National Campaign to Count and Disaggregate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Data

The federal White House Office of Management and Budget is asking for public comments on potential revisions to its 1997 standards for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity data. All federal agencies must follow these standards.

Currently, federal agencies are not required to count detailed data for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities (e.g., Chinese, Filipino, Asian Indian, Vietnamese, Korean, Japanese, Native Hawaiian, Chamorro, Samoan, Tongan, etc.). This means our communities remain misrepresented, left out of policy and program decisions, and under-funded.

We can change that. Data should reflect our unique histories, cultures, resiliencies, and challenges that differently impact our health, housing, education, and economic experiences. The last time these standards were revised was 1997 – and this may be the only time in years to make a change.

You have until April 30 to tell OMB that “I want to be counted and I support the questions used by the U.S. Census Bureau!”