A Few Steps Back: Affirmative action requirements for federal contractors have been eliminated

President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending equal opportunity policies for federal employees in January. Now, parents in the SM East community worry the order will lead to a less diverse workforce.

The old policy required the implementation of affirmative action programs for women and minorities by federal contractors. These programs promoted diversity in workplaces and opportunities for minorities.

Federal and state law prohibit segregation under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But contractors who receive funds from the federal government must comply with executive orders. Under Trump’s order, these contractors are no longer allowed to hire based on a person’s race, gender or sexual orientation.

AP Government teacher Benjamin Hendricks says the removal of the order benefits businesses. Companies can hire the most qualified candidate for the job instead of hiring based on diversity requirements.

“You can look at it in the context of how our government has gotten incredibly large and overbearing,” Hendricks said. “When you walk into a company and there’s a diverse population there, that’s a good thing for most people. So does the government need to force people to do it, or will they do it naturally from public pressure?”

Most businesses aren’t federal contractors and won’t have to follow the executive order. But if a company works on a project for the federal government, it’s considered a federal contractor. Companies such as Microsoft, Cerner and AT&T are all examples of federal contractors.

East parent and former Sprint employee Justin Anderson recalls being trained to not ask about physical capabilities, gender or sexual preference when interviewing potential employees.

There was no written policy about diversity in the office, but Anderson said Sprint encouraged employees from different backgrounds to be involved in the hiring process.

“I’m concerned about some of the messages with [the executive order],” Anderson said. “I think there is a tendency for people to naturally seek out people that look like them and talk like them and have experience like them in their hiring. I personally am a believer of having [diversity], I think it does add the diverse set of backgrounds or voices on a team.”

However, Molly Nail, a Johnson County resident and partner of Chinnery Evans and Nail law firm, said the removal of the policy seems to target former President Barack Obama’s order from 2015. Obama’s order added gender identity as a protected class that contractors aren’t allowed to discriminate against. The policy had already included race as a protected class.

“He says [the workers] are going to be merit-based,” Nail said. “Which leads everyone to believe that the only reason why the woman got the job, the black person or the transgender person got the job was because they were labeled as such. It wasn’t merit-based, it was only because it was a DEI hire.”

Obama aimed to reward contractors who pushed for diversity in the business place, while President Trump wants businesses to hire based on merit rather than diversity according to Nail.

“[The administration] is trying to reverse affirmative action,” Nail said. “Most of these government contracts are with gigantic corporations that are led by white men. It’s just a way to reward male white businesses so they don’t have to appear or change their structure to include people of color or people who are gay or transgender.”