Congress Out, Agenda Delayed. The U.S. Congress is currently in the second week of its spring break recess and will return to Washington, D.C., on April 28, 2025. Upon returning, Republican leaders are expected to move forward with their budget reconciliation package that is expected to address military spending, energy production, taxes, and immigration. The Buzz will also be monitoring potential U.S. Senate confirmation hearings for individuals nominated to lead labor and employment–related agencies. President Donald Trump has nominated individuals to lead the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Wage and Hour Division, as well as the General Counsel’s office of the National Labor Relations Board, but those nominees have not yet had their Senate confirmation hearings.

Executive Order Seeks to Limit Use of Disparate-Impact Liability. On April 23, 2025, President Trump issued an executive order (EO) titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy.” The EO states, “It is the policy of the United States to eliminate the use of disparate-impact liability in all contexts to the maximum degree possible.” Currently, employers may be held liable under a disparate-impact theory of discrimination if an otherwise neutral employment policy or practice results in an adverse impact on a protected class. The EO directs all federal agencies to “deprioritize enforcement of all statutes and regulations to the extent they include disparate-impact liability” and further instructs the attorney general and the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to review all current legal matters that rely on a theory of disparate-impact liability, and to “take appropriate action with respect to such matters consistent with the policy of th[e] order.” T. Scott Kelly, Nonnie L. Shivers, and Zachary V. Zagger have the details.

Disparate-impact liability in employment discrimination cases was first established by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1971 and codified by Congress in the Civil Rights Act of 1991. In February 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum instructing U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) officials to deemphasize disparate-impact theories of liability.

Senate HELP Committee Chair Outlines Independent Contractor Proposals. Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA), chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, has released a white paper advocating for various legislative proposals related to independent contractors. The white paper, titled, “Portable Benefits: Paving the Way Toward a Better Deal for Independent Workers,” builds on Cassidy’s 2024 “request for information seeking feedback from stakeholders on ways to remove federal legal and regulatory barriers to portable benefits for independent workers.” Among the proposals advanced in the paper are a single statutory test for determining employment status, as well as legislation that would allow employers to provide health and retirement benefits to workers without those benefits triggering employment status. (The Buzz recently detailed bills in the U.S. House of Representatives that address these issues.)

Immigration Policy Update. Recent developments in the immigration policy arena include the following:

• The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts issued an order blocking the Trump administration’s rescission of Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela (CHNV) humanitarian parole program. Emphasizing the need for a case-by-case review prior to revoking grants of parole, the judge ruled that the “categorical termination of existing grants of parole was arbitrary and capricious.” Amanda M. Mullane and Daniela Medrano Sullivan have the details.
• Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sweeping changes to the operational structure of the U.S. Department of State. While the Bureau of Consular Affairs—the subagency within the State Department responsible for issuing visas—does not appear to be impacted at this early stage, the Buzz will continue to monitor the situation as it develops.

DOL Staff Exit. Workers at the DOL are leaving, either pursuant to deferred-resignation offers from the new administration or involuntary reductions in force.

• Deferred Resignations. Almost 20 percent of the DOL’s employees will reportedly leave their positions in September 2025 after accepting deferred-resignation offers.
• OFCCP Continues to Shrink. According to media reports, most employees in the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs’ (OFCCP) enforcement division’s national office and five of its six regional offices have been placed on administrative leave in advance of planned reductions in force at the agency. (Employees in the Southwest and Rocky Mountain Region—often referred to by practitioners as “SWARM”—were not impacted.) The action follows on the heels of a February 2025 DOL memo indicating that 90 percent of OFCCP employees would eventually be removed from their positions. A group of Democratic senators and representatives wrote a letter to Secretary of Labor Lori Chavez-DeRemer, warning that the dramatic reduction in staff at OFCCP would leave veterans and individuals with disabilities vulnerable to discrimination.

The Buzz will keep tabs on how staff reductions at the DOL in general, and OFCCP specifically, will impact the department’s regulatory and enforcement agendas.

Remember the Maine! On April 25, 1898, Congress declared war on Spain. The Cuban War of Independence, the rise of sensationalistic “yellow journalism,” U.S. self-interest, and the February 15, 1898, explosion of the USS Maine in Havana Harbor all contributed to a series of congressional actions that culminated in a declaration of war. The declaration read:

A bill declaring that war exists between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, first. That war be, and the same is hereby, declared to exist, and that war has existed since the twenty-first day of April, A.D. 1898, including said day, between the United States of America and the Kingdom of Spain.

Second. That the President of the United States be, and he hereby is, directed and empowered to use the entire land and naval forces of the United States, and to call into the actual service of the United States the militia of the several States, to such extent as may be necessary to carry this act into effect.

Approved, April 25, 1898.

The war ended several months later with the signing of the Treaty of Paris on December 10, 1898, and resulted in the United States’ acquisition of Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines.