Trump order severely restricts diversity training by federal contractors, agencies

President Donald J. Trump recently issued an Executive Order (EO 13950) prohibiting federal contractors, federal agencies, and certain federal grant recipients as well as the military from using workplace training that “inculcates in its employees any form of race or sex stereotyping or any form of race or sex scapegoating.” The order restricts the entities from covering certain concepts in their workplace trainings including implicit bias.

Key takeaways for federal contractors

Under the EO issued on September 22, federal contractors face new obligations, including (1) expanded flow-down clauses in their subcontracts, (2) additional notifications to employees and applicants through a workplace posting and to labor unions, and (3) expanded liability exposures through a newly created hotline complaint system staffed by the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Violations could lead to OFCCP enforcement proceedings and debarment from current and future government contracts.

The contractor obligations apply to federal contracts entered into 60 days after the new EO was issued (or on November 21). In a September 28 press release, however, the OFCCP indicated the order is already effective because training programs prohibited by the new EO also may violate a contractor’s obligations under the existing EO 11246.

What workplace training does new EO prohibit?