OFCCP publishes notice on EEO-1 Report FOIA request

The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) published a notice on Friday, August 19, that it had received a request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from Will Evans of the Center for Investigative Reporting for all Type 2 Consolidated EEO-1 Reports filed by federal contractors from 2016 to 2020.

In the notice, the OFCCP stated it has reason to believe the FOIA request may be protected from disclosure under Exemption 4, which protects disclosure of confidential commercial information, but it has not yet made that determination. The notice states federal contractors that filed EEO-1 Reports from 2016 to 2020 and object to disclosure of the information need to submit their objections to the OFCCP by September 19, 2022.

When a FOIA request is submitted, agencies like the OFCCP have an obligation to notify persons who submit confidential information to the government of the request. Exemption 4 of FOIA protects against the disclosure of “trade secrets and commercial or financial information obtained from a person [that is] privileged or confidential.”

In response to the FOIA request, which the agency estimates covers approximately 15,000 separate federal contractors, the agency has established the OFCCP Submitter Notice Response Portal, through which federal contractors can submit their written objections. Contractors also can submit their objections by email to OFCCPSubmitterResponse@dol.gov or by mail.