EEOC Commissioner Feldblum Nominated for Third Term

Author: Michael Cardman, XpertHR Legal Editor

December 19, 2017

Surprising many observers, President Trump has renominated EEOC Commissioner Chai Feldblum to serve for a third term that would expire July 1, 2023.

Feldblum joined the EEOC in 2010 under President Obama and has focused her service on employment of people with disabilities, pregnancy accommodation, sexual orientation and transgender discrimination, and harassment prevention. Perhaps most notably, she co-chaired the EEOC's Select Task Force on Harassment in 2016 with now-Acting EEOC Chair Victoria Lipnic.

Feldblum is the first openly lesbian Commissioner to serve on the EEOC. She has been a vocal proponent of interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as protecting employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. Federal appellate courts are split on this issue, and the Supreme Court recently declined to hear a case that could have resolved the issue.

Influential conservative groups - including Heritage Action for America and the Family Research Council - have called on the Senate to reject her nomination.

President Trump's two other EEOC nominees - Daniel M. Gade and Janet Dhillon - were put forward earlier this year. If confirmed, they would give Republicans a majority on the commission for the first time in nearly a decade.