On September 19, 2013, two members of the House of Representatives’ Education and Workforce Committee sent a letter to Department of Labor Secretary Thomas Perez seeking additional information regarding the regulations recently adopted by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (“OFCCP”) regarding individuals with disabilities and protected veterans.  As previously discussed, those regulations impose significant new affirmative action and other compliance obligations on contractors. 

The letter seeks information about various aspects of the rules, including OFCCP’s statutory basis for creating the utilization goal and hiring benchmarks in the regulations and communications with the Office of Management and Budget regarding the final rules.  In a press release accompanying the letter, the Committee members invited OFCCP Director Patricia Shiu to testify at a subcommittee hearing on the regulations on October 2, 2013. 

The OFCCP’s response and Director Shiu’s potential testimony may provide further insight into OFCCP’s legal bases for the new regulations and its strategies for enforcing the regulations when they become effective next year.