BLUF: The Department of Labor's (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) finalized a rule, effective September 21, 2026, rescinding federal contractors' disability self-identification, related data-collection, and utilization-goal requirements under Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act.

The rule, published August 21, 2026 in the Federal Register (Docket No. OFCCP-2025-0003, RIN 1250-AA18), revises regulations at 41 CFR parts 60-30 and 60-741. It follows a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking published July 1, 2025, and implements Executive Order 14173, "Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity," and Executive Order 14219, "Ensuring Lawful Governance and Implementing the President's 'Department of Government Efficiency' Deregulatory Initiative."

Why it matters: This is a substantive deregulatory action, not a technical cleanup. Covered contractors with an affirmative action program obligation under Section 503 no longer have to ask applicants and employees to self-identify as individuals with disabilities, no longer have to collect the related data, and no longer have to run the utilization-goal analysis that measured disability representation in their workforce against a benchmark. Contractors should update their AAP processes and applicant/employee-facing forms to remove the rescinded elements once the rule takes effect, while confirming they still meet the underlying nondiscrimination and basic coverage obligations that remain in force.

By the numbers:

• Effective date: September 21, 2026 (general); December 21, 2026 for the part 60-30 rescission specifically
• Basic Section 503 coverage threshold: $20,000 (up from $15,000, effective October 1, 2025)
• Affirmative action program (AAP) trigger: 50 or more employees and a contract or subcontract of $50,000 or more
• Docket: OFCCP-2025-0003; RIN 1250-AA18
• Federal Register citation: 91 FR 54482

The rule rescinds the regulation at 41 CFR 60-741.42, which required contractors to invite applicants and employees to self-identify their disability status, along with the related data-collection requirement at 41 CFR 60-741.44(k) and the utilization-goal and utilization-analysis requirements at 41 CFR 60-741.45. DOL said it is "largely adopting" its proposed changes, with a clarification related to measuring the effectiveness of affirmative action efforts. Separately, because the parallel VEVRAA rulemaking is folding Executive Order 11246-derived administrative procedures directly into 41 CFR part 60-300, DOL is rescinding the now-duplicative part 60-30 regulations under this rule, using a delayed effective date of December 21, 2026. As with the companion VEVRAA rule, DOL also made technical updates reflecting the October 1, 2025 inflation adjustment to the basic coverage threshold.

Source: Federal Register