Frequently Asked Questions

VOCA, similar to the Safe Streets Act, prohibits recipients from discriminating either in employment or in the delivery of services or benefits on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, sex or disability. Although programs funded under VOCA are not subject to the Safe Streets Act, OVC, which administers VOCA-funded programs, requires all of its funding recipients to comply with Safe Streets regulations that apply to the EEOP.

Recipients subject to the Safe Streets Act (as well as recipients of VOCA funds) are exempt from the EEOP requirement, if the recipient:

• is a nonprofit organization, a medical or educational institution or an Indian Tribe; OR
• has less than 50 employees; OR
• received a single award for less than $25,000.

To claim the exemption from developing an EEOP, the recipient must complete Section A of the Certification Form and send it to OCR.

Recipients subject to the authority of the Safe Streets Act (as well as recipients of VOCA funds) must develop an EEOP if they meet ALL of the following criteria:

• The recipient is a state or local government agency or a business; AND
• The recipient has 50 or more employees; AND
• The recipient has received a single award of $25,000 or more.

Yes. Recipients that are required to complete an EEOP Utilization Report are also required to keep race, national origin and sex data relating to the following employment actions:

• Recruitment
• Applicant screening
• Hiring
• Promotion
• Termination
• Transfer
• Discipline

For a complete listing of the data that recipients are required to keep, see 28 C.F.R. § 42.301-.308, or download a copy of the EEOP regulations.

If your organization is required to develop an EEOP Utilization Report and has received a single award for $500,000 or more, whether directly from the Justice Department or indirectly from a state or local agency, you must send the EEOP Utilization Report to OCR for review. The mailing address is as follows:

Attn: EEOP Utilization Report Submission
Office for Civil Rights
Office of Justice Programs
U.S. Department of Justice
810 Seventh Street, NW
Washington, DC 20531

Yes. Organizations required to develop an EEOP can claim an exemption from the submission requirement, if they have not received a single award of $500,000 or more. To claim the exemption, a recipient must complete Section B of the Certification Form and send it to OCR.

No. Although recipients of all Justice Department funds have to comply with applicable federal laws prohibiting discrimination in employment and in the delivery of services or benefits, recipients and subrecipients of Justice Department funding in American Samoa, the U.S. Virgin Islands or the Northern Mariana Islands, even if they are subject to the nondiscrimination provisions in the Safe Streets Act or VOCA, are exempt from the requirement to develop an EEOP Utilization Report because the appropriate labor market statistics are unavailable. Nonetheless, recipients should be mindful of the regulatory requirement to keep employment data related to hiring, promoting, transferring and disciplining workers (see 28 C.F.R. § 42.301-.308).

In some instances, OCR may request employment data in lieu of the EEOP Utilization Report (e.g., applicant flow data cross-classified by race, national origin and sex for all entry-level positions).

Yes. Guam labor market statistics, collected by the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans, allows recipients and subrecipients of Justice Department funds subject to the Safe Streets Act and VOCA to develop an EEOP Utilization Report. However, Guam recipients and subrecipients cannot use the online system for developing the Report because the Guam Bureau of Statistics and Plans uses racial and national origin categories that are more extensive than the ones used in the Report.

Guam recipients and subrecipients seeking assistance in developing an EEOP Utilization Report should contact:

Ms. Lola E. Leon Guerrero, Planner
Bureau of Statistics and Plans
P.O. Box 2950
Hagatna, Guam 96932
lolalg@bsp.guam.gov
671-472-4201/2/3

Although the U.S. Census Bureau has collected extensive data on Puerto Rico, the relevant labor market files for preparing an EEOP Utilization Report are not readily available. Therefore, the online system for creating the Report cannot access this information. In the past, recipients in Puerto Rico have used, and OCR has accepted, alternative labor market data collected by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or local jurisdictions. In preparing the Report, recipients in Puerto Rico should focus primarily on sex: reporting the number and percentage of women in the recipient's workforce in each of the eight major job categories and then comparing this percentage to the percentage of qualified women in each of the same job categories in the relevant labor market. If there is significant underutilization, the recipient should analyze the result and propose, if warranted, objectives to correct the problem and steps it plans to take to achieve the objectives. Recipients should find the Sample EEOP Report helpful in creating a similar offline report. Recipients should also include an internal and external plan for disseminating the modified EEOP report.

Even if recipients in Puerto Rico are unable to prepare the Report because of the absence of relevant labor market statistics, they should be mindful of the regulatory requirement to keep employment data related to hiring, promoting, transferring and disciplining workers (see 28 C.F.R. § 42.301-.308).

In some instances, OCR may request employment data in lieu of the Report (e.g., applicant flow data cross-classified by race, national origin and sex for all entry-level positions).

Yes. For recipients subject to the administrative provisions of the Safe Streets Act (as well as VOCA), the following chart shows at a glance the recipient's responsibilities: