New Biden Administration policy directive adds Chamorro data classification

A fitting way to end Mes CHamoru, “Native Chamorros” will now be a separate classification for all federal data collection on race and ethnicity.

The Biden Administration today released the guidance as part of a new statistical policy directive.

It's the first change since 1997, and follows a year-long effort by “the White House initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders.”

It expanded data collection categories so that Pacific Islanders aren't lumped into a single category.

We spoke last February with Initiative Executive Director Krystal Ka'ai, who explained that “disaggregation” will ultimately provide a better federal response to the specific needs of the various ethnic groups, including Chamorros.

Ka’ai said, “So there's so many inequities that unless you are captured in the data it's really difficult to address.And we have seen territories like Guam, we've seen states like Hawaii and California do a real good job of desegregating AANHPI data but there are other states that don't even collect it period. So a big part of our initiative at the federal government level is to ensure that federal data sets, our surveys, our research that we're doing at the federal level actually does include deaggregated and more granular data so we can really understand where the disparities are and ensure that there are programs and funding and initiatives to really target those inequities.”

The Office of Management and Budget will also establish an interagency committee on race and ethnicity standards to conduct regular ten-year cycle reviews.