Detailed Letter for Revision of the Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity

Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC, along with the 49 undersigned organizations, academic institutions, and individuals, submit this comment in response to the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) federal register notice regarding the Proposals From the Federal Interagency Working Group for Revision of the Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (“Standards”), 82 FR 12242 (March 1, 2017). Asian Americans and Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders (NHPIs) comprise vastly diverse racial groups. Without accurate data by detailed subgroup, some of the most disadvantaged in our communities are rendered invisible to policy makers, leaving their needs unmet. The Standards are critical to our ability to maintain or improve upon the quality of these detailed data, which are essential to informed public policy on our communities and the fair allocation of federal, state, and local funding. We write to provide comments on the four topics outlined in the notice, as well as to note our concern about the process for these revisions.