The United States Department of Labor (DOL) will publish today, Friday, August 21, 2026, three final rules addressing federal contractor equal employment opportunity obligations.

The new regulations become effective October 26, 2026.

Executive Order 11246 – Regarding Affirmative Action for Race & Gender

President Trump rescinded EO 11246 early last year. Today’s action finalized the rescission of EO 11246’s implementing regulations. This eliminates the obligation of federal contractors to engage in affirmative action based on race and gender, and related compliance requirements.

Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act – Regarding Affirmative

Action for Veterans

DOL’s revisions  to the VEVRAA rules are largely technical. Contractors will continue to be required to prepare annual affirmative plans, set an annual veteran hiring benchmark, solicit veteran self-ID information from applicants and employees, conduct data analyses, engage in veteran outreach/recruitment and assess the effectiveness of those efforts. DOL updated the jurisdictional threshold for covered contractors from $150,000 to $200,000.

Section 503 of Rehabilitation Act – Related to Affirmative Action for

Individuals with Disabilities

This is where the significant rule changes are.

First, what stays: contractors will continue to be required to annually prepare affirmative action plans, ensure non-discrimination against individuals with disabilities, engage in disability outreach and recruitment and assess the effectiveness of those efforts.

Next, what goes away: DOL has eliminated the disability self-ID solicitation requirements for applicants and employees and also the 7% utilization goal requirement. In addition, the CC-305 Form – which contractors were required to use to solicit self-ID disability data – has been rescinded.

DOL offered, as a rational for these changes, that it interprets soliciting and collecting disability self-ID data as being inconsistent with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. However, the ADA allows contractors to solicit and collect disability self-ID data from applicants and employees if it does so to take affirmative action for the benefit of individuals with disabilities.

Interestingly, in the preamble to the final regulations, DOL states that –

At their own discretion, contractors remain free to conduct utilization analyses. In doing so, contractors should ensure they are acting in accordance with all applicable laws and regulations, including the ADA.

And also, this –

DOL is not prohibiting contractors from exercising their own legal and business judgment about making [applicant and employee self-ID] disability inquiries consistent with the ADA and its implementing regulations. Instead, DOL simply no longer requires that contractors do so as part of their affirmative action or other obligations under Section 503.

Thus, employers can consider continuing, but are no longer required, to prepare disability utilization analyses and/or soliciting and collecting voluntary disability self-ID data from applicants and/or employees.

We encourage employers considering these options – and how best to ensure compliance with the updated Section 503 affirmative action regulatory requirements – to seek advice from expert legal counsel.

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If you have questions about this Alert, please contact the Silberman Law legal professional with whom you work, or simply reply to this Alert.