Proposed Changes to Federal OMB Standards �for Race & Ethnicity Data: Implications for CA

March 21^st, 2023

Agenda

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3:00 pm - 3:05 pm Welcome

3:05 pm – 3:20 pm Brief Overview and History of OMB Standards

3:20 pm – 4:00 pm Panelists: Thu Quach, Dr. Seciah Aquino & Reem Zubaidil

4:00 pm – 4:25 pm Q&A 

4:25 pm – 4:30 pm Conclusion & Next Steps

Overview and History of OMB Standards

�Data is key to advancing health equity

• How we ask, analyze, and report information on race, ethnicity and other demographic factors affects our ability to understand population changes and identify and address racial disparities in health and health care

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• Federal government agencies use race/ethnicity data to:
• Ensure equal opportunity
• Enforce civil rights laws
• Understand the impact of policy changes on specific populations
• Administer programs for specific populations

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Origin of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Race/Ethnicity Standards

• First set of race/ethnicity standards, Statistical Policy Directive (SPD) 15, were adopted by the Office of Management in Budget in 1977

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• Goal was to provide consistent data on race and ethnicity throughout the Federal Government, including: the decennial census, household surveys, and Federal administrative forms

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• A key reason for the development of these standards was so that the Federal government could fulfill its responsibilities to enforce civil rights laws

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• The standards have only been updated one other time, in 1997

1997 OMB Race/Ethnicity Standards

• The current OMB standards (adopted Oct. 30, 1997) require two separate race and ethnicity questions, with the ethnicity question collected before the race question.

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• Ethnicity (2):
• Hispanic or Latino
• Not Hispanic or Latino

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• Minimum Race categories (5):
• American Indian or Alaska Native
• Asian
• Black or African American
• Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander
• White

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1997 OMB Standards cont.

Other revisions:

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• Emphasize self-identification using separate race and ethnicity questions is the preferred means of obtaining information about an individual’s race and ethnicity.
• However, 1997 standards allow using combined race and ethnicity question format where observer identification is the only or most feasible collection mode.
• Rejected proposals to add a new “multiracial” category
• “White” continues to be defined as: “A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.”

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It’s Time to Update the 1997 OMB Standards

• It’s been 25 years since the SPD 15 was last revised
• There have been large societal, political, economic, and demographic shifts in the United States throughout this period, for example:
• Increasing racial and ethnic diversity;
• A growing number of people who identify as more than one race or ethnicity; and
• Changing immigration and migration patterns.
• Many federal agencies treat OMB standards as the ceiling, rather than the floor
• Some categories and definitions now seem outdated or offensive!

It’s Time to Update the 1997 OMB Standards

• Data and research show that a growing number of people do not identify with the current official OMB race categories:

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• Ex. People with Hispanic ethnicity and people from the Middle East and North Africa may select other race because they do not identify with the available racial categories.
• Additionally, recent refinements to how the Census and other national surveys ask about race and ethnicity within the existing standards have resulted in increased measures of population diversity, largely due to increases in the shares of people reported as some other race or multiracial, particularly among the Hispanic population.

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It’s Time to Update the 1997 OMB Standards

• The way surveys are designed, processed and coded can result in major differences
• Between 2010 and 2022, the Census Bureau made changes in the design, data processing and coding of the race and ethnicity questions. As a result:
• The share of people who identified as some other race grew from 5% to 7%
• The share reported as two or more races grew 3% to 13%
• The share of Hispanic people identified as White plummeted from 64% to 16%

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Federal Interagency Technical Working Group

• In 2022, OMB convened the Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnicity Standards (Working Group)
• Comprised of Federal career staff who represent programs that collect or use race and ethnicity data.
• OMB charged the Working Group with providing recommendations on topics including, but not limited to:
• Whether the minimum reporting categories should be changed and how to best address detailed race and ethnicity groups in the standards;
• Whether updates should be made to the question format, terminology, and wording of the questions, as well as the instructions for respondents and associated guidance; and
• Whether guidance for the collection and reporting of race and ethnicity data can be improved, including in instances when self-identification is not possible.

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What are some of the Changes Being Proposed by the Working Group?

• The proposed changes to the federal minimum standards recommend:
• A combined single question for Race/Ethnicity instead of asking about Hispanic or Latino ethnicity in a separate question from race.
• Collection of detailed racial and ethnic categories
• A separate racial category for people who identify as Middle Eastern or North African
• Elimination of the use of certain outdated and offensive terminologies, as well as discontinuing the use of the terms “majority” and “minority.”

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Old Question: New Question:

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Today’s Guest Speakers

• Thu Quach, PhD, President, Asian Health Services
• Dr. Seciah Aquino, Executive Director, Latino Coalition for a Healthy California
• Reem Zubaidi, MPP, Director of Programs, UC San Diego Center for Community Health, Refugee Health Unit, and co-facilitator for the San Diego Refugee Communities Coalition

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Q&A

Conclusion & Next Steps

Discussion/Next Steps

• Discussion:
• What is the best way to collect your feedback? (e.g. Survey, Additional Discussion/Office Hours?)

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• Next Steps:
• Comments are due to OMB by April 12, 2023; unique comments are encouraged!
• CPEHN, AHS and other Organizations will share draft template comments
• Email csanders@cpehn.org with any questions