Joint Center Signs Comment Letter Opposing the Office of Personnel Management’s Interim Final Rule Removing References to the Uniform Guidelines on Employment Selection Procedures

The Joint Center joined Legal Defense Fund and over a dozen civil rights organizations in signing a comment letter to oppose the Office of Personnel Management’s (OPM) interim final rule (IFR) removing references to the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures (UGESP) from federal civil service regulations.

From the letter: “For decades, the UGESP have provided employers with critical guidance on how to ensure their policies and practices do not unfairly exclude qualified workers based on race, sex, and other protected characteristics, as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. These guidelines have helped address unjustified barriers faced by Black workers, other workers of color, and women in the federal workforce and allowed workers of color to find a pathway to the middle class through public service. OPM now proposes to remove references to the UGESP from its regulations, relying on a poorly reasoned June 9, 2026 memo from the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC Memo). The radical and inaccurate arguments advanced in the OLC Memo do not provide OPM with a reasoned basis for changing its regulations, which will impose significant costs on the federal government as well as job applicants. Nor does OPM have good cause to circumvent normal notice-and-comment procedures and require compliance with the IFR immediately upon publication. We urge to OPM withdraw the IFR and reinstate the prior regulations.”

In addition to the Joint Center, signatories include The Legal Defense Fund, American Association of University Women (AAUW), Equal Rights Advocates, Institute for Women’s Policy Research, National Action Network, National Center for Law and Economic Justice, National Center for Youth Law, National Institute for Workers’ Rights, National Organization for Women, National Partnership for Women & Families, National Urban League, National Women’s Law Center, Poverty & Race Research Action Council, and Women Employed.

Read the full comment letter here, or below.