ASAP
Policy Week in Review – July 10, 2026
At a Glance
The Policy Week in Review, prepared by Littler’s Workplace Policy Institute (WPI), sets forth WPI’s updates on federal legislation, regulations, and congressional activity affecting the workplace.
EEOC Releases Draft Strategic Plan for Comment
On July 1, 2026, the EEOC released for public comment its draft Strategic Plan for FY2026-2030, as required by the Government Performance and Results Act. Unlike the agency’s recently released National Enforcement Plan, the Strategic Plan is less policy-focused and establishes organizational goals intended to improve how the agency processes charges, delivers services, and measures performance. The Strategic Plan is open for public comment through July 19, 2026.
Senate HELP Committee to Hold Hearing on Labor Secretary
On July 16, 2026, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee will hold a hearing on the nomination for Keith Sonderling to be Secretary of Labor. Sonderling, who assumed the role of Deputy Labor Secretary in March 2025, has been serving as Acting Secretary since the resignation of Lori Chavez-DeRemer in April of this year. Sonderling’s nomination is expected to be approved.
Job Market Cools
The U.S. jobs report for June 2026 (released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on July 2, 2026) was generally viewed as weaker than expected. The payroll gain of 57,000 was well below economists' expectations (roughly 110,000–115,000) and below the revised May gain of 129,000. Additionally, April and May payroll estimates were revised downward by a combined 74,000 jobs. The unemployment rate, however, dropped to 4.2%, largely due to a slump in the labor force participation rate, which fell 0.3 percentage point to 61.5%, the lowest since March 2021.
