April 29, 2024: DOJ GEN a sent letter to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco asking that DOJ track recruitment and retention data by demographics to assess the effects DOJ’s return-to-work policy is having on underrepresented groups. The letter also requests that DOJ take other steps to toward becoming a model workplace, including by encouraging all components to offer flexible work options such as gliding, flexitour, and alternative work schedules. DOJ Association of Black Attorneys, DOJ Association of Hispanic Employees for Advancement and Development, and DOJ Muslim Americans in Public Service joined DOJ GEN in sending the letter.

February 8, 2024: In response to DOJ GEN’s advocacy, DOJ issued a travel policy that helps ensure we can access medical care! The policy states that an “employee experiencing or anticipating the possibility of a medical emergency or other health issue that requires or may require medical attention that may not be available while on temporary” work travel “may request alternatives” to that travel. Here are some FAQs.

• What types of health issues does the policy cover? The policy’s language is broad, which is excellent. Here are just a few examples of when an employee could request travel alternatives.

  • An employee who cannot receive cancer treatment in a city where a work conference is located.

  • A pregnant employee who is scheduled to take a deposition in a state where they may not be able to receive emergency abortion care.

  • An employee who is told to attend a law-enforcement course in a state where gender-affirming care is inaccessible.

• How can an employee request travel alternatives? The employee must submit a written request to their supervisor who will then work with the employee to identify alternatives. Employees only need to provide the travel dates and indicate that they anticipate that medical care may not be available at the travel location. They do NOT need to disclose details of the medical issue, and supervisors may not ask for details. Components have been asked to develop implementing guidance and establish procedures.

• Can a supervisor deny a request? Yes, but only if the travel is mission-critical and there are no effective alternatives. The policy acknowledges that “given the wide availability of virtual participation,” denials should be rare. If a supervisor does deny a request, the employee may obtain higher-level review.

• What did DOJ GEN do to help make this happen? We thought you’d never ask! Among our range of requests to DOJ and the Administration broadly to take steps to protect employees’ abortion access in the wake of Dobbs, we asked repeatedly that employees be able to opt out of travel (you can read our letters to top Admin officials here, here, and here). We also lobbied Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and her office to issue the policy. By granting our request, DOJ recognized that our health and lives must come first.

January 29, 2024: We had a huge policy win on pay equity! After years of DOJ GEN’s advocacy, the U.S. Office of Personnel Management released a regulation that bans the solicitation and consideration of salary history during the hiring and pay-setting process. The regulation went into effect on April 1, 2024. Some examples of DOJ GEN’s actions that helped us get here:

• Letter to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) explaining why its salary history regulation should ban the solicitation of and reliance on salary history, regardless of how it is acquired (we also submitted public comments after OPM issued the proposed rule). We believe our outreach is why OPM’s ban covers more than just solicitation. We hope that states, localities, and Congress will follow suit.

• Letter urging OPM to promulgate a comprehensive salary history ban and encourage agencies to conduct pay audits and adjust salaries for victims of wage disparities.

• Letter to the Justice Management Division asking DOJ to implement a Department-wide policy banning the use of salary history.

• Letter to every DOJ component asking them to stop the practice.

• We lobbied the Attorney General Garland and Deputy Attorney General Monaco in person for action on this issue at DOJ.

July 25, 2023—DOJ GEN sent a letter to Departmental leaders expressing concern about the Department’s plan to propose a new policy for substantially increasing in-person work.

June 22, 2023—DOJ GEN sent a letter to Administration leaders calling out their year-long failure to support federal employees in states without abortion access.

June 15, 2023—DOJ GEN submitted public comments in response to the Office of Personnel Management’s proposed rule that would largely ban federal agencies’ use of salary history during the hiring and pay-setting process.

May 2023—DOJ GEN sent letters urging senators and members of Congress to oppose the ban on abortion coverage for federal employee in the Fiscal Year 2024 budget.

December 7, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter to President Biden and top agency officials reiterating our request for a range of steps to protect abortion access for federal employees. We also asked that the President eliminate all bans on cmoprehensive abortion coverage—including the one that applies to federal employee health insurance plans—from his proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2024.

December 5, 2022—DOJ GEN’s first op-ed was published in The Hill. We argued against the inclusion of bans on comprehensive abortion coverage in the Fiscal Years 2023 and 2024 budgets.

November 22, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter urging members of Congress to remove all bans on comprehensive abortion coverage from the Fiscal Year 2023 budget, including the ban on abortion coverage for federal employees.

November 15, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter to OPM asking that its anticipated regulation addressing salary history during the hiring process ban not only agencies’ soliciation of salary history, but also its reliance on it—regardless of how the information is acquired.

August 21, 2022—DOJ GEN leaders met in person with Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta and her office to exlain what steps DOJ can take to protect its employees’ abortion access.

August 4, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter outlining concrete steps that the Administration should take to protect abortion access for the two million federal employees and their family members in states that ban abortion, or likely will soon.

May 18, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter asking Administration leaders to authorize federal employees’ use of administration leave if they or their family members need to travel to another state for reproductive healthcare services due to restrictive state laws.

April 15, 2022—DOJ GEN released a chart of components’ return-to-work plans that demonstrates inconsistencies across the Department when it comes to flexible work options for employees. Bloomberg Law reported on the results of our data-collection project, and explained why the disparities we revealed are concerning. The article states that “Justice Department offices vary widely in how often they expect employees to show up once in-person work plans are scheduled to take full effect next month,” and that DOJ GEN is pushing for “greater consistency as department leaders try to build cohesion while addressing shifting expectations about remote work.”

January 10, 2022—DOJ GEN sent a letter to Attorney General Garland in which we asked the Department to partner with DOJ GEN in achieving our mutual goals of pay equity, the eradication of systemic sexual harassment, enhancing flexible work options, and increasing diversity in the workforce.

January 2, 2022—DOJ GEN released its updated comprehensive briefing document—a catalogue of our work over the last five years and our recommendations to Justice Department leadership for policy reforms.

September 29, 2021 - DOJ GEN and the DOJ Association of Black Attorneys hosted a virtual event featuring Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the first Black woman confirmed by the Senate to lead DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.

August 5, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to OPM Director Kiran Ahuja recommending ways OPM can move the federal government closer to pay equity.

June 21, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the Justice Management Division asking it to impose strong guidelines for DOJ components as they devise personnel policies for COVID-19 reentry.

May 19, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent all members a template letter asking for permanent flexible work options that members can adapt and send to their component leadership.

April 8, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the Justice Management Division asking it to require DOJ components to provide adequate administrative leave to all employees to obtain COVID-19 vaccines and recover from any side effects.

March 9, 2021 - DOJ GEN hosted a panel discussion with Acting AFT Director Regina Lombardo and former U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu, who discussed gender diversity in DOJ’s leadership. The event was originally scheduled for October 2020 but was cancelled due to the now-repealed Executive Order 13950, which censored diversity training in federal agencies that involved “divisive concepts.” The panel discussion, with more than 500 attendees, demonstrated that open and honest dialogue about diversity and the challenges many of us continue to face in the workplace fosters solidarity and growth—not division.

February 4, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent a letter, including a briefing document on sexual harassment at the Justice Department, to the Office of the Deputy Attorney General asking it to establish a committee to review and revamp DOJ’s sexual harassment policies.

January 13, 2021 - DOJ GEN sent a 20-page briefing document to President Biden’s transition team at DOJ outlining our recommendations for the incoming administration and providing background on the issues we’ve addressed over the last four years.

January 12, 2021 - DOJ GEN and six other DOJ affinity groups sent recommendations to President Biden’s transition team at DOJ for how it can increase diversity, equity and inclusion at the Justice Department.

December 22, 2020 - DOJ GEN board members were the subjects of she Government Accountability Project’s letter to Congress, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, and DOJ’s Office of the Inspector General stating President Trump’s Executive Order 13950, which banned diversity training at federal agencies, constituted a violation of law, abuse of authority, gross mismanagement and gross waste of funds.

November 3, 2020 - DOJ GEN and five other DOJ affinity groups sent a letter to the Justice Management Division asking it to narrow its implementation guidance of President Trump’s Executive Order 13950 censoring “divisive” diversity & inclusion trainings.

October 21, 2020 - DOJ GEN was forced to cancel an event featuring former U.S. Attorney Jessie Liu and Acting ATF Director Regina Lombardo speaking about gender diversity at DOJ due to President Trump’s Executive Order 13950 censoring “divisive” diversity & inclusion trainings.

September 22, 2020 - DOJ GEN won a prestigious Attorney General’s Award for its nationwide advocacy campaign to persuade Congress to pass the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act.

September 21, 2020 - DOJ GEN issued a statement on the life and work of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

September 21, 2020 - DOJ GEN and four other DOJ affinity groups sent a letter responding to the Justice Management Division’s position that components may use salary history to set pay at DOJ.

August 19, 2020 - DOJ GEN and five other DOJ affinity groups sent a letter to every DOJ component head seeking action on pay inequity at the Justice Department

August 10, 2020 - DOJ GEN issued our analysis of OPM’s paid parental leave regulations implementing the Federal Employee Paid Leave Act.

June 16, 2020: DOJ GEN issued our analysis of the Supreme Court’s monumental decision for gender equality and the LGBTQI+ community in Bostock v. Clayton County, GA.

May 24, 2020 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to members of Congress asking them to close the paid parental leave implementation gap.

April 13, 2020 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the Deputy Attorney General and the Justice Management Division on DOJ’s response to COVID-19.

March 26, 2020 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the Deputy Attorney General urging the Justice Department to adopt our recommendations regarding telework, administrative leave, and communications about possible COVID-19 exposure.

March 13, 2020 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to Attorney General Barr and OPM Director Cabaniss asking DOJ and OPM to take immediate action to protect federal workers from COVID-19.

January 28, 2020 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the Justice Management Division providing suggestions for how DOJ can close the paid parental leave implementation gap.

November 18, 2019 - DOJ GEN sent letters to every member of Congress (for example, this one to Congressman Reed) urging them to support the Federal Employee Paid Family Leave Act. DOJ GEN members in states throughout the country also lobbied their senators and representatives to vote for the bill.

November 14, 2019 - DOJ GEN released testimonials from 39 DOJ GEN members documenting the hardships they faced due to lack of paid family leave, as part of DOJ GEN’s nationwide advocacy campaign to enact the Federal Employee Paid Family Leave Act.

June 10, 2019 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights on sexual harassment in the federal government.

May 14, 2019 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to Attorney General William Barr demanding greated gender diversity in DOJ leadership.

October 2018 - DOJ GEN released analysis of gender diversity in DOJ political leadership and management positions.

April 3, 2018 - DOJ GEN hosted a moderated interview with DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz, which drew hundreds of attendees to a packed Great Hall at DOJ’s Main Justice building. Inspector General Horowitz answered questions about systemic problems with how DOJ has handled sexual harassment allegations.

February 27, 2018 - DOJ GEN and seven other DOJ affinity groups sent a letter to Attorney General Sessions decrying the lack of diversity in DOJ leadership.

December 22, 2017 - DOJ GEN sent a letter to Justice Department leadership demanding reforms to sexual harassment policies.

December 20, 2017 - DOJ GEN met with the Deputy Attorney General’s Office to push for strengthened sexual harassment policies at the Justice Department.

April 19, 2017 - DOJ GEN hosted its first event, a moderated discussion on gender equality in the workplace with National Women’s Law Center President Fatima Goss Graves and EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels.

November 2016 - At an inagural meeting in the basement of a drab government building in DC, DOJ GEN is founded as an employee-run organization with a clear and urgent mission: to enhance gender equality and equity at the Justice Department and across the federal workforce.