Beginning December 20, 2021, federal contractors must comply with the federal Fair Chance Act (FCA), which prohibits contractors from inquiring about a job applicant’s criminal background in certain cases in the initial stages of the application process, even as regulatory revisions on the “ban-the-box” law have yet to be released.
The FCA’s purpose is to ensure employers’ hiring decisions are focused first on applicants’ qualifications and abilities, rather than screening out otherwise-qualified applicants due to their prior criminal history.
The federal contractor law, passed on December 20, 2019, is not as simple as it appears. The FCA provides that the Administrator of General Services and the Secretary of Defense should issue regulations providing additional exemptions from the FCA by April 20, 2021. Additionally, the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), under which the FCA was passed, directs the Federal Acquisition Regulatory (FAR) Council to revise the Federal Acquisition Regulation to implement the FCA by June 20, 2021. The FAR Council’s draft revisions were initially scheduled to be completed by May 27, 2020, but that deadline was extended to January 5, 2022. As of this writing, however, these regulatory revisions have not been released.
The FCA covers civilian agency contracts (41 U.S.C. §4714) and defense contracts (10 U.S.C. §2338). Both statutes generally use the same language, in Section (a)(1)(B), for...
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