ALT Dear Director Young and Director Santos: We write to ask that you end the longstanding erasure of a group of our fellow Americans by adding the Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) response category to the decennial census and the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) standards for federal data on race and ethnicity. This long-overdue action would reverse a baseless decision by the Trump Administration—which overruled the Census Bureau’s recommendation to add a MENA category—and would ensure that this vibrant American community can receive crucial federal resources and support. We also ask that the inclusion of a MENA category be paired with a commensurate increase in funding for programs serving the needs of communities of color across the country, since members of the Middle Eastern and North African community were previously excluded from these programs. OMB has not addressed a MENA classification within federal data on race and ethnicity in 25 years. In 1997, the agency...

ALT within its “White” reference category.2 Since members of the MENA community trace their roots to either the Middle East or North Africa, OMB’s standards fail to capture the lived experience of many community members.3 For over a century, Americans of Middle Eastern or North African descent have been making valuable contributions to every aspect of American society—through the labor of workers, the innovations of scientists, the ingenuity of small business owners, and the creativity of artists.4 Many individuals in the MENA community have strong social bonds, forming a coherent social group within American society that shares many communal values regarding family and religion, moral values such as honor, hospitality, and humility, and common experiences of emigration and acculturation. As you are aware, federal standards for the classification of data on race and ethnicity impact far more than population totals in the decennial census. OMB standards determine how our political...

ALT category be added to the 2020 Census but noted that this “will ultimately be OMB’s decision.”6 Despite support from expert statisticians within the Census Bureau and the American public, the Trump Administration unilaterally and unjustifiably decided to exclude a MENA category from the 2020 Census. Congress has repeatedly recognized that the MENA community should be considered an underserved minority group under federal law. In September 2021, the Committee on Education and Labor highlighted “that Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) communities,” among other groups, “have been excluded from the definition of ‘culturally specific’ in other federal programs for domestic violence and sexual assault victims.” The Education and Labor Committee recommended that the Department of Health and Human Services include organizations serving the MENA community within its “grants for culturally specific services for racial and ethnic minority populations.”7 Similarly, on January 13, 2022...

ALT The Committee on Oversight and Reform is the principal oversight committee of the House of Representatives and has broad authority to investigate “any matter” at “any time” under House Rule X. In addition, the Committee has jurisdiction over “[p]opulation and demography generally, including the Census.”10 If you have any questions regarding this request, please contact Committee staff at (202) 225-5051. Thank you for your attention to this matter.