Trump names acting heads of EEOC and NLRB

When a new executive moves into 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., what follows is a flurry of changes to federal agencies, both in make-up and policy priority. President Trump announced some of those personnel changes this week, signalling to the HR and business community a different approach to some key issues facing corporate America.

Trump announced that Marvin Kaplan would head the National Labor Relations Board, an agency that supports and adjudicates employees’ attempts at organizing into a union.

The 47th president also named Andrea Lucas, a vocal opponent of DE&I policies, as acting chair of the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Both are lone Republicans on their agency’s boards.

The NLRB is currently operating with only three members, and Democrats hold a 2-1 majority on the board with two vacancies. Republicans will likely nominate two of their own to fill out the board.

Kaplan, a Trump appointee to the NLRB back in 2017, previously chaired the NLRB until April 2018, and was reconfirmed by the Senate in 2018 for another five-year term, set to end later this year.

Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB’s general counsel—who is responsible for directing how the agency investigates cases—is set to end her term at the agency in July.

Democrats hold a 3-1 majority at the EEOC. Republicans will not be able to assume a majority until next summer.

Lucas was appointed to the EEOC in 2020 during Trump’s first term, but her seat will expire in July; She would need to be renominated for the role upon its expiry.

“I am honored to be chosen by President Trump to lead the EEOC, our nation’s premier civil rights agency enforcing federal employment antidiscrimination laws,” Lucas said in a statement Tuesday. “I look forward to restoring evenhanded enforcement of employment civil rights laws for all Americans.”