1. United States
2. Colo.
3. Letter

I am writing as a concerned constituent to express deep opposition to President Donald Trump’s recent Executive Order titled “Restoring Equality of Opportunity and Meritocracy”. While it purports to uphold fairness, this order undermines decades of progress in civil rights protections—particularly for women and marginalized communities—by targeting the enforcement and interpretation of the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (ECOA), Titles VI, VII, and VIII of the Civil Rights Act, and the principle of disparate-impact liability. This order threatens the federal government’s ability to enforce protections that have safeguarded women's financial independence since the ECOA was first passed in the 1970s. Before these protections existed, it was common for women to be denied credit unless they had a male co-signer. Rolling back these safeguards—even indirectly—poses a dangerous risk of returning to that era. The Executive Order encourages federal agencies to reevaluate, stall, and potentially roll back critical guidance and proceedings that prevent discrimination in credit, housing, education, and employment. It seeks to eliminate disparate-impact liability—a vital legal framework that allows us to recognize and respond to discriminatory outcomes, even when intent isn’t overt. This will leave countless individuals and communities without access to the protections and data needed to fight patterns of systemic bias. While Congress alone can amend these laws, this Executive Order can dramatically weaken how they are implemented and enforced. It further politicizes independent federal agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, allowing them to ignore or rescind key civil rights safeguards under the guise of neutrality. I urge you to take immediate action to oppose and block this Executive Order. Whether through oversight hearings, legislation, or public advocacy, I implore you to defend the integrity of the ECOA and the Civil Rights Act. Our country cannot afford to go backward on civil rights.