CAPAC Chair Commends Historic OMB Updates to Federal Race & Ethnicity Data Standards by Biden-Harris Administration

“One-in-a-generation breakthrough” means data collection and disaggregation will improve across every federal agency to ensure programs and services are more responsive to needs of Americans

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published a set of revisions, the first since 1997, to Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15)—aiming to ensure that federal data on race and ethnicity is more detailed, accurate, and useful, and that the information collected is standardized across federal agencies.

Previously, Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) have pressed for increased data disaggregation and the adoption of updated standards in SPD 15, so that federal agencies can better understand the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities that encompass over 70 different detailed origin groups. 

In 2017 and 2023, CAPAC Members submitted letters and public comments to OMB sharing their recommendations for the SPD 15 revision process, and CAPAC has consistently highlighted the importance of data equity and urged updates to SPD 15 as top priorities in meetings with the White House and senior Biden-Harris Administration officials.

CAPAC Chair Rep. Judy Chu (CA-28) issued the following statement: 

“Today’s OMB announcement is no minor bureaucratic change or maneuver; it’s a once-in-a-generation breakthrough. This update to federal race and ethnicity data standards—earned after years of campaigning by advocates and CAPAC—marks a historic milestone for AANHPI communities. It will increase data collection and disaggregation across all of the federal government, improving the ability of federal programs and services to serve the needs of AANHPI communities and other communities of color. Data disaggregation across the federal government has been among CAPAC’s top priorities for decades, so I commend Director Young and the Biden-Harris Administration for their shared commitment to data equity and for understanding all the stories, experiences, and challenges within communities of color. By making these revisions a priority, the Biden-Harris Administration is working to ensure all communities of color can be better heard, represented, and served by our government.

“As CAPAC has consistently emphasized, grouping our AANHPI communities together often masks the disparities that certain racial or ethnic groups face, including on economic prosperity, health outcomes, home ownership, or educational attainment, and make government programs and services less responsive and effective. By further disaggregating the race and ethnicity category options across federal agencies, these new revisions to SPD 15 ensure that the federal government can more effectively tailor programs and policies to reach underserved populations and serve all of our communities. And, by establishing a new Interagency Committee on Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards, convened by the Office of the U.S. Chief Statistician, OMB will continue to carry out necessary additional research and conduct regular reviews of SPD 15 to ensure strong, consistent, and coordinated progress across all agencies.  

“I want to highlight and praise the AANHPI community whose unrelenting advocacy and strength in numbers have made these changes possible. As we know, the inclusion of community expertise makes for better policy design. And I thank OMB and the Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards for their hard work in developing the initial proposals to the revisions and conducting in meaningful engagement with the public, from reviewing 20,000 comments to holding nearly 100 listening sessions. I look forward to working with advocates, OMB, and all our partners in the Biden-Harris Administration to swiftly and fully implement these revisions and to monitor their success.”