The EEOC’s New Enforcement Plan Puts Employers on Notice: An Overview of the Agency’s Key Enforcement Priorities for 2025–2029

On June 4, 2026, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or the Agency) published a new National Enforcement Plan (NEP) for Fiscal Years 2025-2029. Although the NEP does not create new legal obligations for employers, it provides a roadmap for how the EEOC will prioritize investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation over the next several years and offers important insight into the Agency's enforcement agenda under the current Administration. Among other things, the NEP pivots from previous priorities by placing increased focus on allegations of "intentional discrimination," particularly those involving DEI-related employment practices and programs. It also indicates that the EEOC will focus on cases with the potential for broad impact, including those involving issues addressed in recent Supreme Court decisions. The emphasis on these, and other, priorities presents opportunities for this Administration to shape the future interpretation and application of federal anti-discrimination statutes.

What Is the NEP?

The EEOC has issued Strategic Enforcement Plans since 2012 to identify the priorities that guide the Agency's outreach, investigations, enforcement actions, and litigation. The new NEP rescinds and replaces the prior Strategic Enforcement Plan for Fiscal Years 2024-2028 and will guide the Agency's activities through 2029, unless rescinded and replaced sooner. Notably, although the NEP serves the same general purpose as prior Strategic Enforcement Plans, it marks a departure from the EEOC's traditional process for developing such plans, which historically included public hearings and opportunities for input.

The NEP begins by outlining nine principles that guide its implementation. In particular, the NEP prioritizes intentional discrimination claims over disparate impact theories of liability; emphasizes coordination of enforcement activities with other agencies--including the Department of Justice, Department of Labor, and state fair employment practices agencies; and underscores the EEOC's role as an Executive Branch agency that will exercise its enforcement discretion in a manner consistent with the priorities of the current Administration and applicable Executive Orders.

What Are the EEOC's Key Priorities Under the NEP?

The NEP then identifies six substantive enforcement priorities that will guide the EEOC's allocation of investigative and litigation resources through 2029, including:

1. Cases Involving Intentional Discrimination and DEI Initiatives. The EEOC will prioritize what it views as cases involving repeated, overt, or facially discriminatory employment practices, as well as intentional discrimination arising from broad-based employment policies, practices, and programs, and will deprioritize cases involving disparate impact or facially neutral but discriminatory policies. According to the NEP, this category includes employment actions that classify, limit, segregate, or otherwise treat individuals differently based on a protected characteristic. The NEP also identifies certain DEI initiatives as potential areas of focus, including programs that use quotas or workforce targets, or that tie employment opportunities to race, sex, or another protected characteristic.
2. Cases Having the Potential to Develop Law. The EEOC will prioritize claims involving the application of recent Supreme Court precedent, unresolved questions of statutory interpretation, and conflicts among the federal circuit courts. Specifically, the NEP cites recent Supreme Court decisions relating to the scope of Title VII's prohibition on sex discrimination, including protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity; the legality of affirmative action-like programs and other employment initiatives that consider protected characteristics; the constitutional and statutory protections afforded to religious organizations and religious employers; and discrimination claims brought by members of majority groups, including claims alleging reverse discrimination.
3. Cases Protecting Vulnerable Workers. The EEOC will prioritize enforcement efforts aimed at protecting those it characterizes as "vulnerable workers," including teenage workers, persons with limited literacy or education, individuals employed in low-wage jobs, survivors of sexual assault, and workers with developmental or intellectual disabilities.
4. Cases Preserving the Integrity of the EEOC's Enforcement Process. The EEOC will prioritize matters that it believes undermine the Agency's ability to investigate and resolve discrimination charges effectively. This includes conduct that interferes with employee participation in the EEOC process or otherwise impedes the Agency's enforcement functions, such as retaliation against employees for participating in the EEOC's investigation process or the failure to preserve or produce information relevant to an EEOC investigation.
5. Cases Clarifying Liability Standards for Religious Organizations and Employers. The EEOC will prioritize cases that may clarify the constitutional and statutory limitations on liability under the laws it enforces, particularly as they apply to religious organizations and religious employers.
6. Evenhanded Enforcement. The EEOC will prioritize the evenhanded enforcement of federal anti-discrimination laws by ensuring that all workers receive equal protection under the statutes the Agency enforces, including members of both minority and majority groups.

The NEP also reflects several priorities previously emphasized by EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, including increased scrutiny of DEI-related employment practices and employment decisions that favor foreign workers over U.S. workers, and enhanced protections for employees' ability to express views regarding the binary nature of sex and employees' rights to religious accommodations.

What Does the NEP Mean for Employers?

In light of the NEP, employers should review their policies, practices, and workplace programs to ensure alignment with applicable law and to identify areas that may be subject to increased scrutiny by the EEOC. In particular, employers should carefully evaluate DEI-related initiatives and other employment practices that consider protected characteristics. Employers should also review and update training programs to address issues highlighted in the NEP, including discrimination against members of majority groups, religious accommodation obligations, and other emerging enforcement priorities.

Finally, employers should ensure that effective complaint and reporting procedures are in place and that human resources personnel, managers, and others responsible for investigating complaints, administering discipline, making employment decisions, or processing accommodation requests are up to date on current guidance.

Employers with questions regarding the EEOC's new enforcement priorities or their impact on workplace policies and practices may contact the authors of this article or any other attorney in Venable's Labor and Employment Group.