our second panelist is mary beth maxwell. i'm not can ask each of the panelist to raise their hand and swear it burn the information you are about to provide is true and accurate to the best of your knowledge. >> thank you for the opportunity to. the congressionally mandated role is to in orders the civil rights act of 1964. collectively, as these laws prohibit discrimination. for eeo charges a commission investigating mediates and mitigates selected claims. for eeo complaints against government agencies, the administrative judges may conduct hearings and adjudicate appeals. despite these two different processes, the commissioners statutory interpretations under title vii of the other was in force is applied to both private and public government employment. i statement today along with a detailed written testimony summarizes action theeoc has taken -- the eeoc has taken with respect to sexual orientation and gender identity. the strategic enforcement plan adopted by bipartisan vote in december 2012, includes as one of its enf

as chairman castro announced my name is mary beth maxwell's deputy assistant secretary for policy at the department of labor for the department is making enormous strides to provide protections for lesbian gay bisexual and transgender. as secretary burgess said last year our workforce and economy are strong as we embrace diversity and to its fullest and that means opening doors of opportunity to everyone recognizing the american dream excludes no one. we are making sure that these basic values are reflected in the full range of our two babies from rulemaking and guidance documents to program policies and their own internal practices. first we are hard at work on implementation of executive order 13672 to july 2014 order that prohibits employment discrimination by contractors based on sexual orientation and gender identity. as personal president obama said it doesn't make much sense but today in america millions of our fellow citizens wake up and go to work with the awareness they could lose their job. not because of anything they do or fail to do but simply because of who they are. l