The Department of Labor’s Faith Leader Is Now Also in Charge of Its Civil Rights Enforcement
Key takeaways
- Wolfe’s appointment was quietly announced earlier this month, after the agency released its proposed 2027 budget in April, which would eliminate the office entirely.
- For many years, it was the agency’s primary mechanism for enforcing civil rights laws.
- Under President Donald Trump, however, the OFCCP has lost a substantial number of employees to resignations and reductions in force.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: Al Drago/Bloomberg/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story. The person leading the Department of Labor’s controversial monthly worship services has now taken over one of the agency’s most important offices.
Kenneth Wolfe, the director of the DOL’s faith center, is now also leading the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), the office tasked with making sure that federal contractors comply with anti-discrimination laws. Wolfe’s appointment was quietly announced earlier this month, after the agency released its proposed 2027 budget in April, which would eliminate the office entirely.
Because it oversees federal contractors, the OFCCP had jurisdiction over “roughly 20 to 25 percent of the American workforce,” says Keir Bickerstaffe, who served as an attorney with the DOL for 16 years before leaving at the end of former president Joe Biden’s term in January 2025. The OFCCP employed labor economists and statistical experts who could examine workforce data for discrimination, and its lawyers could take companies to court. “The OFCCP could get settlements on behalf of an entire class of people, it could seek changes to company policies and practices to eliminate discrimination,” says Bickerstaffe.