Oregon Treasurer Elizabeth Steiner called on the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) to maintain corporate demographic reporting requirements, saying a planned policy shift would harm workplace accountability.
The EEOC's decision to eliminate data reporting would deprive investors of "standardized, verifiable, and statistically reliable demographic data" from companies, Steiner said. The loss of this information would leave investors "blind to material risks from discriminatory practices," she said.
Steiner cited her personal connection to the issue. She is the 30th Treasurer of Oregon and the first woman elected to the position. Her father, Daniel Steiner, served as General Counsel of the EEOC from December 1967 to July 1969, during the early years of mandatory employer reporting.
In a letter to the EEOC, Steiner wrote that "my father's enforcement efforts, including the landmark Hollywood discrimination hearing in March 1969, demonstrated the power of transparency and data-driven civil rights enforcement." She said it was "heartbreaking" to see the hard work of civil rights advocates being undone by what she called an understaffed commission acting on political grounds.
The Oregon State Treasury manages investments for the Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund (OPERF), the Common School Fund, and other funds on behalf of schools and state and local agencies, with approximately $148 billion in assets under management. OPERF is one of the largest state pension funds in the nation.