The Department of Government Efficiency website’s lease termination listings for as many as eight Equal Employment Opportunity Commission offices is raising questions from Congress about whether the terminations flouted standard protocol.
A group of House Democrats sent a letter yesterday to acting EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas, whom Trump renominated for another five-year term this week, urging the agency to “reverse course on any plan to terminate leases at EEOC’s field offices.”
The letter also says the lease terminations are “deeply concerning” because the independent agency is without a quorum to approve any changes. Trump fired two Democratic commissioners in January, leaving the anti-discrimination watchdog agency with just two remaining commissioners.
“The Commission must approve changes to the boundaries of field offices by vote,” the lawmakers wrote. “As you are aware, the Commission lacks a quorum and cannot approve such changes unilaterally.”
The agency’s five-person commission must approve changes to “jurisdictional boundaries of any EEOC field activity,” according to a 2006 EEOC memo obtained by NBC News. “No jurisdictional boundaries can be established or changed, even temporarily, without Commission approval,” the memo says.
When reached for comment on the letter, a spokesperson for the agency said the acting chair and staff have “continued to actively communicate” with the General Services Administration about the agency’s “space requirements as a public-facing law enforcement agency.”
“GSA holds the leases for all EEOC space, and we are committed to continuing to work with them to ensure we are able to provide service to the public,” the spokesperson said. “If there are any changes to the status of any EEOC office, the Acting Chair will follow all internal and external processes for approval and notification.”
Later, the spokesperson said that all EEOC offices “remain open for business,” noting that office closures require a…
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