NEW YORK — President Donald Trump has nominated a Justice Department official to an open seat on a key civil rights agency, signaling his administration’s determination to forge ahead with efforts to dismantle diversity policies it claims discriminate against white workers and others.
The White House announced late Monday that it has tapped Matt Zandi to fill a seat previously held by Jocelyn Samuels, one of two Democratic commissioners fired by Trump before the end of their terms in an unprecedented move to seize control of the EEOC, a bipartisan agency created by Congress through the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Zandi currently serves as chief of staff for the Justice Department’s civil rights division, which saw the mass departure of career lawyers as it shifted to investigating employers and schools for what it considers unlawful diversity and transgender policies.
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If confirmed, Zandi would serve a five-year term ending July 1, 2031.
Zandi’s confirmation would further shift the balance of power at the EEOC to the right. Currently, there are two Republican commissioners - Andrea Lucas, who is the chair, and Brittany Panuccio - and one Democrat - Kalpana Kotagal, whose term expires next year.
Under Lucas, the EEOC has steadfastly enforced Trump’s civil rights priorities, often in tight cooperation with the Department of Justice.
The Trump administration has yet to nominate anyone to fill a fifth seat, left open by the firing of Democrat Charlotte Burrows.
The impending Democratic takeover of the Senate majority in January raises the possibility that the EEOC won’t have five commissioners for the remainder of Trump’s term. Leading Democratic senators have vowed not to confirm any of Trump’s nominees to the EEOC in protest of his firing of the Democratic commissioners, which they say stripped the agency of its historic independence and bipartisanship.
Sen. Tammy Baldwin, a Wisconsin Democrat, criticized Zandi’s nomination as further politicizing the EEOC, which enforces the country’s employment anti-discrimination laws.
“For a bipartisan commission, the custom is to pair nominees from the two parties. This would be the third Republican commissioner in a row without a pairing, an overtly partisan decision of the administration,” Baldwin said Tuesday, speaking during a Senate committee hearing on the confirmation of Catherine Eschbach to be EEOC general counsel.
However, Trump’s approach to the EEOC received a major vindication after the Supreme Court upheld his decision to fire the heads of several independent agencies, significantly expanding presidential power. The ruling prompted Samuels to drop a lawsuit challenging her dismissal from the EEOC.
Zandi and Eschbach are likely to be confirmed while Republicans control the Senate.
Senate Republicans have mostly praised Trump’s approach to civil rights enforcement, and Lucas and Panuccio sailed through their confirmations despite unanimous opposition from Democrats.
“Under this administration, EEOC has sharpened its focus on even-handed enforcement of employment discrimination laws,” Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican, said during the hearing on Eschbach, whom he praised.
The EEOC had no comment. The Department of Justice and Zandi didn’t reply to a request for comment.
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