Letter to the Office of the U.S. Chief Statistician - Provide Accurate Data on Asian American & Pacific Islanders

Letter

Office of the U.S. Chief Statistician:

We write to express our strong support for updating the Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity, to improve the reporting categories, questions, and data collection for the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.

Our country's population has changed significantly since OMB's standards were last updated in 1997 and the methods and language used to record race and ethnicity should be updated to reflect those changes. In particular, the AAPI community is comprised of diverse racial groups representing dozens of ethnicities, cultures, and migration stories from around the world. A lack of disaggregated data on the AAPI community has led to the "model minority" myth that--based on the current federal data--virtually all AAPIs are self-sufficient, well-educated, and upwardly mobile. However, in reality these metrics differ widely among different AAPI subcategories.

Better data collection will more accurately reflect the AAPI community's realities and needs such as educational challenges, language access, poverty, and disability. Without access to better data, these disparities would remain concealed behind the model minority myth leaving our communities invisible to policymakers and our needs unmet.

Therefore, we urge the OMB to require all federal departments and agencies, when collecting, analyzing, using, reporting, and disseminating data on race or ethnicity, to follow the disaggregated classifications as noted in the U.S. Census Bureau's 2015 National Content Test Race and Ethnicity Analysis Report (the Report)[1]. In addition, we encourage the OMB to consider updating such classifications regularly to reflect the ever evolving AAPI population. Further, the disaggregated classifications in the Report are minimum measurements used in the collection of data, therefore OMB should indicate to federal departments and agencies their ability to go beyond such standards when engaging in data collection of their own.

Currently, because of the lack of disaggregated data for the populations they serve, many community organizations undertake time consuming and expensive data collections of their own.

These groups typically lack the expertise in statistical services. Therefore, they must put greater relative resources into data collection efforts than government agencies that are already engaging in data collection. The expense and time put towards these custom data collection efforts are a less effective use of resources than the services they could be providing. OMB should consider the quality of data and the efficiency of government led data collection efforts when updating the Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity.

As members of Congress that recognize the value of federal statistics and the work done by the agencies that collect them, we stand ready to work with OMB and the relevant statistical agencies to update these standards. Ultimately, this minimal change in data collection will lead to better outcomes and better targeting of resources, which in the long-run is good not only for the federal government but also for the states, localities, businesses, and non-governmental organizations that rely on such statistics.

With better data, policymakers and community organizations will be able to initiate targeted support to those within the AAPI community who need it most. We appreciate your consideration and stand ready to continue working with OMB to improve AAPI achievement.

[1] U.S. Census Bureau, 2015 National Content Test Race and Ethnicity Analysis Report.