Eva Perón’s farewell song from “Evita” comes to mind as the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP or Agency) loses its authority and prepares to take its final bow. Aligning with the Administration’s efforts to dissolve the agency, OFCCP has continued to send notices to federal contractors.

In July 2025, the agency released three Notices of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRMs): one would eliminate regulations under Executive Order 11246, another would alter rules for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the last would minimally modify regulations for the Vietnam Era Veterans Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA). The public comment periods for these NPRMs ended in September 2025, and no further announcements have been made, other than OMB Number 1250-0005, which discusses the effect of the proposed changes. On January 7, 2026, OFCCP issued a Notice of Proposed Renewal of Information Collection Requests related to data collection under VEVRAA. This notice asks for feedback on whether gathering information about applicants’ and employees’ veteran status is necessary for performance of the Agency’s duties.

Neither the Section 503 and VEVRAA NPRMs nor the VEVRAA Notice indicate any transfer of enforcement authority to another federal agency. Instead, these documents suggest that current data collection requirements under Section 503 and VEVRAA may be eliminated. Without such data collection, federal contractors would lose the ability to quantitatively assess their outreach and recruitment of disabled individuals and veterans, potentially making a transfer of enforcement authority a low priority.

Revisions to Section 503 Regulations

The NPRM published by the DOL on July 1, 2025, proposes to strip from OFCCP regulations 1) data collection requirements related to the disability status of applicants and employees, and 2) utilization analysis requirements used to determine the effectiveness of recruitment of disabled individuals. Specifically, the DOL proposes three major changes to Section 503 regulations:

• Recission of 41 C.F.R. 60-741.42, which requires contractors to invite applicants and employees to voluntarily identify their disability status.
• Recission of 41 C.F.R. 60-741.44(k), which imposes data collection requirements on contractors and subcontractors regarding the number of applicants and hires who self-identify as individuals with disabilities.
• Recission of 41 C.F.R. 60-741.45, which requires federal contractors and subcontractors to engage in a utilization analysis to evaluate the extent of the representation of qualified disabled individuals in the workforce.

Under the proposed rule for Section 503, the obligation to engage in outreach and recruitment of qualified individuals with a disability would remain. However, the proposed changes to the Section 503 regulations remove a critical mechanism for evaluating the program’s effectiveness and for enforcing Section 503 obligations.

The Administration claims that revising Section 503 regulations will prevent federal contractors from improperly collecting disability data in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), discourage preferential treatment of disabled individuals, and ease regulatory requirements.[1] The proposed changes to the regulations, however, ignore the differences between Section 503 and the ADA. Section 503 sets a higher bar on preventing discrimination against disabled individuals than the ADA. Federal contractors are required to take affirmative and proactive measures to ensure and advance employment opportunities for qualified individuals with disabilities. Regarding concerns that collecting disability status might encourage federal contractors to show a preference toward disabled individuals, it is important to note that “non-disabled persons” are not recognized as a protected category under federal anti-discrimination statutes, making claims of unlawful preference difficult to substantiate. If data collection requirements are rescinded, it will remove an essential quantitative tool for assessing compliance with, and enforcing, the obligations established by Section 503.

Notice of Proposed Renewal of Information Collection Request

On January 7, 2026, the OFCCP issued a notice and request for public comments on the renewal of Information Collection Requests under VEVRAA. The current OFCCP regulations at 41 C.F.R. Part 60-300.42(a), (b), and (k) impose duties on federal contractors to collect and analyze information on veteran status from job applicants who voluntarily identify as protected veterans.

Each year, federal contractors are required to identify the total number of known protected veteran applicants and hires, as well as assess their progress in achieving equal employment opportunity for veterans by comparing results to an established hiring benchmark. This self-identification data is also utilized annually to submit the VETS 4212 report to the Office of the Veterans Employment and Training Services (VETS), in accordance with 41 C.F.R. Part 61-300.

The VEVRAA Notice requests feedback, specifically asking 1) whether the information collected is necessary for the Agency’s work, and 2) ways to improve the quality, usefulness, and clarity of that information. If the Department of Labor prohibits the collection of self-identification data for protected veterans—similar to the proposed revisions for Section 503—it would remove federal contractors’ ability to conduct the quantitative analysis used to evaluate and enforce VEVRAA requirements from the regulations.

What this means to you

Regardless of whether the OFCCP is closed and its enforcement duties are transferred to other federal agencies, it seems the federal government plans to limit its enforcement of Section 503 and VEVRAA. This would mean that federal contractors would have fewer affirmative action compliance requirements under these laws. In the future, discrimination claims against federal contractors and subcontractors will probably come from private individuals rather than the federal government. Therefore, contractors and subcontractors should assess their policies and take steps that both support their organizational goals and protect their businesses against private discrimination claims.

Contact us

If you have questions regarding federal contractor compliance obligations under Section 503 and VEVRAA, contract Tracey O’Brien, Michael Schrier, or your Husch Blackwell attorney.

[1] See 90 CFR 28494 at section II stating that [w]hile the Section 503 regulations state that the use of quotas is prohibited, contractors may, in practice, be induced to using quotas to meet the utilization goal. DOL has concerns that the self-identification and utilization goal regulations are inconsistent with the ADA…