OFCCP Issues Regulations Revising the Categories of Protected Veterans for Affirmative Action Program Purposes

On August 8, OFCCP issued final regulations that revise the categories of protected veterans for affirmative action program (AAP) purposes. The new regulations become effective on September 7, 2007, and will require many contractors to revise self-identification forms and engage in affirmative action for new categories of protected veterans. The text of the regulations and FAQs published by OFCCP are available on the agency’s website.

The new OFCCP veterans regulations apply to covered federal contractors with contracts entered into or modified after December 1, 2003. OFCCP continues to enforce another set of veterans regulations that are applicable to contractors that have extant federal contracts entered into before December 1, 2003 (and that have not been modified since December 1, 2003). The requirements under these two sets of veterans regulations are nearly identical; the primary difference between them is the classes of veterans covered by the regulations. Fortunately, OFCCP will permit contractors covered by both regulations to continue to maintain only one veterans AAP that includes the categories of covered veterans listed below. Large contractors that will likely have difficulty identifying and classifying all of their federal contracts and subcontracts may find it most efficient simply to amend their current veterans AAPs by adding the new categories of protected veterans.

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