Andrea Lucas, a vocal opponent of diversity, equity and inclusion policies who has been leading the nation’s primary regulator of workplace discrimination since January, faced pointed questions from Democrats about her record at the agency during her Senate confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Ms. Lucas, who is seeking Senate approval to renew her role as commissioner at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission — a position she has held since the first Trump term that is a prerequisite to keeping her role as acting chair — was asked repeatedly about the agency’s dismissal of discrimination cases it had previously filed on behalf of transgender employees, including one against the cosmetics company Lush.
“The E.E.O.C. itself had alleged that a manager groped an employee, asked an employee for sex, commented on employees’ breasts, tried to engage employees in sexual discussions and used sexual profanities,” Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said about the Lush case.
Ms. Lucas confirmed that it was her decision to dismiss the case “in consultation with career staff.” She asserted that she was acting in accordance with President Trump’s executive order to “defend biological reality.”
Ms. Lucas was first appointed as a commissioner to the E.E.O.C. in 2020 under the first Trump administration. In January, Mr. Trump also appointed her as acting chair, and in March he renominated her for another five-year commissioner term.
Congress established the E.E.O.C. as part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with a mission to enforce federal laws against employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin. The agency is typically composed of five commissioners representing Democrats and Republicans.
“My experience is that most of the political appointees and career staff at the E.E.O.C. understood it to have been created by Congress as an independent bipartisan commission,” said David Lopez, a former Democratic general counsel at the agency.
In the hearing, however, Ms. Lucas asserted her position that “the E.E.O.C. is not an independent agency” but an executive agency.
Senator Andy Kim, Democrat of New Jersey, pressed her over that view. “Would it be appropriate for the White House to tell you to take on a certain case, dismiss a certain case or to rule in a certain way?” Mr. Kim asked, adding, “I just want to remind you that your boss is not the president. Your boss is the American people.”
Ms. Lucas has emerged as a strong ally in Mr. Trump’s efforts to abandon core tenets of the landmark civil rights act and purge diversity efforts across the federal government and private sector. Under her watch, the agency has investigated law firms over their D.E.I. policies in addition to dismissing the transgender discrimination cases.
In January, Ms. Lucas said that two of her biggest priorities were “defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights” and “rooting out unlawful D.E.I.-motivated race and sex discrimination.”
But Ms. Lucas has been limited in her ability to fully pursue those priorities. Mr. Trump fired two of the agency’s three Democratic commissioners in January, leaving only Ms. Lucas and another commissioner in place. Without a quorum, the agency can’t issue or amend regulations and guidance.
Niko Gallogly is a Times business reporter, covering diversity and environmental and social justice efforts in corporate America. Email them at [email protected].
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