Chronologically | Issue Area
Introduction
The Biden administration has taken significant action to protect and advance civil and human rights. This timeline documents many of these actions and is part of The Leadership Conference’s assessment of the administration’s civil rights record. This assessment has included:
- In November 2020, together with our 11 task forces, The Leadership Conference identified and developed a comprehensive list of priority executive and legislative initiatives for the incoming administration and Congress. “Civil and Human Rights Progress Report: The Biden-Harris Administration and the 117th Congress,” a February 2022 report, documents how far the administration and the 117th Congress had come and how far they still had to go in fulfilling our coalition’s priorities. The Leadership Conference has continued to share our coalition’s top priorities with the administration, including in this January 2023 letter.
- “Persevere: Our Ongoing Fight for an Equal Justice Judiciary,” published in February 2023, documents the work of the Biden administration and the Senate during the 117th Congress to build an equal justice judiciary by nominating and confirming diverse and highly qualified individuals — including people with civil rights and public defender experience — to serve on the federal bench. The Leadership Conference has also released fact sheets on President Biden’s appointment of Black, AANHPI, Latino/a, and openly LGBTQ lifetime judges and has documented this administration’s judicial confirmations progress here. A report on President Biden’s judicial appointments during the 118th Congress is forthcoming.
- On the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday in Selma, President Biden issued Executive Order 14019 on Promoting Access to Voting, a visionary order that has the potential to make registration and voting more accessible for millions of Americans. “Strengthening Democracy: A Progress Report on Federal Agency Action to Promote Access to Voting” — a comprehensive March 2023 report published by The Leadership Conference, ACLU, Demos, and a total of 53 organizations — evaluates the progress of 10 federal agencies in responding to President Biden’s executive order.
- In response to a first-day executive order from President Biden, more than 90 federal agencies released Agency Equity Action Plans that identified each agency’s priority actions to advance equity going forward. Our April 2023 report — “Data for Equity: A Review of Federal Agency Equity Action Plans” — is grounded in a review of 45 of these action plans, identifying common themes and making recommendations that summarize some of the most pressing data needs that exist across the government.
- In June 2023, we released “The Civil and Human Rights Executive Order Progress Report,” a comprehensive overview that analyzes President Biden’s progress in implementing executive orders that advance civil and human rights. The administration has issued important and groundbreaking executive orders to address LGBTQ+ rights, racial equity, police accountability, health care access, and more. The Progress Report assessed the implementation of 41 directives contained in nine civil and human rights executive orders issued by the Biden administration. To supplement this report, we also issued “Executive Orders: An Overview,” which provides an overview of executive orders broadly — what they are and how they are issued and implemented.
The timeline below continues this assessment. While it is not an exhaustive list of the Biden administration’s civil and human rights accomplishments, it seeks to document many of the efforts undertaken to protect and advance fundamental rights.
This list does not include most of the hundreds of critically important enforcement actions taken by agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, and the Offices for Civil Rights at agencies like the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and others to enforce landmark civil rights laws, protect historically underserved communities from unlawful discrimination, and defend our multiracial democracy. However, because of their importance — and because of the marked shift they represent from the previous administration’s positions — we have included several examples of investigations opened in addition to litigation filed in major lawsuits in a number of statewide voting rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ rights, and other cases.
Importantly, The Leadership Conference has not always agreed with — and indeed has opposed — some of the administration’s actions. Some of those actions are included at the end of this timeline.
2021
January 20: President Biden sent a bold immigration proposal — the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021 — to Congress.
January 20: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum directing the Secretary of Homeland Security, in consultation with the attorney general, to take all appropriate actions under the law to preserve and fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. The memorandum also calls on Congress to enact legislation providing permanent status and a path to citizenship for people who came to this country as children and have lived, worked, and contributed to our country for many years.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive action putting an end to the Muslim ban, a policy rooted in religious animus and xenophobia. The action repeals Proclamations 9645 and 9983, which restrict entry into the United States of persons from primarily Muslim and African countries, and instructs the State Department to restart visa processing for affected countries and to swiftly develop a proposal to restore fairness and remedy the harms caused by the bans, especially for individuals stuck in the waiver process and those who had immigrant visas denied.
January 20: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum to extend until June 30, 2022 the long-standing Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) designation for Liberians who have been in the United States for many years.
January 20: President Biden requested that the Department of Education immediately extend the pause on interest and principal payments for direct federal loans until at least September 30, 2021 — which the department did.
January 20: President Biden asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to consider immediately extending the federal eviction moratorium until at least March 31, 2021, while calling on Congress to provide much needed rental assistance and extend it further.
January 20: In a presidential proclamation, President Biden declared an immediate termination of the national emergency declaration that was used as a pretext to justify some of the funding diversions for the border wall. The proclamation directs an immediate pause in wall construction projects to allow a close review of the legality of the funding and contracting methods used, and to determine the best way to redirect funds that were diverted by the prior administration to fund wall construction.
January 20: President Biden issued Executive Order 13985, “Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government.” This order acknowledges that systemic racism and other entrenched disparities in the laws, policies, and institutions of the United States have denied equal opportunity to many. It announced a “whole-of-government equity agenda” to counter this inheritance and to advance equity for all.
January 20: The White House Chief of Staff sent a regulatory freeze memo to the heads of executive departments and agencies that will pause any new regulations from moving forward and give the incoming administration an opportunity to review any regulations that the Trump administration tried to finalize in its last days.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive order to revoke a Trump executive order that directed harsh and extreme zero-tolerance immigration enforcement policy.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive order to revoke the Trump administration’s orders setting out an unlawful plan to exclude noncitizens from the census and apportionment of congressional representatives.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive order rescinding the Trump administration’s 1776 Commission, which sought to erase America’s history of racial injustice.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive order revoking Trump’s damaging order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which limited the ability of federal government agencies, contractors, and even some grantees from implementing important and needed diversity and inclusion training.
January 20: President Biden signed an executive order that builds on the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County and ensures that the federal government interprets Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as prohibiting workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The order also directs agencies to take all lawful steps to make sure that federal anti-discrimination statutes that cover sex discrimination prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ persons.
January 20: Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske issued a memo to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services declaring a review of policies and practices throughout the department and its components — including a 100-day pause on deportations.
January 21: At the request of President Biden, the acting Secretary of Education extended the pause on federal student loan payments and collections and kept the interest rate at 0 percent.
January 21: The acting Housing and Urban Development Secretary announced that the department implemented President Biden’s requests to immediately extend eviction and foreclosure moratoriums on federally backed single family mortgages through March 31, 2021, to provide meaningful support to homeowners struggling financially as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
January 22: President Biden signed an executive order stating that “It is the policy of the United States to protect, empower, and rebuild the career Federal workforce. It is also the policy of the United States to encourage union organizing and collective bargaining. The Federal Government should serve as a model employer.”
January 22: The acting assistant attorney general for civil rights at the Department of Justice revoked an 11th hour Trump DOJ memo that sought to limit the impact of the Supreme Court’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision.
January 25: President Biden signed an executive order to reverse Trump’s transgender military ban – revoking the presidential memorandum of March 23, 2018 (Military Service by Transgender Individuals), and confirming the revocation of the Presidential Memorandum of August 25, 2017 (Military Service by Transgender Individuals).
January 26: In a memo to all federal prosecutors, Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson officially rescinded the Trump administration’s cruel and inhumane “zero tolerance” policy that led to the separation of thousands of migrant families at the southern border.
January 26: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to examine the effects of the previous administration’s regulatory actions that undermined fair housing policies and laws, and further directing HUD to take steps necessary based on that analysis to fully implement the Fair Housing Act’s requirements.
January 26: President Biden signed an executive order directing the attorney general not to renew Department of Justice contracts with privately operated criminal detention facilities.
January 26: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum establishing that the policy of this administration is to condemn and denounce anti-Asian bias and discrimination. The memorandum directs the Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with the COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force, to consider issuing guidance describing best practices to advance cultural competency, language access, and sensitivity towards AAPIs in the federal government’s COVID-19 response. It also directs the Department of Justice to partner with AAPI communities to prevent hate crimes and harassment against AAPIs.
January 28: President Biden signed an executive order that takes steps to reverse attacks on and strengthen Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act so they can continue to provide access to care for millions of Americans. Based on this order, it is expected that the Department of Health and Human Services will open HealthCare.gov for a special enrollment period from February 15, 2021 – May 15, 2021.
January 28: President Biden issued a presidential memorandum to protect and expand access to comprehensive reproductive health care. It immediately rescinds the global gag rule, also referred to as the Mexico City Policy, which bars international nonprofits that provide abortion counseling or referrals from receiving U.S. funding. It also directs the Department of Health and Human Services to take immediate action to consider whether to rescind regulations under its Title X family planning program.
January 28: The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced it had paused publication of its fair access to financial services rule. Civil rights and consumer organizations referred to the proposed rule as “a perversion of the long-held anti-discrimination principles upon which our nation’s fair housing and fair lending laws stand” and said “it grossly applies the language of civil rights to potentially shield market activities that maintain the legacy of lending discrimination in the United States.”
January 29: The Department of Labor announced the immediate end of its Payroll Audit Independent Determination program launched by the department’s Wage and Hour Division in 2018. The program allowed employers to self-report federal minimum wage and overtime violations under the Fair Labor Standards Act to avoid litigation, penalties, or damages, and it prohibited affected workers from taking any private action on the identified violations.
January 29: The Department of Labor announced that its Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued stronger worker safety guidance to help employers and workers implement a coronavirus prevention program and better identify risks which could lead to exposure and contraction. “Protecting Workers: Guidance on Mitigating and Preventing the Spread of COVID-19 in the Workplace” provides updated guidance and recommendations and outlines existing safety and health standards.
January 29: Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued a memo to all federal prosecutors rescinding a May 10, 2017 memo from AG Jeff Sessions, which mandated that prosecutors almost always pursue the harshest charges and stiffest penalties. The Sessions memo had abandoned the DOJ’s Smart on Crime initiative that had been hailed as a positive step forward in rehabilitating drug users and reducing the enormous costs of warehousing inmates.
January 29: Acting Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske announced an 18-month extension and re-designation of Syria’s Temporary Protected Status designation, enabling more than 6,700 eligible Syrian nationals (and individuals without nationality who last resided in Syria) to retain their TPS through September 2022 and allowing approximately 1,800 additional individuals to file initial applications to obtain such status.
February 2: President Biden signed three important immigration-related executive actions, including the creation of a task force to reunify families.
February 2: President Biden removed all 10 of President Trump’s appointees to the Federal Service Impasses Panel, the arm of the Federal Labor Relations Authority tasked with resolving disputes between unions and federal agencies.
February 3: In a filing with the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut, the Department of Justice dropped a federal lawsuit that accused Yale University of illegally discriminating against Asian American and white applicants in the admissions process.
February 4: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum to protect and promote the human rights of LGBTQ people around the world. The memorandum directs relevant federal agencies to engage constructively to advance protections for the human rights of LGBTQ people abroad and restores clarity to the U.S. position by directing all departments and agencies engaged abroad to ensure that our diplomacy and foreign assistance promotes and protects the rights of LGBTQ people.
February 6: The United States suspended and initiated the process to terminate the asylum cooperative agreements with the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras – terminating Trump-era agreements that limited the ability of some asylum seekers from those countries to claim asylum in the United States.
February 8: Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced that the United States will re-engage with the UN Human Rights Council as an observer following the Trump administration’s decision to withdraw from the UNHRC in June 2018.
February 9: The Department of Health and Human Services agreed to a court order that immediately stayed the effective date of a discriminatory Trump-era rule that would have permitted discrimination against LGBTQ people, religious minorities and women in programs related to foster care, adoption, HIV and STI prevention, youth homelessness, refugee resettlement, elder care programs, and more.
February 10: The Department of Justice switched positions in California v. Texas – the case attempting to strike down the Affordable Care Act. Deputy Solicitor General Edwin Kneedler informed the Supreme Court that “the United States no longer adheres to the conclusions in the previously filed brief.”
February 11: The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it will administer and enforce the Fair Housing Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. HUD’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) issued a memorandum stating that HUD interprets the Fair Housing Act to bar discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity and directing HUD offices and recipients of HUD funds to enforce the Act accordingly. The memorandum begins implementation of the policy set forth in President Biden’s executive order on Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation, which directed executive branch agencies to examine further steps that could be taken to combat such discrimination.
February 11: Multiple news outlets reported that the Biden administration on February 12 would notify states of its plans to revoke Medicaid work requirements – withdrawing the Trump administration’s invitation to states to apply for approval to impose Medicaid work requirements, and notifying states that permission to impose such requirements would be retracted.
February 12: U.S. Citizenship and Immigrant Services announced its official policy for reinstating Deferred Enforced Departure (DED) for eligible Liberians and providing for continued work authorization through June 30, 2022. DED for Liberians had expired on January 11 but was restored by President Biden on January 20.
February 23: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Equality Act (H.R. 5). The Equality Act would ensure that LGBTQ people in America are protected against discrimination in housing, credit, education, and employment, and it would clarify and strengthen public accommodation antidiscrimination laws for all people.
February 23: The Department of Justice withdrew its brief in Hecox v. Little. The Trump DOJ had filed a brief in support of an Idaho law barring transgender students from participating in school sports. This notice of withdrawal filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit revoked the federal government’s support for that Idaho law.
February 23: The Department of Justice withdrew a statement of interest filed by former Education Secretary Betsy DeVos – reversing the government’s support for a federal lawsuit in Connecticut that seeks to ban transgender students from participating in girls’ high school sports.
February 24: President Biden revoked presidential proclamation 10014, signed by Trump, which had prohibited the entry of certain immigrants into the United States due to possible harm to economic interests due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 24: President Biden revoked a September 2020 memo signed by Trump that threatened to pull federal funding from “anarchist jurisdictions” – cities “that are permitting anarchy, violence and destruction.” Trump’s memo had been viewed as a political move targeting cities where people were protesting police brutality and systemic racism.
February 26: The Department of Health and Human Services postponed the effectiveness of a Trump-era rule that allowed social service providers that receive government funding to discriminate based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
March 1: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the For the People Act (H.R. 1), saying: “In the wake of an unprecedented assault on our democracy, a never before seen effort to ignore, undermine, and undo the will of the people, and a newly aggressive attack on voting rights taking place right now all across the country, this landmark legislation is urgently needed to protect the right to vote and the integrity of our elections, and to repair and strengthen American democracy.”
March 4: According to an internal email obtained by BuzzFeed News, the Biden administration rescinded a Trump-era policy that made it harder for immigrant children to obtain asylum in the United States.
March 7: On the 56th anniversary of Bloody Sunday, President Biden signed an executive order to promote voting access. The order will direct federal agencies to expand access to voter registration and election information, direct federal agencies to assist states under the National Voter Registration Act, improve and modernize Vote.gov, increase federal employees’ access to voting, analyze barriers to voting for people with disabilities, increase voting access for active duty military and other overseas voters, provide voting access and education to citizens in federal custody, and establish a Native American voting rights steering group.
March 8: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act (H.R. 842), saying that the administration “looks forward to working with the Congress to enact this critical legislation that safeguards workers’ rights to organize and bargain collectively. The PRO Act will strengthen our democracy and advance dignity in the workplace.”
March 8: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas designated Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months until September 2022. This new designation of TPS for Venezuela enables Venezuelan nationals (and individuals without nationality who last resided in Venezuela) currently residing in the United States to file initial applications for TPS so long as they meet eligibility requirements.
March 8: On International Women’s Day, President Biden signed executive orders to establish the White House Gender Policy Council and to direct the Department of Education to review all of its existing regulations, orders, guidance, and policies for consistency with the administration’s policy to guarantee education free from sexual violence. The second order also directs the department to specifically evaluate the Title IX regulation issued under the previous administration and agency action taken pursuant to that regulation.
March 9: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) issued an interpretive rule clarifying that the prohibition against sex discrimination under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA) and Regulation B includes sexual orientation discrimination and gender identity discrimination. This prohibition also covers discrimination based on actual or perceived nonconformity with traditional sex- or gender-based stereotypes, and discrimination based on an applicant’s social or other associations. The CFPB issued the interpretive rule consistent with the Supreme Court’s Bostock decision.
March 9: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced that the federal government would no longer defend the previous administration’s public charge rule, which targeted low-income immigrants and their families. On March 11, the administration formally rescinded the rule.
March 11: President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act, a package that contained critical measures providing pandemic relief and investments in the economic security of families across America — including an expanded child tax credit.
March 12: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas designated Burma for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months. This new designation of Burma for TPS enables Burmese nationals (and individuals without nationality who last habitually resided in Burma) currently residing in the United States to file initial applications for TPS so long as they meet eligibility requirements.
March 12: The Departments of Health and Human Services and Homeland Security announced the termination of a 2018 agreement that undermined the interests of children and had a chilling effect on potential sponsors from stepping up to sponsor an unaccompanied child placed in the care of HHS. In its place, DHS and HHS signed a new Memorandum of Agreement that promotes the safe and timely transfer of children.
March 17: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2021 (H.R. 1620), saying that “VAWA reauthorization is more urgent now than ever, especially when the pandemic and economic crisis have only further increased the risks of abuse and the barriers to safety for women in the United States.”
March 18: The Department of Health and Human Services announced that it will propose new rules for the Title X federal family planning program to undo the Trump administration’s rule. The announcement follows a January 28 presidential memorandum that directed HHS to consider whether to rescind regulations under the Title X program.
March 18: The Department of Education announced it would streamline debt relief for borrowers whose borrower defense claims had been granted after their institution engaged in misconduct. The department rescinded its formula for calculating partial relief and adopted a streamlined approach that would provide full relief to borrowers whose borrower defense claims were granted. The department anticipated that this change would immediately provide 72,000 borrowers whose claims had already been granted with $1 billion in loan cancellation.
March 18: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021 (H.R. 6), saying that the administration “looks forward to working with the Congress to create an earned pathway to citizenship for Dreamers and those with TPS.”
March 18: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act of 2021 (H.R. 1603), saying that the administration “looks forward to working with the Congress to create an earned pathway to citizenship for farmworkers.”
March 26: Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Pamela Karlan issued a memo to federal agency civil rights directors and general counsels regarding the application of Bostock v. Clayton County to Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. The memo says that the Civil Rights Division has “determined that the best reading of Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination ‘on the basis of sex’ is that it includes discrimination on the basis of gender identity and sexual orientation.”
March 29: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky signed an extension to the eviction moratorium, further preventing the eviction of tenants who are unable to make rental payments. The moratorium that was scheduled to expire on March 31, 2021 is now extended through June 30, 2021.
March 29: The Department of Education announced that during the COVID-19 pandemic it was stopping the three year income monitoring period for borrowers that received a total and permanent disability discharge and that it would reverse loan reinstatement for 230,000 borrowers who had their loans reinstated. Previously, hundreds of thousands of borrowers had their loans reinstated and were required to repay their debt after they failed to complete paperwork annually during the monitoring period, even though they were still disabled and unable to work. This change ensured that no borrowers would be at risk of having their loans reinstated for failure to provide earnings information during the COVID-19 emergency.
March 30: President Biden announced his intent to nominate 11 individuals to serve on our courts — including 10 for lifetime federal judgeships. The nominations included three Black women for circuit court seats, nine women, and four Asian Americans. Many of the nominees also possess experience from areas of the legal profession woefully underrepresented on the bench — including having served as public defenders — reflecting the requests of the Biden administration. Prior to President Biden taking office, Dana Remus, who served as the first White House counsel in this administration, sent a letter to Senate Democrats urging them to prioritize potential judicial nominees who are public defenders, civil rights lawyers, and legal aid attorneys — positions that are vastly underrepresented on the federal bench. The list at the bottom of this document outlines which nominees were publicly supported by The Leadership Conference.
March 30: President Biden announced new actions to respond to the increase in acts of anti-Asian violence, and to advance safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.
March 31: The Department of Defense published policy updates for transgender military service, restoring the department’s original 2016 policies regarding transgender service. The revised policies prohibit discrimination on the basis of gender identity or an individual’s identification as transgender, provide a means by which to access into the military in one’s self-identified gender provided all appropriate standards are met, provide a path for those in service for medical treatment, gender transition, and recognition in one’s self-identified gender, and seeks to protect the privacy of all service members and to treat all service members with dignity and respect.
March 31: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced it is rescinding seven policy statements issued by the previous administration that provided temporary flexibilities to financial institutions in consumer financial markets including mortgages, credit reporting, credit cards, and prepaid cards. With the rescissions, the CFPB is providing notice that it intends to exercise the full scope of the supervisory and enforcement authority provided under the Dodd-Frank Act.
April 2: Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Pamela Karlan issued a statement and resource guide to assist federal agencies, state and local governments, and recipients of federal financial assistance in addressing ongoing civil rights challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
April 2: The Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew a Trump-era rule that would have forced the evictions of 25,000 mixed immigrant status families from federal subsidized housing programs, including 55,000 children.
April 9: President Biden issued an executive order forming the Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States comprised of a bipartisan group of experts. The commission’s purpose is to provide an analysis of the principal arguments for and against Supreme Court reform, including an appraisal of the merits and legality of particular reform proposals. The commission held public meetings to hear the views of other experts and completed its report.
April 9: The Office of Management and Budget submitted to Congress the president’s fiscal year 2022 discretionary funding request. By seeking to increase funding for civil rights enforcement, President Biden demonstrated a real commitment to the rights of every individual in this country, especially marginalized communities.
April 12: The Department of Housing and Urban Development moved to reinstate two Obama-era rules – the 2013 disparate impact rule and the 2015 affirmatively furthering fair housing rule – both which had been gutted under the previous administration.
April 13: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Paycheck Fairness Act (H.R. 7), saying that the administration “looks forward to continuing to work with the Congress to address pay equity and urges quick action on this landmark bill.”
April 14: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act (S. 937), saying that the administration “continues to condemn in the strongest possible terms the increasing acts of anti-Asian bias, harassment and violence.”
April 16: Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo rescinding a Trump-era policy that curbed the use of consent decrees to address police misconduct.
April 19: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued an interim final rule in support of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s eviction moratorium. The CFPB’s rule requires debt collectors to provide written notice to tenants of their rights under the eviction moratorium and prohibits debt collectors from misrepresenting tenants’ eligibility for protection from eviction under the moratorium.
April 19: The heads of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sent memos to department heads at ICE and CBP ordering immigration enforcement agencies to stop using terms such as “alien,” “illegal alien,” and “assimilation” when referring to immigrants in the United States.
April 20: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Washington, D.C. Admission Act (H.R. 51), saying that the administration “calls for the Congress to provide for a swift and orderly transition to statehood for the people of Washington, D.C.”
April 20: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the National Origin-Based Antidiscrimination for Nonimmigrants (NO BAN) Act (H.R. 1333), saying that the administration “stands ready to work with the Congress to adopt a solution that protects against unfair religious discrimination while also ensuring the Executive Branch has the flexibility necessary to respond to serious threats to security and public health, and emergent international crises.”
April 21: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department opened a pattern or practice investigation into the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD). The investigation will assess all types of force used by MPD officers, including uses of force involving individuals with behavioral health disabilities and uses of force against individuals engaged in activities protected by the First Amendment. The investigation will also assess whether MPD engages in discriminatory policing.
April 22: The Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge announced that HUD is withdrawing the previous administration’s proposed rule that would have weakened the Equal Access Rule. The Equal Access Rule ensures that all individuals — regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity — have equal access to the department’s Office of Community Planning and Development programs, shelters, other buildings and facilities, benefits, services, and accommodations.
April 22: The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in a Georgia transgender prisoner’s lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Corrections that claimed prison officials violated her constitutional rights and failed to protect her from multiple sexual assaults.
April 23: The Department of Justice Hate Crimes Enforcement and Prevention Initiative announced newly translated hate crimes resources in eight languages for the department’s hate crimes website. The pages include basic information about hate crimes, in-language resources, and instructions on reporting hate crimes to the FBI Tip Line with assistance from qualified interpreters.
April 26: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisville/Jefferson County metro government and the Louisville Metro Police Department.
April 26: President Biden signed an executive order establishing the White House Task Force on Worker Organizing and Empowerment. The task force, which will take a whole-of-government approach, will be dedicated to mobilizing the federal government’s policies, programs, and practices to empower workers to organize and successfully bargain with their employers.
April 27: President Biden issued an executive order requiring federal contractors to pay a $15 minimum wage to hundreds of thousands of workers who are working on federal contracts. The executive order will increase the hourly minimum wage for federal contractors to $15, continue to index the minimum wage to an inflation measure so that every year after 2022 it will be automatically adjusted to reflect changes in the cost of living, eliminate the tipped minimum wage for federal contractors by 2024, ensure a $15 minimum wage for federal contract workers with disabilities, and restore minimum wage protections to outfitters and guides operating on federal lands.
April 27: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas directed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to place new limits on civil immigration enforcement actions in or near courthouses. This policy supersedes an ICE directive issued in 2018 and marks the first time CBP has ever had formal policy guidance regarding civil immigration enforcement in or near courthouses.
May 3: President Biden revised the United States’ annual refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for this fiscal year – erasing the historically low number set by the previous administration of 15,000. Biden said he intends to reach the goal of 125,000 refugee admissions for the coming fiscal year.
May 5: The Department of Labor announced the withdrawal — effective May 6 — of the “Independent Contractor Rule” to maintain workers’ rights to the minimum wage and overtime compensation protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The Wage and Hour Division previously announced it was delaying implementation of the rule until May 7, 2021.
May 7: The Department of Homeland Security withdrew a proposed Trump-era rule that would have expanded department authorities and requirements for collecting biometrics, allowing the department to collect a wide range of physical, personal, and behavioral characteristics, including DNA samples, from non-U.S. citizens, citizens, and their families.
May 10: The Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Office for Civil Rights will interpret and enforce Section 1557 and Title IX’s prohibitions on discrimination based on sex to include: (1) discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation; and (2) discrimination on the basis of gender identity. The update was made in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Bostock v. Clayton County and subsequent court decisions.
May 11: The Department of Education finalized new federal regulations that remove the Trump administration’s restrictions denying undocumented and other immigrant students access to COVID-19 related emergency financial assistance grants under the Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund (HEERF).
May 11: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in strong support of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (H.R. 1065), saying that the administration “encourages the House to pass this bipartisan, commonsense legislation and looks forward to working with the Congress to protect pregnant workers across the country.”
May 11: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Senate’s passage of S.J. Res. 15 – a Congressional Review Act resolution that would overturn the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency’s harmful “true lender” rule.
May 18: President Biden signed a presidential memorandum to expand access to legal representation and the courts. As outlined in the memorandum, the attorney general will submit a plan to expand the Department of Justice’s access to justice work and the administration will re-establish the White House Legal Aid Interagency Roundtable to prioritize civil legal aid and expand access to federal programs.
May 18: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Senate’s passage of S.J. Res. 13 — a Congressional Review Act resolution that would overturn a Trump-era Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) rule that undermines civil rights enforcement.
May 20: President Biden signed the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which included the Khalid Jabara and Heather Heyer National Opposition to Hate, Assault and Threats to Equality (NO HATE) Act as an amendment. Asian American leaders worked with other leaders of color to ensure that the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act included the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act. This collaboration ensured that the bill was as inclusive as possible, enhancing the response to hate crimes and improving the data necessary to ensure that all communities targeted for hate receive the resources and support that they need.
May 22: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced a new 18-month designation of Haiti for Temporary Protected Status. This new TPS designation enables Haitian nationals (and individuals without nationality who last resided in Haiti) currently residing in the United States as of May 21, 2021 to file initial applications for TPS, so long as they meet eligibility requirements.
May 28: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission posted updated and expanded technical assistance related to the COVID-19 pandemic, addressing questions arising under the federal equal employment opportunity laws. The EEOC also posted a new resource for job applicants and employees, explaining how federal employment discrimination laws protect workers during the pandemic.
May 28: Customs and Border Protection Acting Commissioner Troy Miller issued a memo formally prohibiting the separation of children from the parents or guardians for convictions on illegal entry to the United States — part of the Biden administration’s efforts to revert the effects of the former president’s “zero tolerance” policy.
June 1: On the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa massacre, the administration announced new steps to help narrow the racial wealth gap and reinvest in communities that have been left behind by failed policies. Specifically, the administration is expanding access to two key wealth-creators — homeownership and small business ownership — in communities of color and disadvantaged communities.
June 1: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas issued a memo terminating the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program — known as the “remain in Mexico” policy — which forced potential asylum seekers to stay in Mexico to wait out the result of their case in U.S. immigration court.
June 10: The Department of Housing and Urban Development published an interim final rule — Restoring Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) Definitions and Certifications — to restore meaningful implementation of the Fair Housing Act’s AFFH requirement.
June 11: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice would double the Civil Rights Division’s enforcement staff for protecting the right to vote; that the department would use all existing provisions of the Voting Rights Act, the National Voter Registration Act, the Help America Vote Act, and the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act to ensure that they protect every qualified American seeking to participate in our democracy; and that the department would scrutinize new laws that seek to curb voter access, and where they see violations, will not hesitate to act.
June 11: Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced the launch of the Victims Engagement and Services Line, replacing the Trump-era Victim Of Immigration Crime Engagement (VOICE) Office. The new program will serve as a more comprehensive and inclusive victim support system offered by ICE that will ensure services are offered to all victims regardless of immigration status of the victim or perpetrator.
June 16: The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights issued a Notice of Interpretation explaining that it will enforce Title IX’s prohibition on discrimination on the basis of sex to include: (1) discrimination based on sexual orientation; and (2) discrimination based on gender identity.
June 16: The Department of Education announced the approval of 18,000 borrower defense to repayment claims for individuals who attended ITT Technical Institute. These borrowers will receive 100 percent loan discharges, resulting in approximately $500 million in relief.
June 16: Attorney General Merrick Garland reversed Trump-era immigration rulings that said fear of domestic or gang violence was not grounds for asylum in the United States. The reversal was announced by Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta in a memo to the Civil Division.
June 17: The Department of Justice filed two statements of interest in litigation challenging state laws in Arkansas and West Virginia that violate the legal rights of transgender young people.
June 17: President Biden signed S. 475, the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, which designates Juneteenth National Independence Day as a legal public holiday.
June 22: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of S. 2093, the For the People Act, stating that “This landmark legislation is needed to protect the right to vote, ensure the integrity of our elections, and repair and strengthen American democracy.”
June 22: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of H.R. 2062, the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act (POWADA), stating that “Workplace discrimination prevents people from fully accessing the American dream and limits the contributions that they can make to our shared prosperity. Ending it is a priority for the Administration.”
June 25: President Biden signed an executive order to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the federal workforce. The order establishes an ambitious, whole-of-government initiative that will take a systematic approach to embedding DEIA in federal hiring and employment practices.
June 25: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit against the state of Georgia, the Georgia secretary of state, and the Georgia state election board over recent voting procedures adopted by Georgia Senate Bill 202, which was signed into law in March 2021. The United States’ complaint challenges provisions of Senate Bill 202 under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
June 30: President Biden signed three resolutions — S.J.Res. 13, S.J.Res. 14, and S.J.Res. 15. Importantly, S.J.Res. 13 overturned an anti-worker Trump-era rule that made it easier for employers to delay justice or retaliate against working people facing discrimination. And S.J.Res. 15 overturned a harmful OCC “true lender” rule that would allow predatory lenders to do an end-run around state interest rate caps, exposing people to high-cost loans with few consumer protections.
July 1: Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum imposing a moratorium on federal executions while a review of the Justice Department’s policies and procedures is pending.
July 6: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced an 18-month extension and re-designation of Yemen for Temporary Protected Status.
July 9: Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a new policy for individuals known to be pregnant or nursing, which includes a year of postpartum. The policy states that ICE should not detain, arrest, or take into custody for an administrative violation of the immigration laws individuals known to be pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, unless release is prohibited by law or exceptional circumstances exist. The language in the policy is gender neutral.
July 17: Following a Texas federal court’s ruling blocking new DACA applications, President Biden announced that the Department of Justice intended to appeal the decision. On September 10, the DOJ filed a notice of appeal.
July 19: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced an 18-month extension and re-designation of Somalia for Temporary Protected Status.
July 26: On the 31st anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division released guidance explaining that some individuals with long COVID may have a disability under various civil rights laws that entitles them to protection from discrimination.
July 26: Attorney General Merrick Garland reversed a Trump-era immigration ruling to help ease asylum standards for survivors of domestic violence, stating that the previous administration’s ruling “appears to impose rigid procedural requirements that would undermine the fair and efficient adjudication of asylum claims.”
July 28: The Department of Justice announced the release of two guidance documents to ensure states fully comply with federal laws regarding elections, specifically federal statutes affecting methods of voting and federal constraints related to post-election “audits.”
July 29: The Department of Labor announced a final rule to rescind an earlier rule, “Joint Employer Status under the Fair Labor Standards Act,” that took effect in March 2020. By rescinding that rule, the department ensured more workers receive minimum wage and overtime protections of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
August 5: Attorney General Merrick Garland and Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke announced that the Justice Department opened a pattern or practice investigation into the City of Phoenix and the Phoenix Police Department.
August 6: President Biden announced that his administration was extending the pause on federal student loan repayments until January 31, 2022.
August 10: The Department of Health and Human Services revoked Medicaid work requirements for Ohio, South Carolina, and Utah.
August 13: The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights announced in a letter to school superintendents that it will administer a 2021-22 Civil Rights Data Collection, marking the first time that OCR has conducted a CRDC, including all public school districts and their schools, two years in a row, for 2020-21 and 2021-22.
August 16: The Department of Agriculture released a re-evaluation of the Thrifty Food Plan, used to calculate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits. As a result, the average SNAP benefit — excluding additional funds provided as part of pandemic relief — would increase for Fiscal Year 2022 beginning on October 1, 2021.
August 19: The Department of Education announced a new regulation resulting in more than 323,000 borrowers who have a total and permanent disability receiving more than $5.8 billion in automatic student loan discharges. In addition, the department announced it would stop requiring borrowers to submit income documentation after the COVID-19 crisis ended and would immediately amend its regulations via a forthcoming negotiated rulemaking.
August 23: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of H.R. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
August 30: Attorney General Merrick Garland called on the legal community to volunteer to help confront the ongoing housing and evictions crisis. He said, “During the height of the Civil Rights Movement, then-Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy urged members of the legal profession, as part of their obligation to support equal justice under law, to use their knowledge and skills to advance the rights of those who were most vulnerable. Once again, the legal community has an obligation to help those who are most vulnerable.”
September 1: The Department of Justice announced the release of a guidance document to ensure state, county, and municipal governments comply with Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act concerning redistricting maps and methods of electing governmental bodies following the release of the 2020 Census redistricting data.
September 9: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to prevent the state of Texas from enforcing Senate Bill 8, which went into effect on September 1 and effectively bans most abortions in the state.
September 14: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a statewide civil investigation into conditions of confinement of prisoners held in Georgia’s prisons. The investigation will examine whether Georgia provides prisoners reasonable protection from physical harm at the hands of other prisoners. The department also will continue its existing investigation into whether Georgia provides LGBTQI+ prisoners reasonable protection from sexual abuse by other prisoners and by staff.
September 20: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of H.R. 3755, the Women’s Health Protection Act, stating that “We will not allow this country to go backwards on women’s equality.”
September 28: The White House announced that more than a dozen agencies across the federal government were taking steps to respond to President Biden’s call for an all-of-government action to promote voting access and to further the ability of people to participate in our democracy.
October 4: The Department of Health and Human Services Office of Population Affairs amended the Title X family planning regulations to restore access to equitable, affordable, client-centered, quality family planning services for more Americans.
October 6: The Department of Education announced that it was initiating a time-limited Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) waiver that would count more months of repayment while the borrower had qualifying public service employment towards the 120 months required for forgiveness, engage in data matching for federal employees, review denied PSLF applications for errors, and allow borrowers to request that denied applications be reconsidered. Significantly, during this time the department would allow borrowers to count qualifying time that accrued on loans that were eventually consolidated towards PSLF forgiveness. This policy resulted in 662,000 public servants having their loans discharged.
October 12: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas directed Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to halt workplace raids and to take actions to promote a fair labor market by supporting more effective enforcement of wage protections, workplace safety, labor rights, and other employment laws and standards.
October 12: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, for the first time, approved a request to provide gender-affirming care in the individual and small group health insurance markets as part of Colorado’s Essential Health Benefit (EHB) benchmark.
October 13: Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Kristen Clarke announced that the Department of Justice was launching a comprehensive, statewide civil rights investigation of Texas’ secure juvenile facilities pursuant to the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act. The investigation will focus on whether there is a pattern or practice of physical or sexual abuse of children in Texas’ secure facilities and will also investigate whether there is a pattern or practice of harm as a result of the excessive use of chemical restraints, excessive use of isolation, or a lack of adequate mental health services.
October 20: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of S. 2747, the Freedom to Vote Act, stating that the “landmark legislation is needed to protect the right to vote, ensure the integrity of our elections, and repair and strengthen American democracy.”
October 22: The Justice Department announced the launch of the department’s new Combatting Redlining Initiative. The new initiative represents the department’s most aggressive and coordinated enforcement effort to address redlining, which is prohibited by the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. In addition to this announcement, the Justice Department, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced an agreement to resolve allegations that Trustmark National Bank engaged in lending discrimination by redlining predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods in Memphis, Tennessee.
October 28: The White House released its Build Back Better framework, which would advance racial justice by increasing health care access for millions of people living in uncovered states and investing in children and families through pre-school, high quality child care, care for older adults and people with disabilities, an expanded child tax credit, college and housing affordability, and other important efforts.
October 28: The Department of Labor announced a final rule updating tip regulations under the Fair Labor Standards Act clarifying that an employer may only take a tip credit when employees perform work that produces tips or a non-substantial amount of work that directly supports tip-producing work. This reversed a change made by the previous administration that allowed employers to withhold more than $700 million in wages annually from their workers.
October 28: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched an initiative to ensure that artificial intelligence and other emerging tools used in hiring and other employment decisions comply with federal civil rights laws that the agency enforces.
October 29: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the restoration of a standalone Office for Access to Justice within the Justice Department dedicated to improving the federal government’s understanding of and capacity to address the most urgent legal needs of communities across America.
November 3: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of S. 4, the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, stating that “The Administration looks forward to working with Congress as the VRAA proceeds through the legislative process to ensure that the bill achieves lasting reform consistent with Congress’ broad constitutional authority to protect voting rights and to strengthen our democracy.”
November 4: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas and the Texas secretary of state over certain restrictive voting procedures imposed by Texas Senate Bill 1, which was signed into law in September 2021. The United States’ complaint challenges provisions of Senate Bill 1 under Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act and Section 101 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
November 10: The Department of Labor, National Labor Relations Board, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a joint initiative to raise awareness about retaliation issues when workers exercise their protected labor rights. The initiative will include collaboration among these civil law enforcement agencies to protect workers on issues of unlawful retaliatory conduct, educate the public, and engage with employers, business organizations, labor organizations, and civil rights groups in the coming year.
November 15: President Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which includes important provisions to address broadband affordability, adoption, and inclusion and thereby close the digital divide. The legislation created the Affordable Connectivity Program and includes provisions to address digital redlining and improve digital inclusion and literacy, which will be critical to increasing adoption rates, especially among marginalized communities.
November 18: The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Administration for Children and Families and Office for Civil Rights, announced its rescission of inappropriate, overly broad waivers issued by the previous administration to Texas, Michigan, and South Carolina waiving nondiscrimination requirements based on religious objections. HHS reestablished its longstanding practice of evaluation of religious exemptions and modifications of program requirements on a case-by-case basis, as needed, and as is required by law.
November 24: The Department of Labor published a final rule — “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors” — introducing regulations to implement Executive Order 14026, “Increasing the Minimum Wage for Federal Contractors,” which was signed by President Biden on April 27, 2021.
December 6: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against the state of Texas and the Texas secretary of state, challenging the state’s redistricting plans for the Texas congressional delegation and the Texas House of Representatives.
December 7: The Department of Housing and Urban Development Office of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO) issued a statement encouraging lenders to use special purpose credit programs (SPCPs) as a remedy for disparities in access to homeownership. Citing the department’s December 6, 2021, legal opinion, the FHEO statement encourages lenders to seriously consider establishing SPCPs that are consistent with the antidiscrimination and affirmative provisions of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, Regulation B, and the Fair Housing Act.
December 14: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission updated its COVID-19 technical assistance adding a new section to clarify under what circumstances COVID-19 may be considered a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.
December 20: The Department of Justice and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued two joint letters regarding important legal housing protections for military families. One letter was sent to landlords and other housing providers regarding protections for military tenants. A second letter was sent to mortgage servicers regarding military borrowers who have already exited or will be exiting COVID-19 mortgage forbearance programs in the coming weeks and months.
December 21: The Department of Justice rescinded the Trump-era Office of Legal Counsel memo that would have reincarcerated people released from prison under the CARES Act once the COVID-19 emergency was lifted.
December 22: The Department of Education announced an additional 90-day extension of the student loan repayment pause, an important action as families and individuals continued to confront the ongoing challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic.
2022
January 13: The Department of Justice announced that a new rule was submitted to the Federal Register implementing the Time Credits program required by the First Step Act for persons incarcerated in federal facilities who committed nonviolent offenses. As part of the implementation process, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has begun transferring eligible inmates out of BOP facilities and into either a supervised release program or into Residential Reentry Centers or home confinement.
January 13: The Bureau of Prisons restored Obama-era guidelines in the Transgender Offender Manual requiring federal prisons to consider the safety of transgender people after the Trump administration rolled back protections allowing transgender inmates to use facilities, including bathrooms and cell blocks, that correspond to their gender identity.
January 19: The Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission launched the Hiring Initiative to Reimagine Equity (HIRE), a multi-year collaborative that will engage an extensive and diverse array of stakeholders in efforts to erase barriers to employment and boost access to good jobs for individuals from underrepresented communities.
January 21: In the first criminal case brought by the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, the Department of Justice announced that a Texas man was arrested in Travis County, Texas, for allegedly sending threatening election-related communications to government officials on January 5, 2021.
January 21: The Office of Personnel Management issued a memorandum for heads of executive departments and agencies that provides implementing guidance for how agencies should adjust pay rates for General Schedule and Federal Wage System employees stationed in the United States, and how to use administrative authority for other pay systems to lift the pay of federal employees who currently make less than $15 per hour.
January 21: Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh announced an initiative aimed at improving job quality throughout the country. The “Good Jobs” initiative, led by the Department of Labor, will provide critical information to workers, employers, and government entities as they seek to improve job quality and create access to good union jobs — free from discrimination and harassment — for all workers and job seekers.
January 21: On the eve of the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra announced the first-ever HHS Intra-agency Task Force on Reproductive Healthcare Access. The task force includes subject matter experts from across the department and its primary goal is to facilitate collaborative, innovative, transparent, equitable, and action-oriented approaches to protect and bolster sexual and reproductive health.
February 4: The Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to health care providers on civil rights protections for people with disabilities. The guidance, issued by the Office for Civil Rights, makes clear that in light of the continuing public health emergency, when resources can be scarce, it is vital that individuals with disabilities are not prevented from receiving needed health care benefits and services as this violates federal civil rights laws.
February 15: The Department of Justice announced it issued guidance under the Americans with Disabilities Act on how to ensure that ballot drop boxes are accessible to voters with disabilities. The publication is intended to help election officials understand the ADA’s requirements, including the physical accessibility standards applicable to ballot drop boxes, and for voters with disabilities to understand their rights under federal law.
February 23: The Department of Labor announced a grant program to strengthen, modernize, expand, and diversify its Registered Apprenticeship Program to enable more workers to earn while they learn and find reliable pathways to the middle class. The program will make $113 million in grant funding available, including up to $50 million to support equity partnerships and pre-apprenticeship activities to increase enrollment in Registered Apprenticeship Programs.
March 2: The Department of Homeland Security announced a new designation of Sudan and an extension and redesignation of South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months.
March 2: In the wake of attacks on trans children in Texas, the Department of Health and Human Services released guidance to state child welfare agencies through an Information Memorandum that makes clear that states should use their child welfare systems to advance safety and support for LGBTQI+ youth, which can include access to gender affirming care. HHS also released guidance on patient privacy to clarify that health care providers are not required to disclose private patient information related to gender affirming care, in addition to guidance clarifying that denials of health care based on gender identity are illegal, as is restricting doctors and health care providers from providing care because of a patient’s gender identity.
March 3: President Biden signed H.R. 4445, the Ending Forced Arbitration of Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act, which empowers survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment by allowing them to file a case in court rather than be forced into arbitration. Due to the passage of this law, survivors of sexual assault and sexual harassment have an increased ability to hold their perpetrators accountable for bad actions and shine light on systemic issues of wrongdoing. The White House previously issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of this legislation.
March 14: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a technical assistance document and an update to its COVID-19 “What You Should Know” explaining discrimination against employees and job seekers with family caregiving responsibilities. Based on existing EEOC policy guidance, these documents outline how discrimination against applicants or employees with caregiving responsibilities can violate federal equal employment laws when based on a protected characteristic such sex (including pregnancy, sexual orientation, or gender identity), race, color, religion, national origin, age (40 or older), disability, or genetic information.
March 15: President Biden signed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. A reauthorized VAWA is critical to protecting the civil and human right of all people to be free from gender-based violence.
March 16: The Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months.
March 16: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced changes to its supervisory operations to better protect families and communities from illegal discrimination, including in situations where fair lending laws may not apply. In the course of examining banks’ and other companies’ compliance with consumer protection rules, the CFPB will scrutinize discriminatory conduct that violates the federal prohibition against unfair practices.
March 18: The Department of Justice published guidance on web accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). It explains how state and local governments (entities covered by ADA Title II) and businesses open to the public (entities covered by ADA Title III) can make sure their websites are accessible to people with disabilities in line with the ADA’s requirements.
March 24: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act against Galveston County, Texas, challenging the redistricting plan for its county governing body, known as the Commissioners Court. The plan was adopted by the county on November 12, 2021, after release of the data from the 2020 Census.
March 25: The Department of Labor issued guidance to all 50 states and the nation’s territories encouraging them to designate more than 2,300 locally operated American Job Centers as voter registration agencies under the National Voter Registration Act. The guidance from the department’s Employment and Training Administration aligns with President Biden’s Executive Order 14019, Promoting Access to Voting.
March 31: On the International Transgender Day of Visibility, the Department of Justice announced that it issued a letter to all state attorneys general reminding them of federal constitutional and statutory provisions that protect transgender youth against discrimination, including when those youth seek gender-affirming care.
March 31: The Department of State announced that, starting on April 11, U.S. citizens would be able to select an X as their gender marker on their U.S. passport application — an option that would become available for other forms of documentation the following year.
March 31: The Department of Homeland Security announced new measures to better serve all Americans, regardless of their gender identity. Through technology updates, process changes, and expanded partnerships, TSA and CBP are improving their screening procedures and ensuring they are conducted in a manner that respects the dignity of each individual — part of a concerted effort to advance equality for transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming Americans.
March 31: The Social Security Administration announced that the agency will offer people the choice to self-select their sex on their Social Security number (SSN) record.
March 31: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it will promote greater equity and inclusion for members of the LGBTQI+ community by giving individuals the option to select a nonbinary “X” gender marker during the voluntary self-identification questions that are part of the intake process for filing a charge of discrimination.
April 6: The Department of Education announced an extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through August 31, 2022.
April 14: As a result of Executive Order 13985, more than 90 federal agencies, including all Cabinet-level agencies, released the first-ever Equity Action Plans that lay out more than 300 concrete strategies and commitments to address the systemic barriers in our nation’s policies and programs that hold too many underserved communities back from prosperity, dignity, and equality.
April 15: The Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Temporary Protected Status for Cameroon, a long-awaited decision that will protect tens of thousands of people from deportation to a country that is unable to safely receive them.
April 19: The Department of Education announced that it was initiating a time-limited Income Driven Repayment Account Adjustment to bring borrowers closer to public service loan and income-driven repayment forgiveness. This policy addressed historical failures in the administration of the federal student loan programs. FSA estimated that this program would provide more than 3.6 million borrowers with three years of additional credit towards IDR forgiveness and would put hundreds of thousands of borrowers closer to Public Service Loan Forgiveness. This policy cancelled the loans of nearly a million borrowers with loans in repayment for more than 20 years but were denied cancellation previously because of problems with the Income Driven Repayment programs.
April 26: President Biden announced the pardons of three people and commuted the sentences of 75 people who were serving long sentences for non-violent drug offenses, many who were serving on home confinement during the COVID-pandemic.
April 28: The Department of Education announced it would automatically discharge all outstanding federal student loans that were borrowed to attend any Marinello Schools of Beauty campus from 2009 through its closure in 2016. This resulted in 132,000 borrowers receiving $1.2 billion in full loan discharges.
April 29: The Department of Justice filed a complaint challenging an Alabama law, Senate Bill 184, that denies necessary medical care to children based solely on who they are, and that threatens criminal prosecution and jail time to doctors, parents, and anyone else who provides or “causes” that care. The United States’ complaint alleges that the new law’s felony ban on providing certain medically necessary care to transgender minors violates the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. The department also asked the court to issue an immediate order to prevent the law from going into effect.
May 5: The Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service announced that it will interpret the prohibition on discrimination based on sex found in Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and in the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly the Food Stamp Program (7 USC § 2011 et seq.), to include discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
May 9: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau published an advisory opinion to affirm that the Equal Credit Opportunity Act — a landmark federal civil rights law protecting individuals and businesses against discrimination in accessing and using credit — bars lenders from discriminating against customers after they have received a loan, not just during the application process.
May 12: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice each released a technical assistance document about disability discrimination when employers use artificial intelligence and other software tools to make employment decisions.
May 16: The Office of the Secretary of Transportation announced the establishment of the Advisory Committee on Transportation Equity, which had been dissolved by the previous administration.
May 20: In a memo, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Department of Justice’s updated use-of-force policy, explicitly requiring federal officers and agents to intervene to stop other officers from engaging in excessive force.
May 20: The Department of Justice announced the release of a guide to the state voting rules that apply after criminal convictions. This document is designed to help citizens who meet the age and residency requirements to understand how the state-by-state rules about voting after a criminal conviction could apply to them.
May 20: On the one-year anniversary of enactment of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, the Department of Justice announced a series of actions to deter and confront hate crimes and other bias-related incidents, including: Issuing new guidance with the Department of Health and Human Services aimed at raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic; releasing grant solicitations for programs to create state-run hate crime reporting hotlines and to support community-based approaches to prevent and address hate crimes; and hiring the department’s inaugural Language Access Coordinator.
May 23: The Department of Justice announced guidance to help law enforcement agencies recognize, mitigate, and prevent gender bias and other biases from compromising the response to, and investigation of, sexual assault, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence.
May 25: On the second anniversary of George Floyd’s murder, President Biden issued the Executive Order to Advance Effective, Accountable Policing and Strengthen Public Safety — an important step forward in the fight for police accountability and reform. By establishing a database on excessive force, taking steps to prevent white supremacists from federal law enforcement, and beginning to move toward reforms contained in the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, the executive order sent a message that policing must be fairer and more accountable.
May 31: The Department of Health and Human Services established an Office of Environmental Justice to better protect the health of disadvantaged communities and vulnerable populations on the frontlines of pollution and other environmental health issues.
June 1: The Department of Education announced it would automatically discharge all outstanding federal student loans that were borrowed to attend any campus owned or operated by Corinthian Colleges Inc. from its founding in 1995 through its closure in April 2015. This resulted in 560,000 borrowers receiving $5.8 billion in full loan discharges.
June 6: The Department of Defense issued a memo updating the department’s policies on HIV-positive personnel serving within the armed forces. Under the updated policies, individuals who have been identified as HIV-positive, are asymptomatic, and who have a clinically confirmed undetectable viral load will have no restrictions applied to their deplorability or to their ability to commission while a service member solely on the basis of their HIV-positive status. Nor will such individuals be discharged or separated solely on the basis of their HIV-positive status.
June 9: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Louisiana State Police. The civil investigation will assess whether LSP uses excessive force and whether it engages in racially discriminatory policing.
June 15: President Biden issued an executive order, during Pride Month, to advance LGBTQI+ equality, including by charging the Department of Health and Human Services with leading an initiative to reduce the risk of youth exposure to conversion therapy.
June 16: The Department of Labor announced new guidance published by the department’s Wage and Hour Division on important limitations on the payment of subminimum wages under Section 511 of the Rehabilitation Act, which applies to certified employers otherwise authorized to pay subminimum wages to workers with disabilities under specific requirements of the Fair Labor Standards Act.
June 21: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the LGBTQI+ Data Inclusion Act, stating that “More complete and accurate data will allow the federal government to better address the disparities facing LGBTQI+ people using the best evidence. Ensuring that LGBTQI+ people are counted in our Nation’s data promotes inclusion, visibility, and respect.”
June 22: Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta issued a memo identifying several steps the Department of Justice will take to improve its implementation and enforcement of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the nondiscrimination provisions of the Safe Streets Act of 1968.
July 5: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a lawsuit against the state of Arizona challenging voting restrictions imposed by House Bill 2492 (2022), a recently enacted law set to take effect in January 2023. The United States’ complaint challenges provisions of House Bill 2492 under Section 6 of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and Section 101 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
July 8: President Biden signed an Executive Order Protecting Access to Reproductive Health Care Services. The order builds on the actions the administration has already taken to defend reproductive rights by safeguarding access to reproductive health care services, including abortion and contraception; protecting the privacy of patients and their access to accurate information; promoting the safety and security of patients, providers, and clinics; and coordinating the implementation of federal efforts to protect reproductive rights and access to health care.
July 11: The Department of Health and Human Services announced new guidance and communication to ensure all patients — including pregnant women and others experiencing pregnancy loss — have access to the full rights and protections for emergency medical care afforded under the law. HHS, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, issued clarifying guidance on the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act and reaffirmed that it protects providers when offering legally mandated, life- or health-saving abortion services in emergency situations. In addition to the guidance, Secretary Becerra, in a letter to providers, made clear that this federal law preempts state law restricting access to abortion in emergency situations.
July 11: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas extended the designation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months
July 12: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of H.R. 8296, the Women’s Health Protection Act, stating that “The urgency to protect women’s health, their fundamental right to control their reproductive choices, and the freedom of all people to build their own future has never been greater.”
July 12: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Ensuring Access to Abortion Act, stating that “In the face of this un-American threat to fundamental freedoms, this bill explicitly protects the right to travel across state lines for medical care—and makes clear the federal government’s responsibility to safeguard that right for all Americans.”
July 13: Following President Biden’s executive order on ensuring access to reproductive health care, the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to roughly 60,000 U.S. retail pharmacies reminding them of their obligations under federal civil rights laws. The guidance makes clear that as recipients of federal financial assistance, including Medicare and Medicaid payments, pharmacies are prohibited under law from discriminating based on race, color, national origin, sex, age, and disability in their programs and activities.
July 18: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the Right to Contraception Act, stating that “Access to contraception is essential to ensuring all people have control over personal decisions about their own health, lives, and families. After the overruling of Roe, which rested on the fundamental right to privacy in matters of health, bodily autonomy, and family, it has never been more important to protect and expand access to family planning services.”
July 19: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services jointly released school discipline guidance to ensure safe and inclusive school environments for all students. By clarifying the protections students with disabilities are entitled to under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the department made clear that it will fulfill its responsibility as a civil rights agency and ensure equal access to educational opportunity.
July 28: Following President Biden’s executive order on ensuring access to reproductive health care, the Department of Health and Human Services, alongside the Departments of Labor and of the Treasury, took action to clarify protections for birth control coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
July 29: The Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued a joint letter reminding auto lenders and leasing companies of their responsibilities to recognize important legal protections that exist for members of the military and their dependents under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act. Under the SCRA, servicemembers have additional rights and protections given the unique financial challenges that often emerge because of their service.
July 29: The Department of Homeland Security published a Federal Register notice extending for an additional 18 months Temporary Protected Status for eligible Syrians already in the United States due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Syria that prevent individuals from safely returning.
July 29: The Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services published guidance on the protections in federal nondiscrimination laws, including the ADA, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, requiring that telehealth be accessible to people with disabilities and limited English proficient persons.
August 2: The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit to protect the rights of patients to access emergency medical care guaranteed by federal law. The suit challenges Idaho Code § 18-622 (§ 18-622), which was set to go into effect on August 25 and imposed a near-total ban on abortion. The complaint seeks a declaratory judgment that § 18-622 conflicts with, and is preempted by, the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA) in situations where an abortion is necessary stabilizing treatment for an emergency medical condition. The United States also seeks an order permanently enjoining the Idaho law to the extent it conflicts with EMTALA.
August 3: President Biden issued an Executive Order on Securing Access to Reproductive and Other Healthcare Services, which will support people traveling out of state for care, ensure health care providers comply with federal nondiscrimination law, and promote research and data collection on maternal health outcomes.
August 24: President Biden announced a student debt cancellation plan that would provide up to $20,000 in debt cancellation to Pell Grant recipients with loans held by the Department of Education and up to $10,000 in debt cancellation to non-Pell Grant recipients. This plan was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
August 24: The Department of Education announced a final extension of the pause on student loan repayment, interest, and collections through December 31, 2022. On November 22, the Department would extend the payment pause again until 60 days after the department implemented President Biden’s cancellation plan or the ongoing litigation before the Supreme Court was resolved. This resulted in the payment pause lasting until September 1, 2023, 60 days after the Supreme Court struck down President Biden’s cancellation plan.
August 24: The Department of Homeland Security issued a final rule that will preserve and fortify the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy for certain eligible noncitizens who arrived in the United States as children, deferring their removal and allowing them an opportunity to access a renewable, two-year work permit.
August 26: The Department of Health and Human Services issued a letter to U.S. governors inviting them to work with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and apply for Medicaid 1115 waivers to provide increased access to care for women from states where reproductive rights are under attack and women may be denied medical care. The letter also underscores that current or proposed abortion restriction laws do not negate providers’ responsibilities to comply with federal laws protecting access to emergency health care.
August 30: The Department of Education announced it would automatically discharge all outstanding federal student loans that were borrowed to attend any Westwood College campus from 2002 through its closure in 2015. This resulted in 79,000 borrowers receiving $1.5 billion in full loan discharges.
September 1: The Department of Veterans Affairs submitted to the Federal Register an interim final rule that will allow the VA to provide access to abortion counseling and — in certain cases — abortions to pregnant veterans and VA beneficiaries. On September 21, the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel affirmed the rule is a lawful exercise of the VA’s authority.
September 8: The Department of Homeland Security published a new public charge rule clarifying that immigrants will not be penalized for receiving certain public benefits.
September 16: The Department of Homeland Security announced an extension of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Burma for an additional 18 months due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Burma that prevent individuals from safely returning. In addition, DHS announced a redesignation of Burma for TPS for the same reason.
October 4: The administration’s Office of Science and Technology Policy released a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights to help guide the design, development, and deployment of AI and other automated systems so that they protect the rights of the American public. The AI Bill of Rights identifies important next steps for public and private entities to ensure that technology is used to enhance, not undermine, civil rights.
October 6: The Department of Health and Human Services announced a number of steps to improve language access through HHS programs and advance the administration’s goal of overcoming barriers to equity in health care and human services.
October 6: President Biden announced a pardon of all prior federal offenses of simple possession of marijuana and urged all governors to do the same with regard to state offenses. He also asked the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the attorney general to initiate the administrative process to review expeditiously how marijuana is scheduled under federal law.
October 21: The Department of Homeland Security announced the designation of Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months.
October 22: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance about two junk fee practices that are likely unfair and unlawful under existing law.
October 24: The Federal Housing Finance Agency issued a decision to update the credit scoring models used by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Outdated credit scoring has shut countless families of color out of good home loans and is why civil rights organizations have long advocated for more accurate and inclusive systems.
October 27: The Department of Education announced final rules that will better protect veterans and service members from predatory recruitment practices, implement access to Pell Grants for incarcerated students in high-quality prison education programs, and increase accountability when colleges and universities change ownership.
October 31: The Department of Justice filed a statement of interest in an Arizona election lawsuit, supporting a claim that monitoring drop boxes can amount to illegal voter intimidation. The filing states that “Although lawful poll-watching activities can support democratic transparency and accountability, when private citizens form ‘ballot security forces’ and attempt to take over the State’s legitimate role of overseeing and policing elections, the risk of voter intimidation—and violating federal law—is significant.”
October 31: The Department of Education released final regulations that streamline and improve the rules for major targeted debt relief programs. The regulations expand eligibility, remove barriers to relief, and encourage automatic discharges for borrowers who are eligible for loan relief because their school closed, they have a total and permanent disability, or their loan was falsely certified. The rules also establish a fairer process for borrowers to raise a defense to repayment, while preserving borrowers’ day in court by preventing institutions of higher education from forcing students to sign away their legal rights using mandatory arbitration agreements and class action waivers.
November 7: The Department of Justice announced its plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the November 8, 2022 general election. The Civil Rights Division will also take complaints from the public nationwide regarding possible violations of the federal voting rights laws through its call center.
November 10: Ahead of Veterans Day, the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs and its Veterans’ Employment and Training Service issued a resource document describing federal protections from unlawful employment discrimination against servicemembers and veterans.
November 15: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a pattern or practice investigation into the Worcester Police Department (WPD). The civil investigation will assess whether WPD engages in a pattern or practice of excessive force or engages in discriminatory policing based on race or sex.
November 21: The Department of Justice issued a memorandum requesting that federal agencies review their language access practices and policies to strengthen the federal government’s engagement with individuals with limited English proficiency. This memorandum outlines a course of action for federal agencies to improve, modernize, and carry out their language access responsibilities under Executive Order 13166, “Improving Access to Services for Persons with Limited English Proficiency.”
December 5: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Haiti for an additional 18 months due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Haiti.
December 13: President Biden signed H.R. 8404, the Respect for Marriage Act, which establishes statutory authority for same-sex and interracial marriages and repeals provisions of law that once prevented any state or territory from being required to give effect to a same-sex marriage from another state or territory. The White House previously issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of the legislation, saying “This legislation would strengthen civil rights, and ensure that the promise of equality is not denied to families across the country.”
December 16: Attorney General Garland issued a memorandum for all federal prosecutors announcing new policies on crack and powder cocaine charges, pleas, and sentencing, a historic step in the right direction toward eliminating the unjust disparity between crack and powder cocaine sentencing.
December 19: The Department of Justice announced the launch of the Law Enforcement Language Access Initiative, a nationwide effort to assist law enforcement agencies in meeting their obligations to provide meaningful language assistance to limited English proficient individuals.
December 29: President Biden signed the Electoral Count Reform and Presidential Transition Improvement Act, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. The law represents a significant advance forward to securing and protecting our democracy from future attacks on presidential elections. It contains important, common-sense reforms that modernize the process for certifying and counting electoral votes for presidential elections.
December 29: President Biden signed the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, which was included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act. The law cements critical protections for all pregnant and postpartum workers who might otherwise be forced to do work without accommodation that would endanger their pregnancy or be fired because they asked for them. It also addresses the disproportionate discrimination and pregnancy-related health complications that Black, Brown, and Native American workers currently face, and it is a crucial step in closing the maternal health gap for Black pregnant and postpartum workers.
2023
January 5: President Biden signed S. 1541, the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, which requires the Federal Communications Commission to ensure that charges in correctional and detention facilities for telephone services, including advanced communications services, are just and reasonable.
January 12: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension of Temporary Protected Status for Somalia for an additional 18 months and redesignated Somalia for TPS.
January 26: The Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology released its Artificial Intelligence Risk Management Framework, a guidance document for voluntary use by organizations designing, developing, deploying or using AI systems to help manage the many risks of AI technologies.
February 1: The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced new resources to advance housing protections for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking under the Violence Against Women Act. These resources include a new VAWA website, a notice setting out HUD’s enforcement authority under VAWA, and up to $5 million in funding to provide VAWA training and technical assistance to HUD grantees and other stakeholders.
February 16: President Biden signed a new Executive Order on Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government, which clarifies and sharpens the administration’s day one racial equity executive order and provides a possible blueprint for more efficiently implementing all civil rights executive orders. It urges agencies to address emerging civil rights threats such as algorithmic discrimination and empowers officials within agencies to move forward the aims of that order — including a directive that, starting in September 2023, Agency Equity Plans from 23 agencies must include plans to implement this executive order.
February 28: The Department of Labor Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs acted to protect workers from discrimination and safeguard principles of religious freedom by rescinding the rule, “Implementing Legal Requirements Regarding the Equal Opportunity Clause’s Religious Exemption.” The existing rule was an unwarranted expansion of the scope of the religious exemption in Executive Order 11246 that undermined civil rights protections for millions of working people, making them more vulnerable to unlawful discrimination in the workplace.
March 13: The Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced that they filed a statement of interest to explain the application of the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act to lenders relying on discriminatory home appraisals.
March 17: The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced that it has submitted to the Federal Register for publication a final rule entitled Restoring HUD’s Discriminatory Effects Standard. The final rule rescinds the department’s 2020 rule governing Fair Housing Act disparate impact claims and restores the 2013 discriminatory effects rule.
March 20: The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new office, the Office of Family Violence Prevention and Services, under the Administration for Children and Families. This new office reflects the administration’s commitment to prioritizing domestic violence prevention and addressing the intersections of domestic violence prevention work across the federal government.
March 20: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to H.R. 5, the Parents Bill of Rights Act, which would require public schools to allow parents to review certain materials and to be informed of and grant consent for certain activities. It would also establish requirements on local education agencies (LEAs) as a condition of receiving federal funds. It would harm our most marginalized children, facilitate book banning, erase our nation’s complicated and difficult history, embolden a small group of activists, and damage parent-teacher relationships.
March 24: Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona wrote to governors, chief state school officers, and school district and school leaders urging them to end corporal punishment in schools — the practice of paddling, spanking, or otherwise imposing physical punishment on students. The letter reinforces the department’s position that corporal punishment in schools should be replaced with evidence-based practices that create safe and healthy school environments.
March 30: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule required by Congress to increase transparency in small business lending, promote economic development, and combat unlawful discrimination. Lenders will collect and report information about the small business credit applications they receive, including geographic and demographic data, lending decisions, and the price of credit. The rule will work in concert with the Community Reinvestment Act, which requires certain financial institutions to meet the needs of the communities they serve.
April 5: The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights reminded states of their obligations under federal civil rights laws as the public health emergency for COVID-19 and the continuous Medicaid coverage comes to an end and states restart Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program eligibility reviews.
April 6: President Biden signed an executive order that takes new steps to make the process of federal regulatory review more inclusive and effective. The administration’s actions aim to improve public participation in the regulatory process, which can often feel opaque or confusing, and to make OIRA’s engagement with the public more inclusive.
April 17: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to H.R. 734, the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which prohibits federally funded school athletic programs from allowing individuals who were designated as male at birth to participate in programs that are for women or girls. The bill attacks transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth, and it would harm women and girls and undermine civil rights for all students.
April 20: The Department of Justice issued a Dear Colleague Letter for state and local courts and juvenile justice agencies regarding the imposition and enforcement of fines and fees for adults and youth. The letter addresses common court-imposed fines and fees practices and cautions against those practices that may be unlawful, unfairly penalize individuals who are unable to pay, or otherwise have a discriminatory effect.
April 25: Four federal agencies — the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — jointly pledged to uphold America’s commitment to the core principles of fairness, equality, and justice as emerging automated systems, including those sometimes marketed as artificial intelligence, become increasingly common in our daily lives — impacting civil rights, fair competition, consumer protection, and equal opportunity. The joint statement outlines a commitment to enforce the agencies’ respective laws and regulations to promote responsible innovation in automated systems.
April 25: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which proposed harmful cuts to a broad range of popular and important public services, including SNAP (the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and Medicaid — programs that improve the health and well-being of families and communities in our country. The bill would expand SNAP’s already harsh work requirements and include new Medicaid work requirements, which would cause disproportionate harm to people and families of color.
May 8: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to H.R. 2, which would make numerous changes to immigration law, including new limits on asylum eligibility, increased detention, and a requirement for employers to use an electronic system to verify the employment eligibility of new workers. It would effectively dismantle our country’s asylum system, undermine our economy, and cause immeasurable harm to immigrant communities.
May 8: To mark Public Service Recognition Week, the Department of Education announced that, as of the beginning of May 2023, it had approved a total of $42 billion in Public Service Loan Forgiveness for more than 615,000 borrowers since October 2021. This is a result of the temporary PSLF changes made by the Biden administration that made it easier for borrowers to reach forgiveness.
May 18: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a technical assistance document focused on preventing discrimination against job seekers and workers. The document explains the application of key established aspects of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to an employer’s use of automated systems, including those that incorporate AI.
May 25: President Biden vetoed H.J.Res. 42, a resolution disapproving of the D.C. Council’s passage of the Comprehensive Policing and Justice Reform Amendment Act of 2022. The White House previously issued a Statement of Administration Policy opposing the resolution, which would have overturned DC’s policing reform legislation and would have yet again relegated DC residents to second-class citizenship. On June 13, the House of Representatives failed to override President Biden’s veto.
May 25: The Biden administration released the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, which includes more than 100 new actions the Administration will take to raise awareness of antisemitism and its threat to American democracy, protect Jewish communities, reverse the normalization of antisemitism, and build cross-community solidarity.
May 25: The Department of Justice, in collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security, announced updates to 2014 profiling guidance, including the addition of disability and the expansion of the guidance beyond law enforcement officials to cover those supporting law enforcement and intelligence activities. These are much needed steps toward eliminating discriminatory profiling, but loopholes regarding national security and intelligence operations, as well as immigration enforcement, remain.
May 26: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division jointly released a Resource on Confronting Racial Discrimination in Student Discipline, reminding schools and districts of their ongoing obligation to administer school discipline in a way that does not discriminate and enabling students, parents, and educators to ensure that schools are treating all students fairly and in accordance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
June 7: President Biden vetoed H.J.Res. 45, a resolution that would disapprove of the Department of Education’s use of its HEROES Act authority to provide a payment pause to address the financial hardship created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
June 8: The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the launch of a new LGBTQI+ Youth Homelessness Initiative, which will partner with local communities, service providers, and directly affected young people to address barriers to housing and shelter access for LGBTQI+ youth.
June 13: The Department of Homeland Security announced the rescission of the prior administration’s terminations of the Temporary Protected Status designations for El Salvador, Honduras, Nepal, and Nicaragua and the extension of TPS for these countries for 18 months.
June 16: Following a comprehensive investigation in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, the Department of Justice announced that the Minneapolis Police Department and the City of Minneapolis engage in a pattern or practice of conduct in violation of the U.S. Constitution and federal law. The department also announced that the city and MPD have agreed in principle to resolve the department’s findings through a court enforceable consent decree with an independent monitor, rather than through contested litigation.
July 10: The Department of Education published a final rule establishing a new, more affordable IDR plan — the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan. The SAVE plan provides more affordable repayments, provides early forgiveness for low-balance borrowers, ensures that borrowers do not see their loan balance grow as long as they keep up with required payments, and provides other overdue improvements to other IDR plans.
July 26: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released an updated technical assistance document explaining how the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to job applicants and employees with visual disabilities. The document outlines when an employer may ask an applicant or employee questions about their vision, how an employer should treat voluntary disclosures about visual disabilities, and what types of reasonable accommodations those with visual disabilities may need in the workplace.
July 27: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the City of Memphis and the Memphis Police Department. The investigation will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution or federal law by MPD and will focus on MPD’s use of force and its stops, searches, and arrests, as well as whether it engages in discriminatory policing.
August 2: The Department of Housing and Urban Development unveiled a partnership with the National Association of Real Estate Brokers aimed at tackling appraisal bias and discrimination in the housing market. The historic collaboration will increase education, outreach, and efforts to combat racial appraisal bias in home property valuation.
August 3: The Department of Labor announced a final rule, “Pre-enforcement Notice and Conciliation Procedures,” to create a streamlined, efficient, and flexible process that will enable the Office of Federal Contract Compliance to employ its resources strategically to remove barriers to equal employment opportunity. The final rule strengthens OFCCP’s enforcement by rescinding the evidentiary standards and definitions in an earlier rule that took effect in December 2020. The new final rule also gives the agency more flexibility in its pre-enforcement and conciliation procedures, promotes efficiency in resolving cases, and promotes greater consistency with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
August 14: The Department of Education announced that automatic discharges will begin for 804,000 borrowers who qualify for $39 billion in student loan relief as a result of fixes to income-driven repayment plans implemented by the administration since April 2022.
August 14: The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights and the Department of Justice Civil Rights Division jointly released two resources to help colleges and universities understand the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina. The civil rights guidance provides a much needed reminder that the Supreme Court’s wrongly decided majority opinion on June 29 did nothing to limit the ongoing obligation colleges and universities have to protect students from discrimination.
August 15: The Department of Justice released an updated department-wide Language Access Plan to help ensure that all individuals, regardless of language used, have access to and are able to fully participate in the department’s programs, activities, and services.
August 18: The Department of Homeland Security announced an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Sudan for 18 months due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Sudan that prevent individuals from safely returning.
August 18: The Department of Homeland Security announced an extension of Temporary Protected Status for Ukraine for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Ukraine that prevent individuals from safely returning.
August 23: The Department of Labor published in the Federal Register a final rule — “Updating the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts Regulations” — to clarify and strengthen DBRA regulations by improving the wage determination process, providing anti-retaliation protections for workers, strengthening enforcement, and reaffirming up-the-chain liability within contracting chains. It will enhance the quality of construction jobs and ensure workers, responsible contractors, taxpayers, and local communities benefit from public construction.
August 24: The Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights released a Dear Colleague Letter on Race and School Programming to guide schools on lawful programs to promote racially inclusive school communities. This resource clarifies the circumstances under which schools can — consistent with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations — develop curricula and programs or engage in activities that promote racially inclusive school communities. The guidance reminds schools and districts that our civil rights laws prohibit discrimination in all its forms — not only those instances where the intent to discriminate is made explicit.
August 28: The Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Housing and Urban Development formalized a partnership to promote awareness of the Affordable Connectivity Program among federal housing assistance recipients.
September 5: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of South Sudan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in South Sudan that prevent individuals from safely returning.
September 19: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau issued guidance about certain legal requirements that lenders must adhere to when using artificial intelligence and other complex models. The guidance describes how lenders must use specific and accurate reasons when taking adverse actions against consumers.
September 20: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Venezuela for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to extraordinary and temporary conditions in Venezuela that prevent individuals from safely returning.
September 21: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Afghanistan for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Afghanistan that prevent individuals from safely returning.
September 27: The Department of Education published final regulations that establish more effective safeguards against unaffordable debt or insufficient earnings for postsecondary students. The final rule has two key parts: A revitalized and strengthened Gainful Employment rule and a new Financial Value Transparency framework.
September 28: As part of President Biden’s National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism, eight federal agencies clarified — for the first time in writing — that Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits certain forms of antisemitic, Islamophobic, and related forms of discrimination in federally funded programs and activities. These wide-ranging protections provide important tools to curb discrimination based on shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics and to better protect the civil rights of all Americans.
October 4: The administration announced that an additional 125,000 Americans have been approved for $9 billion in debt relief through fixes the Department of Education has made to income-driven repayment and Public Service Loan Forgiveness, and granting automatic relief for borrowers with total and permanent disabilities.
October 6: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Cameroon for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Cameroon that prevent individuals from safely returning.
October 12: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Department of Justice jointly issued a statement to assist creditors and borrowers in understanding the potential civil rights implications of a creditor’s consideration of an individual’s immigration status under the Equal Credit Opportunity Act.
October 17: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the City of Trenton, New Jersey, and the Trenton Police Department. The investigation will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution and federal law by TPD.
October 24: Federal bank regulatory agencies — including the board of governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — jointly issued a final rule to strengthen and modernize regulations implementing the Community Reinvestment Act to better achieve the purposes of the law.
October 24: The Department of Education announced final regulations to significantly enhance oversight and accountability for institutions of higher education and strengthen consumer protections for student borrowers. The new rules will strengthen the department’s ability to protect students and taxpayers from the negative effects of sudden college closures, will restrict colleges from withholding course credits paid for with federal money from students’ transcripts, and require colleges to clearly communicate to students how much financial aid they will receive.
October 26: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to S.J.Res 42, a joint resolution to disapprove the Department of Agriculture’s memorandum on protecting LGBTQI+ Americans from discrimination in federally funded nutrition programs. The statement says that “This legislation would mean that needy people — including children who may go hungry — could be denied food and food assistance simply because of who they are or who they love. That is discrimination and it is wrong.”
October 30: President Biden issued the Executive Order on Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence, an important next step to get federal agencies better prepared to use its decision-making power in a way that increases protections, rather than letting AI run unchecked.
October 31: The Department of Justice announced that it issued guidance to explain how the Americans with Disabilities Act’s “integration mandate” applies to public employment and day services. The integration mandate requires state and local governments to provide services to people with disabilities in the most integrated setting appropriate.
November 7: The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights released a new Dear Colleague Letter reminding schools of their legal obligations under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to provide all students, including students who are or are perceived to be Jewish, Israeli, Muslim, Arab, or Palestinian, a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin.
November 8: The Department of Justice announced that it opened a civil pattern or practice investigation into the City of Lexington, Mississippi, and the Lexington Police Department. The investigation will seek to determine whether there are systemic violations of the Constitution and federal law.
November 9: The Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs issued revisions to Circular A-4, the government-wide guidance on regulatory analysis. The revisions are meant to ensure that the regulatory review process promotes policies that are reflective of scientific and economic developments, accounts for regulatory benefits that are difficult to quantify, and avoids harmful anti-regulatory or deregulatory effects. Significantly, the revisions also take into account the “distributional consequences of regulations” — in other words, recognizing that regulations may have different impacts on different communities, including those that have been historically disregarded or subjected to discrimination. In addition to revisions to Circular A-4, the Office of Management and Budget also finalized revisions to Circular A-94, which applies to federal government spending, like grant programs.
November 15: The Department of Labor announced the release of its updated Language Access Plan, including the establishment of a new office in the department’s Civil Rights Center. The Centralized Office of Language Assistance will provide resources and guidance to the department’s 26 sub-agencies to improve access for non-English speaking workers and individuals with limited English Proficiency. The office will also assist in procuring translation and interpretation services for use across the department.
November 16: The Department of Justice announced the launch of the Federal Language Access Working Group, a new interagency effort that will coordinate language access across the federal government. Along with the creation of this working group, the department also announced the release of updated federal agency language access plans on its website.
November 28: The Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Education announced the release of an updated joint-policy statement on supporting the inclusion of children with disabilities in early childhood programs.
November 29: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to S.J.Res 47, which would disapprove of the rule submitted by the Department of Justice relating to home confinement under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. Overturning this rule would have sent more than 3,000 individuals back into Bureau of Prisons custody.
December 6: The administration announced the approval of an additional $4.8 billion in student loan debt relief for 80,300 borrowers. These discharges stem from fixes made by the Department of Education to income-driven repayment forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
December 18: The Department of Justice launched the National Law Enforcement Accountability Database (NLEAD), a centralized repository of official records documenting instances of misconduct as well as commendations and awards for federal law enforcement officers — which will help to ensure that federal law enforcement candidates are vetted in order to prevent officers who have a history of misconduct from being rehired by other law enforcement agencies. NLEAD is one of the hiring and recruitment best practices that has been developed as a result of President Biden’s Executive Order on Advancing Effective and Accountable Policing and Criminal Justice Practices to Enhance Public Trust and Public Safety.
2024
January 9: The Department of Health and Human Services Office for Civil Rights announced a final rule — Safeguarding the Rights of Conscience as Protected by Federal Statutes. The rule rolls back the most harmful aspects of the Trump administration’s “Refusal of Care” rule, which would have allowed individuals and institutions to deny patients’ care based on personal and religious beliefs and limited access to essential health care services.
January 12: The Department of Education announced that it would early implement the shortened repayment period available under the SAVE plan. Under the SAVE plan, the department would automatically cancel the debts of borrowers who had been in repayment for more than 10 years and originally borrowed $12,000 or less for college, with an additional year of repayment for each $1,000 borrowed above $12,000.
January 19: The administration announced the approval of $4.9 billion in additional student loan debt relief for 73,600 borrowers. These discharges are the result of fixes made by the administration to income-driven repayment forgiveness and Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
January 22: On the 51st anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Department of Health and Human Services announced a series of new actions to protect and expand access to contraception. The actions come in support of President Biden’s executive order to consider actions to strengthen access to affordable, high-quality contraception and family planning services.
January 25: The Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services issued guidance to U.S. hospital and long-term care facility administrators, reminding organizations of their independent obligations under CMS regulations to ensure that facility visitation policies, including during a public health emergency, do not unlawfully discriminate on the basis of religion; as well as their obligation not to discriminate on other protected bases under federal civil rights laws, against patients or other individuals receiving care.
January 26: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Syria for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Syria that prevent individuals from safely returning.
February 8: The Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office for Civil Rights and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, finalized modifications to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Patient Records regulations at 42 CFR part 2, which protect the privacy of patients’ SUD treatment records. Specifically, the final rule increases coordination among providers treating patients for SUDs, strengthens confidentiality protections through civil enforcement, and enhances integration of behavioral health information with other medical records to improve patient health outcomes.
February 21: The administration announced that it will automatically discharge $1.2 billion in loans for nearly 153,000 borrowers who are eligible for the shortened time to forgiveness benefit under President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan.
February 22: The Federal Communications Commission voted to reinstate the collection of equal employment data from broadcasters on Form 395-B, remedying a near 20-year failure to collect industry-wide equal opportunity employment (EEO) statistics as required by law.
February 26: The Department of Education released to K-12 schools, colleges, and universities providing guidance on how to promote civic engagement and engage in voter registration activities.
February 29: The Department of Health and Human Services finalized a rule strengthening the Child Care & Development Block Grant program, which supports more than a million children and their families each month with child care assistance.
March 5: The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized a rule to cut excessive credit card late fees by closing a loophole exploited by large card issuers. The rule will curb fees that cost American families more than $14 billion a year. The CFPB estimates that American families will save more than $10 billion in late fees annually once the final rule goes into effect by reducing the typical fee from $32 to $8.
March 14: The Department of Education Office for Civil Rights sent a Dear Colleague Letter reminding schools of their obligations to address discrimination against Muslim, Arab, Sikh, South Asian, Hindu, and Palestinian students. The letter reminds schools of their legal obligation under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its implementing regulations to provide all students with a school environment free from discrimination based on race, color, or national origin, including shared ancestry or ethnic characteristics.
March 21: The administration announced the approval of $5.8 billion in additional student loan debt relief for 77,700 borrowers. These approvals are the result of fixes made by the administration to Public Service Loan Forgiveness.
March 21: The Department of Justice, Federal Trade Commission, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and Department of Housing and Urban Development jointly published a resource for rental housing applicants and tenants about their rights under federal laws related to tenant background checks, also referred to as tenant screening reports. It explains that, in some instances, tenant background checks can lead to illegal discrimination, even if there is no factual error in the report.
March 26: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released the Streamlining Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Basic Health Program Application, Eligibility Determination, Enrollment, and Renewal Processes (CMS-2421-F2) final rule. This final rule will make it easier for millions of eligible people to enroll in and retain their Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program, and Basic Health Program coverage.
March 27: The Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration called for independent audits of high-risk AI systems as part of a series of recommendations in its newly released AI Accountability Policy Report. The report calls for improved transparency into AI systems, independent evaluations to verify the claims made about these systems, and consequences for imposing unacceptable risks or making unfounded claims.
March 28: The Office of Management and Budget released revised federal standards for the collection of race and ethnicity data, allowing for federal data that better reflect the country’s diversity. The new OMB standards, which had not been updated since 1997, will now give the federal government, policymakers, and civil rights organizations a more accurate picture of how civil rights compliance and other programs are being utilized across different racial and ethnic groups.
March 28: The Office of Management and Budget finalized an important guidance memo on federal agency implementation of the Biden administration’s AI executive order — putting rights-protecting principles of the White House’s historic AI Bill of Rights into practice across agencies and advancing civil rights protections in AI deployment at federal agencies.
April 4: The Department of Justice announced that five new cabinet-level federal agencies have joined a pledge to uphold America’s commitment to core principles of fairness, equality, and justice as new technologies like artificial intelligence become more common in daily life. The joint statement, first announced in April 2023, now includes the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Department of Labor. The Consumer Protection Branch of the Justice Department’s Civil Division also joined the pledge.
April 8: Attorney General Merrick Garland signed a final rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act to ensure the accessibility of web content and mobile applications for people with disabilities. This final rule clarifies the obligations of state and local governments to make their websites and mobile applications accessible.
April 12: The administration announced the approval of $7.4 billion in additional student loan debt relief for 277,000 borrowers. These discharges are for borrowers who signed up for President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan and are eligible for its shortened time-to-forgiveness benefit and as a result of fixes made by the administration to income-driven repayment forgiveness.
April 12: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Ethiopia for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to ongoing armed conflict and extraordinary and temporary conditions in Ethiopia that prevent individuals from safely returning.
April 15: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a final rule implementing the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. The new rule will provide important clarity for both workers and employers and will fulfill the landmark law’s purpose of ensuring people with known limitations related to pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions can remain healthy and working.
April 18: The Department of Justice announced that it updated www.justice.gov/voting, a one-stop resource providing voting and elections information for voters as well as state and local elections officials. As part of the update, the Civil Rights Division published two new informational guides on voting rights and updated five other guides.
April 19: The Department of Education finalized a range of critical updates to its rule interpreting and enforcing Title IX — the landmark civil rights law that protects students from sex-based discrimination. These revisions restore and reinforce vital civil rights protections for all students to access school spaces and programs free from sex discrimination. Among other things, the new rule repeals a restrictive sex harassment rule and clarifies protections for survivors, pregnant and parenting students, and LGBTQ+ students.
April 22: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released rules that aim to improve access to Medicaid programs — which are essential for ensuring that all people have access to health care, including people with low incomes and people of color — and a strong nursing home staffing rule that recognizes improvements that must be made for nursing home residents and workers, many of whom are women and people of color.
April 22: The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights released a final rule — entitled HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Health Care Privacy — that will improve confidentiality and protect against criminalization for patients receiving reproductive health care.
April 23: The Department of Labor released a final rule to protect the millions of workers who are saving for retirement by requiring financial advisors who give retirement investment advice to act in the best interest of their clients.
April 23: The Department of Labor released a final rule updating the salary threshold under which workers are covered by overtime protections. This update will be especially impactful for workers of color and low-income workers and will go a long way toward correctly restoring the value of one of the most precious resources workers have — their time.
April 23: The Federal Trade Commission issued a final rule to promote competition by banning noncompetes nationwide, protecting the fundamental freedom of workers to change jobs, increasing innovation, and fostering new business formation.
April 26: The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office for Civil Rights released a final rule implementing Section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act that promotes nondiscrimination in health care. Section 1557 was a major milestone in the efforts to ensure that everyone in America has access to quality, affordable health insurance coverage and health care. The Obama-Biden administration finalized long-awaited regulations implementing Section 1557 in 2016. Unfortunately, in 2020, the Trump administration finalized new regulations drastically rewriting the Obama-era regulations and purporting to severely limit Section 1557’s application. The new rule is a significant step toward restoring Section 1557’s impact and protections, particularly for those experiencing discrimination due to the intersection of multiple identities, and will help to address disparities in health care access and outcomes.
April 29: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released final guidance on harassment in the workplace. A version of this guidance was originally proposed in January 2017 but was blocked by the Trump administration. The guidance is intended to promote strong enforcement of the federal laws prohibiting workplace harassment and to help workers of color, older workers, LGBTQ+ workers, immigrant workers, and other vulnerable workers feel safe and respected on the job. The new guidance updates, consolidates, and replaces earlier guidance documents and, as the commission noted, reflects “consideration of the robust public input that it received after the guidance was posted for public comment in fall 2023.”
April 29: The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Administration for Children and Families, finalized a policy that strengthens protections for youth in foster care by clarifying how states must meet their statutory requirements to appropriately serve LGBTQI+ children in foster care.
April 30: The Department of Health and Human Services released a final rule to affirm nondiscrimination in HHS-funded programs and services. The 2016 rules established clear nondiscrimination protections for individuals on the basis of age, disability, sex, race, color, national origin, religion, gender identity, or sexual orientation and clarified that grant recipients must treat as valid the marriages of same-sex couples. The Trump administration’s notice of nonenforcement and 2021 modified Grants Rule left substantial gaps in explicit federal protections against discrimination on the basis of religion or sex (including sexual orientation, gender identity, or sex characteristics) in a range of government-funded services.
May 1: The Department of Housing and Urban Development, through the Federal Housing Administration, announced a major new step in the department’s work to protect borrowers from racial or ethnic bias in home appraisals. FHA’s new requirement for lenders participating in its Single Family program will enable borrowers to request a re-assessment of the appraised value of their property if they believe that the appraisal was inaccurate or biased.
May 1: The Department of Education announced it would automatically discharge all outstanding federal student loans that were borrowed to attend any Art Institute campus from 2004 through its closure in 2017. This resulted in 317,000 borrowers receiving $6.1 billion in full loan discharges.
May 1: The Department of Health and Human Services released a final rule — the first update to Section 504 regulations since 1977 — to clarify and strengthen civil rights protections against the pervasive health care discrimination disabled people experience, including disabled women and gender-expansive people of color. The updated regulations will advance protections against discrimination and ableism and increase accessibility for people with disabilities in their encounters with health care systems and social services.
May 1: Small Business Administrator Isabel Casillas Guzman announced that the administration finalized a new rule that will remove restrictions on SBA loan programs that currently prevent many returning citizens, including those on parole and probation, from being eligible for SBA-backed loans to start or grow a business. As part of this rule change, the SBA will also remove questions on criminal history from its applications.
May 1: The Department of Justice announced that it filed a statement of interest in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania supporting the right of private plaintiffs to bring a lawsuit to enforce Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. This filing is one of many recent briefs by the DOJ supporting the longstanding principle that private plaintiffs are authorized to bring lawsuits to vindicate important rights protected by the Voting Rights Act.
May 2: The Department of Housing and Urban Development released two guidance documents addressing the application of the Fair Housing Act to two areas in which the use of artificial intelligence poses particular concerns: the tenant screening process and its application to the advertising of housing opportunities through online platforms that use targeted ads.
May 3: The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, finalized a rule that will expand access to health care for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients.
May 6: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to H.R. 7109, the Equal Representation Act. This bill would require the U.S. Census Bureau to exclude noncitizens from the congressional apportionment calculation after each census — an action that would clearly violate the plain meaning of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution to apportion seats based on “the whole number of persons in each State,” regardless of citizenship.
May 16: The Department of Labor announced the release of a far-reaching set of principles that provide employers and developers that create and deploy artificial intelligence with guidance for designing and implementing these emerging technologies in ways that enhance job quality and protect workers’ rights. Specifically, the AI principles emphasize ethical development; transparency in its use; meaningful worker engagement in system design, use, governance, and oversight; protection of workers’ rights; and use of AI to enhance work.
May 21: The administration announced the approval of $7.7 billion in additional student loan debt relief for 160,500 borrowers. These discharges are for those receiving Public Service Loan Forgiveness, those who signed up for President Biden’s Saving on a Valuable Education Plan and who are eligible for its shortened time-to-forgiveness benefit, and those receiving forgiveness on income-driven repayment as a result of fixes made by the administration.
June 5: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of S. 4381, the Right to Contraception Act, stating that “Women must have the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions, including the right to decide if and when to start or grow their family. Now is the time to safeguard the right to contraception once and for all.”
June 12: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in support of S. 4445, the Right to IVF Act, stating that “Congress should adopt statutory protections for women’s access to essential health care services, including fertility treatment. This is a basic issue of reproductive freedom.”
June 18: The Department of Justice announced that it filed statements of interest in federal courts in Ohio and Alabama to promote the correct and uniform interpretation of voting laws guarding the rights of voters with disabilities.
June 18: President Biden announced actions to support long-standing undocumented communities, including DACA recipients and Dreamers. A new “parole in place” policy will enable 500,000 undocumented spouses of U.S. citizens to apply for status adjustment, allowing them to stay in the country and preventing further family separations. This change will affect people who have lived in the United States for an average of 25 years and who are parents to nearly 600,000 American children, keeping 2 million family members united. Additionally, a new process for DACA recipients and undocumented college graduates will streamline access to employment-based visas, providing greater stability and job opportunities.
June 28: The Department of Housing and Urban Development took action to protect LGBTQI+ Americans, taking crucial steps to uplift resources and best practices for housing providers so that no one must choose between being housed and feeling welcomed.
July 8: Following the Supreme Court’s decision in Moyle v. United States, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and the CMS Administrator Chiquita Brooks-LaSure sent a letter to hospital and provider associations across the country reminding them that it is a hospital’s legal duty to offer necessary stabilizing medical treatment (or transfer, if appropriate) to all patients in Medicare-participating hospitals who are found to have an emergency medical condition. CMS also announced that the investigation of EMTALA complaints would proceed in Idaho while litigation continues in the lower courts.
July 8: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Yemen for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to country conditions in Yemen that prevent individuals from safely returning.
July 18: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to lower rates and fees for incarcerated communications services in federal jails and prisons. The vote was the FCC’s first step in implementing the Martha Wright-Reed Just and Reasonable Communications Act, which was signed into law by President Biden in 2023.
July 18: The administration announced the approval of roughly $1.2 billion in additional student loan relief for 35,000 borrowers across the country who work in public service.
July 19: Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas announced the extension and redesignation of Somalia for Temporary Protected Status for 18 months due to conditions in Somalia that prevent individuals from safely returning.
July 25: President Biden signed H.R. 3019, Federal Prison Oversight Act, which establishes an inspections regime for the Bureau of Prisons and an ombudsman office in the Department of Justice.
July 26: On the 34th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Attorney General Merrick Garland signed a final rule under Title II of the ADA to improve access to medical diagnostic equipment (MDE) for people with disabilities. Accessible MDE is essential for people with disabilities to have equal access to medical care.
July 29: President Biden announced support for certain Supreme Court reforms, including term limits for service on the Supreme Court and a binding and enforceable code of conduct for Supreme Court justices.
August 15: The Department of Justice announced that it issued a letter to state and local police departments and governments about programs that may violate federal housing protections. The letter describes common features of these widespread programs, sometimes known as “crime-free” or “nuisance” programs, and cautions that they may be unlawful when they unfairly penalize communities of color, individuals with disabilities, or survivors of domestic violence.
September 9: The White House issued a Statement of Administration Policy in opposition to H.R. 9494, a House Republican appropriations bill. The White House stated that “Instead of meeting the security and disaster needs of the Nation, this bill includes unrelated cynical legislation that would do nothing to safeguard our elections, but would make it much harder for all eligible Americans to register to vote and increase the risk that eligible voters are purged from voter rolls.”
September 10: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit alleging a violation of the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act (PWFA), in addition to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Significantly, this was the first lawsuit filed by the EEOC to enforce the PWFA since the law went into effect.
September 11: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced that it entered into a conciliation agreement with ABC Pest Control Inc. to resolve a pregnancy accommodation charge. Significantly, this was the first public conciliation of a Pregnant Workers Fairness Act charge since the law went into effect.
September 17: Building on the progress that agencies have made since President Biden issued his Executive Order on Promoting Access to Voting, the White House announced that starting on September 20, 2024, the HealthCare.gov online application will include an optional question allowing consumers to express an interest in receiving information about registering to vote. Those who select to express an interest will receive a link to vote.gov for additional information. The announcement was made on National Voter Registration Day.
September 27: The Department of Justice announced it filed a lawsuit against the state of Alabama and the Alabama secretary of state to challenge a systematic state program aimed at removing voters from its election rolls too close to the November 5 general election, in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
Nominations & Appointments
The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights supported the following executive and judicial nominees:
Executive nominations (confirmed by Senate)
- Samuel Bagenstos, General Counsel of the Department of Health and Human Services
- Xavier Becerra, Secretary of Health and Human Services
- Alvaro Bedoya, Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission
- Miguel Cardona, Secretary of Education
- Rohit Chopra, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director
- Kristen Clarke, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights, Department of Justice
- Lisa Cook, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Steven Dettelbach, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Director
- Marcia Fudge, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
- Merrick Garland, U.S. Attorney General
- Glenna Wright-Gallo, Assistant Secretary, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services
- Anna Gomez, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
- Julia Gordon, Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal Housing Commissioner, Department of Housing and Urban Development
- Vanita Gupta, Associate Attorney General, Department of Justice
- Cindy Huang, Director of the Office for Refugee Resettlement
- Ur Jaddou, Director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
- Kalpana Kotagal, Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Catherine Lhamon, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Education
- Paul Monteiro, Director of the Community Relations Service at the Department of Justice
- Seema Nanda, Solicitor of the Department of Labor
- David Prouty, Member of the National Labor Relations Board
- Jessica Rosenworcel, Chair of the Federal Communications Commission
- Jocelyn Samuels, Member of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
- Robert Santos, U.S. Census Bureau Director
- Geoffrey Starks, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission
- Julie Su, Deputy Secretary of Labor (nominated to serve as Secretary of Labor)
- Dilawar Syed, Deputy Administration of the Small Business Administration
- Sandra Thompson, Director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency
- Gwynne Wilcox, Member of the National Labor Relations Board
Executive nominations (not confirmed)
- Margo Schlanger, Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, Department of Agriculture (nomination expired and not resubmitted in 2024)
- Gigi Sohn, Commissioner of the Federal Communications Commission (withdrawn)
- David Uejio, Assistant Secretary for Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity (FHEO), Department of Housing and Urban Development (nomination expired and not resubmitted in 2024)
- David Weil, Administrator of the Wage and Hour Division, U.S. Department of Labor (never confirmed)
Appointments (not subject to Senate confirmation)
- Janis Bowdler, Counselor for Racial Equity, U.S. Department of the Treasury
- Desirée Cormier Smith, Special Representative for Racial Equity and Justice, U.S. Department of State
- Melanie Fontes Rainer, Director of the Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Judicial nominations
Over the course of his presidency, President Biden appointed more Black, AANHPI, Latino/a, Native, and openly LGBTQ lifetime judges than any previous president in a single term, and he appointed historic numbers of civil rights lawyers and public defenders to the bench. He also appointed the first lifetime judges of color on four federal district courts, in addition to the first Black woman and first former public defender to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.
Confirmed: Supreme Court
- Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. Supreme Court
Confirmed: Circuit Court
- Nancy Abudu, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit (Georgia)
- Nicole Berner, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (Maryland)
- Rachel Bloomekatz, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Ohio)
- J. Michelle Childs, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Cindy Chung, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania)
- Stephanie Davis, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Michigan)
- Ana de Alba, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (California)
- Roopali Desai, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Arizona)
- Arianna Freeman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (Pennsylvania)
- Brad Garcia, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Gustavo Gelpí, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Puerto Rico)
- Ketanji Brown Jackson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit
- Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Illinois)
- Lucy Koh, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (California)
- Eunice Lee, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York)
- John Lee, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Illinois)
- Nancy Maldonado, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit (Illinois)
- Salvador Mendoza, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Washington)
- Sarah Merriam, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Connecticut)
- Lara Montecalvo, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Rhode Island)
- Alison Nathan, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York)
- Myrna Pérez, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (New York)
- Julie Rikelman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (Massachusetts)
- Beth Robinson, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit (Vermont)
- Veronica Rossman, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit (Colorado)
- Jennifer Sung, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Oregon)
- Holly Thomas, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (California)
Confirmed: District Court
- Daniel Calabretta, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
- Tiffany Cartwright, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Nusrat Choudhury, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Jessica Clarke, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Jia Cobb, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Michelle Williams Court, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- Jeffrey Cummings, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Susan DeClercq, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
- David Estudillo, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Margaret Garnett, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Sarah Geraghty, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
- Margaret Guzman, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- Elizabeth Hanes, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- Sara Hill, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Oklahoma
- Dale Ho, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York
- Kelley Hodge, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Myong Joun, U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
- Lauren King, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Eumi Lee, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Rita Lin, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Tana Lin, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
- Nancy Maldonado, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois
- Araceli Martínez-Olguín, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Natasha Merle, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Nina Morrison, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York
- Michael Nachmanoff, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
- Adrienne Nelson, U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon
- Shanlyn Park, U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii
- Mia Perez, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Casey Pitts, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
- Mónica Ramírez Almadani, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- Kai Scott, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania
- Margaret Strickland, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
- Charlotte Sweeney, U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado
- David Urias, U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico
- Hernán Vera, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
- Jamal Whitehead, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington
Nominated
- Karla Campbell, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit (Tennessee)
- Adeel Mangi, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (New Jersey)
- Ryan Park, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit (North Carolina)
- Amir Ali, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Mustafa Kasubhai, U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon
- Rebecca Pennell, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington
- Sarah Russell, U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut
- Sparkle Sooknanan, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Cynthia Valenzuela Dixon, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California
Withdrawn / Not Renominated
- Todd Edelman, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
- Marian Gaston, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California
Areas of Concern
As this timeline demonstrates, the Biden administration has acted overwhelmingly to advance civil and human rights and protect our democracy. However, The Leadership Conference has not always agreed with — and indeed has opposed — some of the administration’s actions.
Despite the tremendous achievements, we were disappointed on a number of occasions. For example, in September 2021 we joined dozens of civil rights organizations to deliver a letter to the White House opposing the administration’s violent expulsions of Haitian asylum seekers at the U.S-Mexico border and its move to appeal a federal court ruling that would have brought an end to additional expulsions of asylum-seeking families. In October 2021 and again in December 2021, we urged Congress to reject the president’s harmful proposal to permanently classify fentanyl-related substances as Schedule I drugs. A classwide scheduling order would expand mass incarceration, worsen racial disparities in the criminal-legal system, and further fuel the cycle of substance use exacerbated by policies rooted in criminalization. And in March 2023, we were deeply disappointed that President Biden signed H.J. Res. 26, which nullified DC’s Revised Criminal Code Act (RCCA) of 2022. The RCCA was a product of a 16-year project to modernize the D.C. Criminal Code, which the District last comprehensively revised in 1901.