{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-chu-lead-capac-members-to-urge-omb-to-support-spd-15-implementation-efforts-for-aanhpi-communities", "Hirono, Chu Lead CAPAC Members to Urge OMB to Support SPD 15 Implementation Efforts for AANHPI Communities", "2024-09-24", "2024", "2024-09", "Democrat", "Senate", "HI", "Mazie K. Hirono", "H001042", "www.hirono.senate.gov", "hirono", "https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Today, U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI) and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) Chair Representative Judy Chu (D-CA) led 7 of their colleagues in sending a letter to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director Shalanda Young on Statistical Policy Directive 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15), urging OMB to take additional action to assist federal agencies in effectively incorporating its revised standards to SPD 15. OMB\u2019s revised standards to SPD 15 include changes that will help to expand demographic reporting requirements and ensure that diverse communities are better reflected in federal datasets. By implementing increased data disaggregation through these revisions, federal agencies would be able to better understand more communities, including the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities that encompass over 70 ethnicities.\n\n\u201cFederal data on race and ethnicity is a crucial resource for identifying and addressing inequity,\u201d wrote the Members. \u201cWhile SPD 15 could be a tremendous asset to our communities, we are concerned with how federal agencies will implement the revised standards.\u201d\n\nThe letter urges OMB to work directly with federal agencies to provide them with the necessary resources and guidance to produce detailed inventories on their data collections, and to share these data inventories in a centralized manner, as recommended by over 100 AANHPI advocacy groups that have weighed in on the issue. The letter further requests clarification on what a \u201csufficient justification\u201d would be to exclude an agency from detailed demographic reporting requirements.\n\n\u201cOMB plays a critical role in ensuring both the quality and consistency of federal datasets, and the updated SPD 15 is a significant step in improving federal data collection processes,\u201d the lawmakers concluded. \u201cIn all, greater transparency and stronger guidance will help federal agencies fulfill the ideals of SPD 15 while providing greater opportunity for community accountability.\u201d\n\nSenator Hirono has long advocated on behalf of the AANHPI communities in Hawaii, the U.S., and the Pacific Island nations and territories, working to ensure that all communities are accounted for and supported. Just last year, Senator Hirono reintroduced the All Students Count Act of 2023, legislation that would require more comprehensive and equitable disaggregation of Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) student data in K-12 schools, helping to ensure that AANHPI student groups are better accounted for and supported by schools across the country.\n\nIn addition to Senator Hirono and Representative Chu, the letter was signed by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Representatives Kevin Mullin (D-CA), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jill Tokuda (D-HI), Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), and Mark Takano (D-CA).\n\nThe full text of the letter is available here and below:\n\nDear Director Young:\n\nThank you for your continued commitment to advancing racial equity and supporting underserved communities in the United States. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, our country has taken important steps toward promoting an inclusive society where everyone has opportunities to succeed. We write today regarding OMB\u2019s recent revisions to \u201cStatistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity\u201d (SPD 15) \u2013 dated March 28, 2024. We commend OMB for revising these standards, which will help to expand demographic reporting requirements and ensure that diverse communities are better reflected in federal datasets, and thank the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) and other OMB officials for discussing the revisions with Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC), on July 31, 2024. In order to ensure that these standards are fully implemented in a manner that supports our communities, we strongly urge OMB to comply with statutory mandates and take additional action to assist federal agencies in effectively and efficiently incorporating the revised standards.\n\nFederal data on race and ethnicity is a crucial resource for identifying and addressing inequity. However, since SPD 15 was last updated in 1997, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) advocacy groups have raised concerns over SPD 15\u2019s overly-broad minimum reporting categories, which obfuscate the diverse experiences of over 70 ethnic groups under the AANHPI umbrella. Due to distinct histories and particular experiences with violence and persecution, for example, only 14% of Bhutanese Americans, 19% of Laotian Americans, and 22% of Burmese Americans have obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree\u2014half the rate of all Asian Americans and lower than the overall population.\n\nAccurate and comprehensive data on race and ethnicity is necessary for ensuring the health, safety, and well-being of our communities. We applaud the 2024 SPD 15 for requiring federal agencies to collect new and more detailed racial and ethnic information, such as \u201cChinese,\u201d \u201cNigerian,\u201d and \u201cNative Hawaiian,\u201d by default. This will help illuminate areas of need within particular ethnic and racial communities and allow policymakers to allocate resources appropriately.\n\nWhile SPD 15 could be a tremendous asset to our communities, we are concerned with how federal agencies will implement the revised standards. A recent report from AAPI Data, National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC) detailed concerning gaps in the updated SPD 15\u2019s rollout, including the absence of an existing inventory of all federal agency data collections\u2014a requirement of The OPEN Government Data Act of 2018 (P.L. 115-411)\u2014 to assist federal agencies in implementing the revised standards. SPD 15 also allows federal agencies to apply for an exception to its new detailed demographic reporting requirements, but does not set a clear standard for what OIRA should consider a \u201csufficient justification\u201d to grant an exception. In all, greater transparency and stronger guidance will help federal agencies fulfill the ideals of SPD 15 while providing greater opportunity for community accountability.\n\nOMB plays a critical role in ensuring both the quality and consistency of federal datasets, and the updated SPD 15 is a significant step in improving federal data collection processes. In order to ensure SPD 15 is implemented in an effective way, we urge OMB to work directly with federal agencies to ensure they have the necessary resources and guidance to produce detailed inventories on their data collections, and to share these data inventories in a centralized manner, as recommended by over 100 AANHPI advocacy groups that have weighed in on the issue. Without such inventories, there is no reasonable way to account for all the data collections taking place within the federal government, and to fully understand whether these collections are in compliance with SPD 15.\n\nThank you for your consideration on this important matter. We look forward to receiving your response.\n\nSincerely,", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T21:43:57Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.hirono.senate.gov/news/press-releases/hirono-chu-lead-capac-members-to-urge-omb-to-support-spd-15-implementation-efforts-for-aanhpi-communities"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4462899416685104, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}