don’t have to wait,” Fallings said. “We’re going to probably be advising our clients in the private sector to not wait, because it could take longer.”
