Last week, the ASPPH Board of Directors executive committee reviewed and commented on the proposed Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards.

The standards are for collecting and reporting race and ethnicity across federal agencies developed by an Interagency Technical Working Group. In their response, the ASPPH executive committee expressed their concern that “the proposal includes combining Hispanic ethnicity and race into one question. We believe this change will contribute to undercounts in the AfroLatino/a community.” They also praised the Interagency Technical Working Group’s “proposed additions of new categories that have remained under the classification of “other” such as including Middle Eastern/North African as a new category.”

The letter was signed by our Board Chair and Dean of Rutgers School of Public Health, Perry Halkitis; Chair-Elect Thomas LaViest, Dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine; and Ayman El-Mohandes, Immediate Past Chair and Dean of CUNY Graduate Schools of Public Health. OMB has extended the deadline for comments until April 27, 2023.