Dear Chairman Cassidy and Ranking Member Sanders,

The undersigned organizations committed to civil rights, workers’ rights, and gender justice write to express our strong opposition to the confirmation of current Acting Chair Andrea Lucas to serve a second term as a commissioner on the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Lucas’ record during her first term at the EEOC, particularly since being named Acting Chair in January of this year, calls into question her commitment to preserving the integrity of the agency and protecting the rights of all workers to be free from discrimination, demonstrating that she is not fit to serve a second term.

The EEOC is an independent agency that serves a critically important role in ensuring equal opportunity for workers in the United States, enforcing laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, and gender identity), race, national origin, age, disability and religion. The EEOC not only investigates these charges of discrimination, litigating when appropriate, but it also plays a key role in preventing discrimination through outreach, education, data collection, and technical assistance programs. Workers around the country rely on the EEOC to enforce their rights. In FY 2024, the EEOC received 88,531 new charges of discrimination, a nearly 9 percent increase from the previous year, and through its enforcement actions, EEOC obtains real relief for workers–from 2014-2024, the agency recovered $5.6 billion for workers who had experienced discrimination. Given the importance of the EEOC to the lives and livelihoods of millions of workers, the agency requires strong leadership dedicated to protecting working people from discrimination.

As Acting Chair of the EEOC, Lucas has regularly overstepped her authority and taken actions that undermine the EEOC’s mission to protect the civil rights of all workers.

Read the full letter and see the list of signatories in the official letter here.