FASEB Comments on Proposed Updates to OMB’s Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards

Tuesday, March 21, 2023
On March 20, FASEB submitted comments to the Office of Management and Budget in response to the initial proposals for updating Statistical Policy Directive No. 15: Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (SPD 15). FASEB’s comments expressed support for the effort to update SPD 15 to better reflect the diversity of the nation and improve understanding of the racial and ethnic identities of survey respondents. This included support for collecting race and ethnicity as a combined, multi-selection question, adding “Middle Eastern or North African” as a new minimum category, and collecting detailed race and ethnicity by default.