April 12, 2023 Initial Proposal Reaction

NW Washington, DC 20500 Statistical_Directives@omb.eop.gov Dear Committee Members, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) greatly appreciates the opportunity to provide comments on the initial proposal from the Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards (Working Group) to update the U. [...] Collecting detailed data on the diversity of the population is critical to evaluating the full picture of residents of the United States and approaches that may improve the well-being of the nation. [...] As such, we support the removal of Negro from the Black or African American definition, Far East from the Asian definition (and support replacing it with East Asian), Other from “Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander,” and the error of Cuban being listed twice in the current minimum category definition for Hispanic or Latino. [...] The Asian American population represents more than 40 different ethnic groups, and, when disaggregated, there are major wealth, educational, and health gaps by region and country of origin.viii In the case of COVID-19, the seemingly low rates of infection in the larger Asian American community masked the impact of the disease on different subgroups. [...] In conclusion, CSPI appreciates the opportunity to submit comments in response to the initial proposal from the Working Group to update the OMB’s standards for maintaining, collecting, and presenting federal data on race and ethnicity.