On July 16, 2026, the Office of Management and Budget approved OFCCP’s request to discontinue information collection 1250-0003, which held “the Supply and Service Scheduling Letter and Itemized Listing (collectively referred to as the ‘scheduling letter’).” That letter was the envelope that opened an audit.

A contractor could reasonably conclude the recruitment file no longer matters. The same day, OMB renewed the Section 503 recordkeeping collection without change. Two of the three authorities behind an OFCCP evaluation are statutes, and an executive order cannot revoke a statute.

What did the revocation actually kill?

Short answer: the part 60-2 program, the Internet Applicant rule and the two-year file at 60-1.12 rested on Executive Order 11246 and are unenforced. Two other written affirmative action programs, under VEVRAA and Section 503, rest on statutes and survived.

Executive Order 14173 is blunt: “Executive Order 11246 … is hereby revoked.” It gave contractors 90 days to “continue to comply with the regulatory scheme in effect on January 20, 2025,” then told OFCCP to “immediately cease” holding contractors “responsible for taking ‘affirmative action’.”

Labor’s own characterization is the sentence to memorize. In its July 1, 2025 proposed rule, DOL wrote that it “has halted enforcement of the E.O. 11246 regulations,” which “are null and void as there is no source of valid legal authority.” Note the verb: halted. No primary source says pending evaluations were closed.

The rescission itself has not happened. The final rule sits at OIRA under RIN 1250-AA17, received May 6, 2026, at stage “Final Rule.” A Federal Register query for OFCCP rules published since January 1, 2025 returns zero, and in the eCFR issue dated May 7, 2026, current through July 17, 2026, part 60-1 still returns full text. That changes the week the rule publishes.

The old file at 60-1.12, two years of postings, applications, resumes and database search criteria, sits on the books unenforced. More in OFCCP compliance for federal contractors.

Which recruitment records must you still be able to produce?

Short answer: it turns on headcount. Every covered contractor owes the listing trail and the personnel file at 60-300.80. At 50 employees, a written program, two sets of applicant and hire counts, three years of outreach documentation and both self-identification invitations land on top.

Check the gate before the checklist. 41 CFR 60-300.40(a) limits the whole of subpart C to “every Government contractor that has 50 or more employees and a contract of $100,000 or more,” and 60-300.1(b) repeats it. Section 503’s version at 60-741.40(b)(1) is the same shape at 50 employees and $50,000. Below 50, neither subpart reaches you; an outreach file you do not owe is money spent on a rule you sit outside. The listing clause and the recordkeeping rule bind every covered contractor regardless.

Inside the gate sits what an evaluation asks for first, and it is not a record. A covered contractor “shall, within 120 days of the commencement of a contract, prepare and maintain an affirmative action program at each establishment,” review and update it annually, and “submit the affirmative action program within 30 days of a request from OFCCP” (41 CFR 60-300.40(b)-(d); 60-741.40(b)-(c)). Neither is proposed for deletion: the Section 503 rulemaking removes 60-741.42 and .45 but leaves .40 alone; the VEVRAA rulemaking touches only 60-300.21(g)(2), 60-300.65 and the authority citation. Part 60-2 died; these did not, and nobody rebuilds a per-establishment program in 30 days.

Start with the posting. The equal opportunity clause at 41 CFR 60-300.5(a) requires a contractor to “immediately list all employment openings … with the appropriate employment service delivery system,” and that listing “shall be made at least concurrently with the use of any other recruitment source or effort.” Post to commercial boards on Monday and the state system on Thursday and the log shows a gap you cannot argue away. Three carve-outs stop that rule short, and auditing against the absolute version invents violations: paragraph 6.i excludes “executive and senior management, those positions that will be filled from within the contractor’s organization, and positions lasting three days or less,” and paragraph 5 exempts openings that “occur and are filled outside of the 50 states,” DC and the listed territories. Mechanics: OFCCP job posting requirements and VEVRAA and the mandatory job listing.

Then the numbers. Section 60-300.44(k) requires a contractor to “document the following computations or comparisons pertaining to applicants and hires on an annual basis and maintain them for … three (3) years”: self-identified protected veteran applicants, total openings and jobs filled, total applicants, protected veteran applicants hired, total hires. Five figures, then five more: 60-741.44(k) imposes the identical analysis for individuals with disabilities, on its own three-year clock, and its absence is a separate finding.

Outreach is a separate file. Under 60-300.44(f)(4) the contractor “shall document all activities it undertakes to comply with the obligations of this section, and retain these documents for a period of three (3) years.” The effectiveness review at 60-300.44(f)(3) weighs the paragraph (k) data across three years. The invitations at 60-300.42 are two events, pre-offer and post-offer: the protected veteran question explained.

The clock at 60-300.80 will look familiar: two years, dropping to one year if the contractor “has fewer than 150 employees or does not have a Government contract of at least $150,000,” with a three-year carve-out for outreach and applicant records. Section 503’s 60-741.80 is identical. Two sentences there matter more than the clock. The first is a hold, and its trigger is not only a discrimination charge: where the contractor “has received notice that a complaint of discrimination has been filed, that a compliance evaluation has been initiated, or that an enforcement action has been commenced,” it “shall preserve all personnel records relevant to” that matter “until final disposition.” Scheduled purges do not pause themselves. The second is the sting: where records were destroyed, “there may be a presumption that the information destroyed or not preserved would have been unfavorable to the contractor.” Word for word the old 60-1.12(e) presumption; it moved offices.

That last row is why dropping EO 11246 recordkeeping is not safe housekeeping. EEOC’s one-year floor at 29 CFR 1602.14, and its rule preserving “all personnel records relevant to the charge or action until final disposition,” bind any employer covered by Title VII, contract or no contract. One caution on the date: 29 CFR 1602.7 says “on or before September 30,” but EEOC opens and closes each cycle by announcement, and its data collections page reads “The 2024 EEO-1 Component 1 Data Collection is CLOSED,” with 2025 dates still to be posted. Diary the portal, not the regulation.

The veterans’ collection, 1250-0004, has been pending at OMB since April 23, 2026 with no conclusion date, and 60-300.80(d) conditions that recordkeeping duty on OMB clearance. Our reading, not a sourced holding: nothing has lapsed, because DOL’s April 2026 notice says pending collections “receive a month-to-month extension while they undergo review,” and the parallel Section 503 collection came back “Approved without change” on July 16, 2026. OMB concluding the 1250-0004 review would settle it; until then, keep the records.

Which dollar threshold puts your contract in scope?

Short answer: three tests, not two. The regulations print the statutory baseline, the FAR sets the inflation-adjusted figure that puts the clause in your contract, and a separate 50-employee test decides whether the affirmative action duties apply.

41 CFR 60-300.1(b) says the part “applies to any Government contract or subcontract of $100,000 or more.” Section 60-741.1(b) applies Section 503 above $10,000. Those are the statutory baselines, unchanged since 2002 and 1992 respectively. FAR 22.1303(a) meanwhile states the veterans’ act “applies to all contracts and subcontracts … of $200,000 or more,” and FAR 22.1408 inserts the disability clause above $20,000. That gap is not one recent rule’s work: the October 1, 2025 adjustment moved FAR 22.1303 from $150,000 to $200,000 and FAR 22.1408 from $15,000 to $20,000; the rest accumulated over earlier five-year adjustments under 41 U.S.C. 1908. OFCCP itself used $200,000 in its January 7, 2026 notice. Its 2026 agenda promises “technical revisions” conforming both regulations to the FAR figures, so every $100,000 in the CFR has an expiry date, including paragraph 11 of the equal opportunity clause, which sets the subcontract flow-down.

Where does a commercial job board help, and where does it not?

Short answer: for the mandatory listing, the state workforce agency job bank is the channel the regulation names. A commercial board, ours included, does not discharge that duty unless it feeds the delivery system.

We run ClearedJobs.NET, so read this with that in mind. The regulation is explicit: “Listing employment openings with the state workforce agency job bank … will satisfy the requirement to list jobs with the appropriate employment service delivery system.” A private channel counts only “if the privately run job service or exchange provides the information to the appropriate employment service delivery system … which will allow that system to provide priority referral of protected veterans.” That conditional does all the work, and it runs to priority referral, not transmission. If a board does not feed the state system, posting there is recruiting, not compliance.

One step upstream is missed more often than the listing. Paragraph 4 of the same clause makes the contractor tell the delivery system in each state where it has establishments that it is a Federal contractor and that “it desires priority referrals from the state of protected veterans,” with each hiring location and the responsible official’s contact details. A contractor that “uses any external job search organizations to assist in its hiring” must also supply “the contact information for the job search organization(s),” simultaneously with its first listing there. Without that notice the state system never identifies you as a contractor, so the priority referral never happens.

A niche cleared board earns its place on sourcing and on the 60-300.44(f) outreach file instead, which is where a state job bank performs worst: where to post cleared jobs. An outreach log is not a listing log, though, and listing “does not require the hiring of any particular job applicants”: veterans’ preference does not apply to contractor jobs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is OFCCP still sending scheduling letters?

The control-number history for 1250-0003 shows the clearance for that instrument discontinued July 16, 2026. But the collection rested on three authorities at once, 38 U.S.C. 4212, Executive Order 11246 and 29 U.S.C. 793, and only one was revoked. No successor appears in the Federal Register as of July 21, 2026, and no primary source says OFCCP stopped scheduling evaluations. The clearance fact is documented; the operational conclusion is not.

Do we still have to maintain an affirmative action program?

Yes, a different one. The part 60-2 program came from EO 11246, revoked January 21, 2025. But 41 CFR 60-300.40 and 60-741.40(b) each independently require a contractor with 50 or more employees to “prepare and maintain an affirmative action program at each establishment” within 120 days, review and update it annually, and submit it “within 30 days of a request from OFCCP.” The triggers are $100,000 for veterans and $50,000 for disability. Neither section is proposed for removal.

How long do we keep applications and resumes now?

Under 41 CFR 60-300.80 and 60-741.80, two years from the making of the record or the personnel action, whichever is later, dropping to one year for a contractor with fewer than 150 employees or no contract of at least $150,000. The annual computations and outreach records carry three years. The clock stops on notice: both sections require preserving all relevant personnel records until final disposition once the contractor learns that a discrimination complaint has been filed, “that a compliance evaluation has been initiated, or that an enforcement action has been commenced.” Separately, 29 CFR 1602.14 sets a one-year floor.

Is the 7 percent disability utilization goal gone?

Not yet. 41 CFR 60-741.45(a) still sets “a utilization goal of 7 percent for employment of qualified individuals with disabilities for each job group,” and the proposal to remove the section, RIN 1250-AA18, was still at final rule stage on July 21, 2026. The awkward part is the method. Paragraph (d)(2) says the contractor “must use the same job groups established for utilization analyses under Executive Order 11246,” in part 60-2 or 60-4, the parts DOL calls null and void. Only contractors with 100 or fewer employees get an alternative. The route to the goal runs through a dead cross-reference.

The file, not the policy

The rescission rule is still at OIRA. When it publishes, part 60-1 leaves the Code of Federal Regulations. Nothing in it touches 60-300.40, 60-300.44 or the listing clause at 60-300.5(a), and nothing in it reaches 29 CFR 1602.14. One piece crosses over, and it cuts against the tidy version of this story: the same rule rewrites 41 CFR part 60-30, the hearing procedures DOL says “also apply to VEVRAA and Section 503,” which a companion rulemaking would move into 60-300.65. The veterans’ enforcement machinery is being rebuilt, not retired.

Run the test this week rather than during an inquiry. If you have 50 or more employees and a covered contract, take one requisition you filled last quarter and produce six things: the date it went to the employment service delivery system, the dates it went to every other channel, total applicants, self-identified protected veterans, self-identified individuals with disabilities, and hires from each group. Then produce the current version of your written program. If that takes more than an afternoon, what you are missing is a posting log, and the moment you need one is too late to build it. Contractors staffing up under deadline hit this first: re-badging 60 cleared people in 30 days.