What’s changing, and what new deadlines apply, under the proposed rewrite of 29 CFR Part 1614
The EEOC has proposed a major overhaul of the rules governing federal-sector EEO complaints.
Note: This is a proposed rule, not yet final, though given how the current administration operates, we do not expect much, if anything, to change when the final rule is issued. The EEOC is accepting public comments until September 28 at 11:59 p.m. EDT.
1. Before You File: Counseling Goes Away
Current: You’re required to go through pre-complaint EEO counseling before you’re allowed to file a formal complaint. This can take 30-90 days depending on whether you choose traditional counseling or alternative dispute resolution (ADR).
Proposed: Mandatory counseling would be eliminated. The first step in the process would be to file a formal complaint. Agencies would still be required to offer ADR and make reasonable efforts to resolve complaints informally — but it would no longer be a required gatekeeping step before you can file.
Proposed: Mandatory counseling would be eliminated. The first step in the process would be to file a formal complaint. Agencies would still be required to offer ADR and make reasonable efforts to resolve complaints informally — but it would no longer be a required gatekeeping step before you can file.
2. Filing Your Complaint
Current: A formal complaint must be filed within 15 days of receiving the Notice of Right to File, which is issued at the conclusion of informal counseling.
Proposed:
- New 60-day filing deadline: you would have 60 days from the discriminatory matter (or, for a personnel action, from its effective date; or, for a hostile work environment, from the most recent contributing act) to file.
- Your complaint would need to include a signed statement, identify the parties, and include enough facts to make your claim “plausible on its face” — you would not need technical legal language, but bare conclusions or vague assertions would not be enough.
- New 21-day window to amend your complaint to add claims that are like or related to your original claims and existed when you originally filed.
- You could supplement your complaint (add like or related claims that arose after you filed) at any time before the final agency decision (FAD). Supplemented claims must comply with the 60-day deadline for filing. The agency can decline a requested supplementation if the proceedings are advanced and doing so would unduly delay the FAD.
3. Dismissals
Current: Agencies can dismiss complaints (or parts of them) on certain grounds.
Proposed: Dismissal grounds would be updated to match the new filing standards. For example, a complaint could be dismissed for failing to state a plausible claim, for being untimely, or for repeating a claim already pending elsewhere. Complaints about a proposed (not yet taken) personnel action would generally be dismissed unless they include a plausible retaliation claim.
4. Investigation
Current: Agencies generally have 180 days (extended for amendments) to investigate and issue a Report of Investigation (ROI).
Proposed:
- The Agency has 135 days to complete the investigation from the date you filed the formal complaint (extended to 180 days through a transition period ending January 1, 2028, to give agencies time to adjust).
- For supplemented complaints: the Agency has the earlier of 135 days after the last accepted supplementation or 270 days after your original filing.
- These deadlines can be extended by up to 90 days if you and the agency agree in writing, or by up to 30 days unilaterally by the agency if your file needs to be sanitized of classified or protected material (with notice to you).
- New 15-day window for you and the agency to submit additional evidence after receiving the investigative file, before the record officially closes.
- If the agency misses its deadline, it must send you a written notice explaining the delay, giving an estimate of when it will finish, and confirming your right to file a civil action in the meantime.
5. The Final Agency Decision
Current: At the conclusion of the investigation, you can request a hearing before an EEOC Administrative Judge (AJ) or ask the agency to issue a FAD. You may file a civil action in federal court within 90 days after receiving a FAD, or after 180 days have passed from the filing of your complaint if the agency has not issued a FAD.
Proposed: The Agency must issue a FAD on the merits, decided on a “preponderance of the evidence” standard (more likely than not).
- New 30-day deadline for the agency to issue that decision after the investigative record closes.
- If the agency believes a hearing might be warranted later, it can flag that in its decision — but this doesn’t change your right to appeal.
6. Hearings Before an Administrative Judge — The Big Structural Change
Current: You have an automatic right to request a hearing before an EEOC AJ after the conclusion of the investigation, with rights to discovery and a formal hearing process. All agencies go through the same EEOC hearing process.
Proposed: The automatic right goes away.
- Instead, after you receive the FAD, you can appeal to the EEOC, and in that appeal you can ask for referral to an AJ.
- The EEOC would only grant a hearing when it determines that a hearing is “necessary or efficient.” For example, if it determines that a genuine factual dispute can’t be resolved on the existing record, or there is a likely finding of discrimination that needs further remedial proceedings.
- If a hearing is granted, it would be more limited in scope — discovery only happens if the AJ specifically authorizes it. Ordinarily, the AJ would issue only a recommendation or report; the Commission would issue the final decision, unless the Commission directs otherwise.
Exception: Agencies with Their Own Internal Hearing Process
An agency could petition the EEOC for permission to run its own internal hearing process instead of relying on the Commission’s referral model. This wouldn’t be available to every agency; the EEOC would only approve it for agencies with a “compelling need” and reliable existing hearing infrastructure, such as agencies with national security concerns. The EEOC’s Office of Federal Sector (OFS, previously known as the Office of Federal Operations (OFO)) would decide whether to approve a given agency’s request and would review approved programs annually for effectiveness and impartiality, with authority to revoke approval if an agency’s process doesn’t hold up.
7. Appeals to the EEOC
Current: You have 30 days to appeal a FAD to the OFS.
Proposed: The 30-day deadline stays the same, but the process would change:
- New “best efforts” targets: the EEOC aims to decide appeals within 180 days of receiving them, or within 90 days after receiving an AJ’s recommendation (if your case was referred for a hearing).
8. Class Complaints
Current: If you and coworkers experienced the same discriminatory policy, you can pursue a formal class complaint, with EEOC-certified class-wide relief.
Proposed: Class complaints would be eliminated entirely — no certification, class agents, class notice, or class-wide adjudication. You could still:
- Assert a “putative class claim” to preserve the broader issue for later purposes (like a future court case), even though it wouldn’t be certified or decided as a class administratively.
- Have your complaint processed jointly with others raising substantially similar claims, though each person would still get an individual decision.
- However, in practice, this means everyone affected would need to file their own complaint, within their own 60-day deadline. Raising a “putative class claim” preserves your own right to pursue the broader issue later; it doesn’t cover coworkers who haven’t filed. The proposal does not determine the filing, exhaustion, or tolling rules that a court might apply to absent members of a later putative class.
9. Mixed Cases (Complaints Also Involving MSPB Issues)
Proposed:
- If you filed with MSPB first, and the MSPB dismisses for lack of jurisdiction, you have 30 days to re-file a non-mixed complaint with the agency.
- If you received a FAD, then appealed to the MSPB, and the MSPB dismisses for lack of jurisdiction, you have 30 days to appeal the FAD to the EEOC.
- If the agency missed its 120-day deadline to investigate, you appealed to the MSPB, and the MSPB dismisses for lack of jurisdiction, you have 30 days to re-file the complaint with the agency.
10. Settlement — Offers of Resolution
Current: The current rule has two separate windows for offers of resolution, and they don’t treat all complainants the same. Before a hearing is requested and an AJ is appointed, an agency may only make an offer to a complainant represented by an attorney. After an AJ has been appointed, the agency can make an offer to any complainant, represented or not, but only up until 30 days before the hearing.
Proposed: An offer could be made at any stage after a complainant files, regardless of whether they have an attorney or whether a hearing has been requested. The offer must clearly identify the specific complaint, claims, and parties it resolves, and state whether fees/costs are included.
11. Remedies and the Agency’s Defenses
Current: If an agency argues it would have taken the same action against you regardless of discrimination (a “same-decision” defense), it currently must prove that by “clear and convincing evidence.”
Proposed: That standard would drop to “preponderance of the evidence” (more likely than not) — a lower bar that makes it easier for the agency to succeed with this defense. This doesn’t erase liability for the underlying discrimination; the agency would still have to have discriminated for this defense to come into play, and it only limits certain remedies (like reinstatement or back pay), not a finding of discrimination itself. The rule also clarifies mitigation rules (you have to make reasonable efforts to reduce your damages, but the agency has to prove if you failed to).
12. Going to Federal Court
These deadlines have not changed. Two related points are new, though:
- If you assert a “putative class claim,” doing so counts as exhausting your administrative remedies for that broader claim, though the rule is explicit that this doesn’t decide whether a court will actually certify a class or apply tolling in the civil case.
- Being referred to an AJ on appeal doesn’t pause, extend, or otherwise affect your right to go to court on the deadlines above.
13. Digital Filing
Proposed: New rules clarify when something is officially “filed” (on upload, based on the time zone of the person filing) and “received” (when opened, or within 5 days of transmission, whichever comes first).
14. Public Accountability (Cummings Act Requirements)
Proposed:
- If an agency is found to have discriminated or retaliated, it must publicly post a notice within 90 days of that finding, and keep it posted for at least one year.
- The agency must report to the EEOC within 120 days of final action on whether any discipline was proposed against the employee responsible.
- Agencies must track every complaint from filing through resolution and note any adverse actions covered by 5 U.S.C. § 7512 taken against an employee found to have discriminated or retaliated in the employee’s personnel file.
Do These Changes Affect Cases Already in Progress?
The EEOC has not decided how a final rule would apply to complaints and other matters that are actively pending when the rule takes effect. The Commission has explicitly asked the public to weigh in on whether transition provisions are needed for complaints, hearing requests, appeals, class complaints, compliance matters, or fee petitions that are already underway — meaning it’s an open question whether the old rules or the new rules would govern your case if it’s still moving through the process when a final rule takes effect.
If you have a case currently in progress, this uncertainty is a good reason to pay close attention as this rule moves forward — and a good opportunity to submit a public comment, because the EEOC is specifically asking for input on this exact question.
This post is a general summary of a proposed federal rule and is not legal advice. As of August 28, 2026, the rule is not yet final, and its provisions may change before adoption.