Thursday, March 30, 2023: OFCCP Leadership Shake-Up: Director Yang and Her Deputy Have Left OFCCP. No Successor Director Yet In Sight
Move Took Effect March 31
Deputy Director (career employee) Michele Hodge Moved Up to Acting Director
In an email, OFCCP Director Jenny R. Yang formally announced to the federal contractor community her resignation, effective Friday, March 31, 2023. She has moved on to a position at the White House Domestic Policy Council as Deputy Assistant to the President for Racial Justice and Equity effective Monday, April 3, 2023.
A week before rumors began to spread about Director Yang’s departure, Maya Raghu, a political appointee reporting to the Director as the Deputy Director for Policy, suddenly announced her resignation, without explanation and with no next destination in hand. Ms. Raghu has been at OFCCP for less than two years (since July 19, 2021). It is not uncommon, though, for political appointees to arrive and depart together since they support each other as a team at the agency to which they are assigned.
As happens when there are no political appointees left at a federal agency to lead it, the senior career employee of the agency is typically appointed as an interim “Acting” Director. (This happens every time a new President moves into the White House, for example. A career employee fills in during the interregnum between the outgoing political team and the soon-incoming political team.)
Accordingly, Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su appointed last week OFCCP Deputy Director Michele Hodge to serve as OFCCP’s Acting Director until the Secretary of Labor appoints a new political employee to be the agency’s “Director” if she does. While the situation is very fluid at USDOL and OFCCP with so many sudden and unexpected departures from the Department in such close succession, it was unclear whether Acting Secretary Su would appoint a new political employee to be the next “Director” of the OFCCP.
Since Acting Secretary Su is herself awaiting both a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (H.E.L.P.) Committee nomination Hearing to be the next Secretary of Labor, and if successful, thereafter a full floor Senate confirmation vote, it is highly likely that Secretary Su will take NO ACTION on the OFCCP Director position. Rather, Secretary Su will most likely “narrow her target profile” in the Senate by making no decision until she is safely confirmed and sitting in the big chair in the Secretary of Labor’s office overlooking Capitol Hill.
Director Yang’s formal resignation announcement on Thursday did not come as a surprise. Buzz began circling on Monday about Yang’s pending change in Biden Administration roles. By Wednesday, a sprinkling of news outlets reported the planned move based on various sources within the Administration.
It is unusual for political appointees to leave their assignment mid-term during a President’s 4-year term. Director Yang’s departure comes at a time, however, of much turmoil within the USDOL and OFCCP. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh left his post early too (March 11, 2023) in a snit when President Biden passed him over to be the President’s Chief of Staff at The White House. It is a real affront to a President to have a Cabinet Member leave the President’s Administration mid-term. At the same time, OFCCP is coming off two of the worst years of its performance in the agency’s history. Moreover, the agency has been noticeably struggling in recent months to perform its basic service functions for the public without error and redoes.
Yang joined OFCCP as its Director on January 20, 2021. From 2013-2018, she served in Obama Administration as a Commissioner of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). She was EEOC Vice-Chair in 2014, then EEOC Chair from September 1, 2014, until January 25, 2017. Following that, she was a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute. In her new role, Yang will “work on a broad range of issues, including equal opportunity in employment, criminal justice, democracy and voting, disability policy, Native Affairs, [and the] racial wealth gap,” she said in her email.