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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 31, 2023
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FACT SHEET: The Biden-Harris
Administration Advances Equity and Opportunity for Asian American,
Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Communities Across the Country
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WASHINGTON, D.C. – Since day
one of this Administration, President Joe Biden and Vice President
Kamala Harris have prioritized the advancement of opportunity, equity,
and safety for Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander
(AA and NHPI) communities to realize the full promise of our nation.
Throughout Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander
Heritage Month, the Biden-Harris Administration celebrates the
diversity of cultures, breadth of achievement, and remarkable
contributions of these communities while also recognizing the
generational inequities, barriers to access, and discrimination faced
by AA and NHPI communities within the United States. As we continue to
make progress to advance equity and opportunity for AA and NHPI communities,
today the Biden-Harris Administration is providing a comprehensive
update on our efforts to combat anti-Asian violence and discrimination
and to provide AA and NHPI communities the resources, access, and
opportunities to thrive.
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Combatting Anti-Asian Hate and
Promoting Belonging and Inclusion of AA and NHPI Communities. AA and NHPI communities
continue to face anti-Asian hate, and persistent racism, xenophobia,
religious discrimination, and violence that began long before the Covid-19
pandemic. In May 2021, President Biden signed into law the COVID-19
Hate Crimes Act, a bipartisan legislation that makes significant
improvements to our Nation’s response to hate crimes. The bill
addresses two challenges: the lack of resources and training for state
and local law enforcement to accurately identify and report hate crimes
to the FBI, and the language and cultural barriers that many AA and
NHPI communities and communities of color face in reporting hate crimes
to law enforcement.
President Biden has led a historic
whole-of-government approach to combat hate, xenophobia, and
intolerance facing AA and NHPI communities in the United States. In his
first week in office, President Biden signed the “Memorandum Condemning and
Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans
and Pacific Islanders in the United States.” The
memorandum directs all federal agencies to take steps to ensure their
actions mitigate anti-Asian bias and xenophobia, especially in the
response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over the last two years, agencies have worked to
deliver real and lasting results:
· Funding critical research to
prevent and address bias and xenophobia against AA and NHPI
communities. The
National Science Foundation (NSF) is taking a comprehensive approach to
investing in research to understand, address, and end bias,
discrimination and xenophobia, including against AA and NHPI
communities.
· The Department of
Justice (DOJ) continued its efforts to help agencies
transition their crime data to the National Incident-Based Reporting
System (NIBRS), a more detailed, FBI-recommended, national crime
database that provides a better picture of crime incidents, including
hate crimes by:
· Providing funding and free
technical support to assist law enforcement agencies transition from
the old crime data collection system to the FBI’s National
Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS), the only way for state and
local agencies to submit crime data, including hate crime data, to the
FBI.
· Conducting outreach to police
chiefs, law enforcement groups, and mayors to emphasize the importance
of accurate hate crime data collection.
· In March 2023, the FBI
released its Supplemental 2021 Hate
Crime Statistics – combining the Summary Reporting
System (SRS) and NIBRS data – which captured a 167% increase in
anti-Asian crime incidents.
· In September 2022, the Department
of Justice launched the United Against Hate program in all 94
U.S. Attorneys’ Offices by September 2023 to help improve the reporting
of hate crimes by teaching community members how to identify, report,
and help prevent hate crimes and encouraging trust building between law
enforcement and communities.
· In 2022, the Department
of Justice’s Community Oriented Policing Services released a new
hate crimes recognition and reporting training aimed specifically at
line-level officers. The training aims to increase state and local law
enforcement officers’ ability to identify when an incident is a hate
crime or hate incident.
· The Department of
Justice and the Department of Education jointly issued a
letter to educators on May 26, 2021, and a fact sheet addressing the
increased harassment and violence directed at AA and NHPI students and
reminded schools about their role in addressing discrimination,
including harassment, against AA and NHPI students.
· Providing funding for justice
programs: The Department
of Justice awarded over $32 million in grant funding to law
enforcement and prosecution agencies, community-based organizations,
and civil rights groups to support outreach, investigations,
prosecutions, community awareness and preparedness, reporting,
hotlines, and victim services; as well as supporting research and
program evaluation studies. Examples include:
· The Matthew Shepard and
James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Program, which supports state,
local and Tribal law enforcement and prosecution agencies and their
partners in conducting outreach, and investigating and prosecuting hate
crimes;
· The Community Based
Approaches to Prevent and Address Hate Crimes Program, which
supports community-based organizations and civil rights groups in
implementing comprehensive approaches to promote community awareness
and preparedness, increase victim reporting, strengthen community
resiliency, and improve responses to hate crimes;
· The Jabara-Heyer NO HATE
Act Program, which supports state-run hate crime reporting
hotlines and assists jurisdictions’ transition to NIBRS to improve hate
crimes data reporting; and
· The Emmett Till Program,
which supports law enforcement and prosecutors and their partners in
their efforts to investigate and resolve cold-case homicides that
involve civil rights violations.
· Revitalizing the Justice
Department’s Community Relations Service. The Justice Department is
strategically revitalizing the Community Relations Service (CRS), an
office which provides facilitated dialogue, mediation, training, and
consultation for communities facing bias-related conflict, including AA
and NHPI communities. CRS has been meeting with national and local AA
and NHPI organizations to address community concerns about the rise in
anti-Asian incidents and individuals’ safety during the pandemic. CRS
will continue sharing resources and information with affected
communities, as well as working with government leaders, faith leaders,
community groups, universities, and schools to help them build the
capacity to address and prevent hate crimes.
· Issuing a memorandum from the
Attorney General on hate crimes and hate incidents. In one of his first
acts, Attorney General Merrick B. Garland issued a directive to the
Department to conduct a 30-day expedited internal review to
determine how the Department could deploy all the tools at its disposal
to counter the recent rise in hate crimes and hate incidents.
· On May 27, 2021, following the
review’s completion and the passage of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act and
Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act, the Attorney General issued a memorandum announcing
immediate steps to deter hate crimes and bias-related incidents,
address them when they occur, support victims, and reduce the
pernicious effects these incidents have on our society.
· On May 20, 2022, the one-year
anniversary of the enactment of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, the Department
of Justice issued a new guidance document with
the Department of Health and Human Services, aimed at
raising awareness of hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. This
guidance provides an overview of the rise of hate crimes and hate
incidents during the pandemic, including a surge of hate crimes and
hate incidents against AA and NHPI communities, and several steps that
law enforcement, government officials, and others can take to raise
awareness of increased hate crimes and incidents, and to use increased
awareness as a tool for the prevention of and response to hate crimes.
· In 2022, U.S. Trade
Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai participated in an event,
hosted by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and the National
Coalition of Canadians Against Anti-Asian Racism. Under the banner,
‘Inspiring Next GenerAsian Leaders’, the event hosted youth from
several Asian organizations and institutions across Canada and provided
an opportunity for Ambassador Tai to work with her Canadian counterpart
Minister Mary Ng to convene conversations with broader Asian American
and Asian Canadian groups.
· Providing trainings to enhance
civil rights reporting and strengthen relationships between law
enforcement and community members. The FBI hosted regional
conferences across the country with state and local law enforcement
agencies regarding federal civil rights and hate crimes laws; to
encourage reporting; strengthen relationships between law enforcement
and local civil rights organizations; and build trust within the
diverse communities they serve.
· Assessing threats against AA
and NHPIs. The
Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of Intelligence and
Analysis (I&A) issued an “Intelligence in Brief” publication that
assessed the threats targeting AA and NHPI communities. The brief
examines physical threats and incidents of violence against AA and NHPI
community members over the last year and provides context for what the
office views as the potential threats facing the community in the near
future.
· Identifying systemic barriers
in accessing nonprofit security grant benefits and opportunities. In July 2021, the Federal
Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Office for Civil Rights and
Civil Liberties at the Department of Homeland Security collaborated to
award FEMA Nonprofit Security Grants to 17 AA and NHPI serving
organizations.
· Integrating AA and NHPIs into
community-based violence prevention efforts. DHS’s Center for Prevention
Programs and Partnerships (CP3) Regional Prevention Coordinators
conducted outreach and built connections with local and regional
partners across the country to ensure that AA and NHPI communities are
integrated into broader local community-based prevention efforts to
increase the ability of local community leaders to prevent violence and
build community resilience against discrimination and hate.
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Promoting Equitable Data and
Data Disaggregation for AA and NHPI Communities. The Biden-Harris
Administration is committed to advancing racial equity and inclusion
through improved data collection, research, access, and disaggregation
efforts. Better data leads to better and more informed policies that
reflect the needs and priorities of the AA and NHPI communities.
· The Department of
Health and Human Services (HHS)’s, Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) posted in the Federal Register the
proposed expansion of demographic characteristics reporting in the
Uniform Data System (UDS) beginning with the 2023 reporting period to
better align with HHS race/ethnicity data standards in accordance with
Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act. UDS will be updated to include
subpopulation categories for AA and NHPI, and a broader selection for
Hispanic ethnicity. These options will more accurately reflect the
diversity of patients served by health centers as well as continue to
align with OMB’s minimum categories for race and ethnicity data
collection. High-quality accessible data is critical to strategically
meeting the needs of patients and identifying opportunities for
clinical process improvement.
· In September 2022, the Department
of Labor (DOL)’s, Bureau of Labor Statistics published for the first
time monthly labor force estimates for NHPIs regarding
the unemployment rate, the employment–population ratio, the labor force
participation rate, and other key metrics. With the release of
the Employment Situation report on
September 2, 2022, monthly data for NHPIs are available going back to
January 2003.
· The Department of
Commerce (DOC)’s Census Bureau released the Demographic and Housing
Characteristics File (DHC) and Demographic Profile on
May 25, 2023. These 2020 Census data products provide demographic and
housing characteristics of local communities. More demographic and
housing characteristics will be included in the Detailed Demographic
and Housing Characteristics File A (DHC-A).
· On February 8, 2023, the
Census Bureau held the AA and NHPI Proof of
Concept Webinar, with nearly 80 organizations. The Census
Bureau offered targeted and tailored outreach in advance to AA and NHPI
data users and key stakeholders to discuss the proof of concept, which
included proposed content and disclosure avoidance settings, and was based
on 2010 Census data that represents the tables planned for publication
in the 2020 Census Detailed Demographic and Housing Characteristics
File A, which will provide the population counts and sex and age
statistics for approximately 370 detailed racial and ethnic groups and
1,200 American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and villages and is
scheduled for release in September 2023.
· The Consumer Financial
Protection Bureau (CFPB) has finalized a rule required by
Congress to increase transparency in small business lending, promote
economic development, and combat unlawful discrimination, including
against AA and NHPI businesses. Lenders will collect and report
information about the small business credit applications they receive,
including geographic and demographic data, lending decisions, and the
price of credit. The rule will work in concert with the Community
Reinvestment Act, which requires certain financial institutions to meet
the needs of the communities they serve. The increased transparency
will benefit small businesses, family farms, financial institutions,
and the broader economy.
· The Federal Housing
Finance Agency (FHFA) now receives disaggregated AA and NHPI
data for single-family automated underwriting system mortgage
applications. FHFA will use these data to monitor fair lending impacts
to subgroups and to inform future policy decisions that support equal
treatment of all future homeowners.
· The Department of
Education (ED) will collect highly disaggregated race and
ethnicity data on its Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA)
form, which is filled out by all federal student aid applicants. This
data feeds into a variety of student outcome measures reported for
postsecondary institutions and programs and will allow for more robust
disaggregated reporting on college access and success.
· At the request of the U.S.
Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai, the U.S.
International Trade Commission (USITC), an independent U.S. agency,
released a report in November 2022 that catalogued information on the
distributional effects of trade and trade policy on underrepresented
and underserved communities. The report summarizes the literature and
confirms clear gaps in trade data focusing on Tribal nations,
Indigenous and AA and NHPI workers; workers with disabilities; and
workers based on their race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation.
Ambassador Tai also requested that the USITC update the distributional
effects report every three years.
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Lowering Health Care Costs and
Improving Health Outcomes for AA and NHPI Communities. The COVID-19 pandemic laid
bare the systemic inequities in our economy and healthcare system. The
Biden-Harris Administration has used every lever and tool to ensure
access to safe, free, and convenient vaccines and invest in more
equitable public health infrastructure to better serve communities
across America, including in AA and NHPI communities.
· Expanding access to health
care. The American
Rescue Plan (ARP) has lowered or eliminated health insurance premiums
for millions of lower- and middle-income families enrolled in health
insurance marketplaces. The Administration’s efforts to expand access
to coverage has driven the uninsured rate to historic lows, with more
than 3.6 million people gaining coverage during last year’s recording
breaking 16.3 million ACA enrollment period.
· The Inflation Reduction Act
(IRA) locks in lower monthly premiums – about 197,000 uninsured AA and
NHPI Americans will continue to save money on health care coverage,
including the 50,000 AA and NHPI people that could find a plan for
$0-premium plan in 2021.
· By continuing the improvements
made through the American Rescue Plan, the Inflation Reduction Act
keeps free or low-cost health insurance available. About 120,000 more
AA and NHPI Americans will have health insurance coverage in 2023,
compared to without the Inflation Reduction Act.
· As outlined in his February
2023 State of the Union address, the President is calling on Congress
to make permanent the improved ACA tax credits that lower health care
premiums for millions of Americans and to close the Medicaid coverage
gap.
· Ensuring health care resources
are readily available for AA and NHPI communities. The Department of Health
and Human Services Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
expanded culturally appropriate and understandable health care information
for the AA and NHPI community, including releasing the “Medicare &
You” handbook in Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese. CMS also conducted
targeted outreach to AA and NHPI communities for the 2022 Affordable
Care Act (ACA) Open Enrollment season, including specific social media
and television advertisements, and hosting an AA and NHPI week of
action during December 2022.
· HHS has also launched an
Equity Technical Assistance (TA) Center to provide training,
tools, and TA for HHS employees to make sure that policies, programs,
research, and analyses more equitable, including TA on strategies for
reducing disparities in access to, and use of, grants and other HHS
policy levers.
· Supporting the mental health
needs of AA and NHPI communities. In October 2022, the
Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental
Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) awarded a grant
to the Hawaii State Department of Health/Behavioral Health
Administration to establish the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and
Pacific Islander Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (AANHPI-CoE).
The purpose of this Center of Excellence is to advance the behavioral
health equity of AA, NH, and PI communities. The AANHPI-CoE will (1)
develop and disseminate culturally-informed, evidence-based behavioral
health information and (2) provide technical assistance and training on
issues related to addressing behavioral health disparities in AA, NH,
and PI communities. The AANHPI-CoE serves as a resource to behavioral
healthcare providers, community-based and faith-based organizations,
research institutions, and federal entities.
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Promoting Economic Opportunity
for AA and NHPI Communities. By signing into law the historic American Rescue
Plan, Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act, and CHIPS
and Science Act implementing robust regulatory reform, the Biden-Harris
Administration has led the most equitable economic
recovery on record, creating more than 12 million jobs since
coming to office and helping create new economic opportunities for all
Americans, including AA and NHPI workers, small business owners, and
entrepreneurs.
· Improving engagement with AA
and NHPI businesses and entrepreneurs. In January 2023, the
White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and
Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) launched a series of regional economic summits to
connect AA and NHPI community members directly with federal leaders and
resources. The events are being held in different cities in
collaboration with the U.S. Small Business Administration, U.S.
Department of the Treasury, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services (HHS)’s Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business
Utilization, the National Asian / Pacific Islander American Chamber of
Commerce & Entrepreneurship, and local officials. The series was spurred
by a recommendation from the President’s Advisory Commission on AA and
NHPIs and aims to improve the accessibility of federal resources,
including contracting and procurement opportunities, as well as federal
jobs, grants, and programs.
· The Small Business Administration
established a Community Navigators Pilot Program (CNPP) via the
American Rescue Plan. In the program’s first year (through November
30, 2022), CNPP provided business counseling to more than 17,000 unique
clients and general training to another 200,000+ attendees, resulting
in over $170 million in approved funding. Of the 51 grant recipients
engaged in the Community Navigators Pilot, 18 have a particular focus
on AA and NHPI entrepreneurs, including the U.S. Pan Asian American
Chamber, which specializes in providing in-language support for ESL
entrepreneurs in the AA and NHPI community, and Maui Economic
Development Board, which works with community organizations serving
smaller Hawaiian Islands, such as Moloka‘i and Lanai. Navigator
organizations have also directly counseled over 1,400 clients
identifying as AA and NHPI.
· The Small Business
Administration (SBA) distributed loans to AA and NHPI business owners
and entrepreneurs. SBA distributed 1,084 loans totaling $1.5 billion
through its 504 Program, which provides long-term, fixed rate financing
for major fixed assets that promote business growth and job creation;
5,603 loans totaling $5.3 billion through its 7(a) Program, which
provides financial support for small businesses; and 165 microloans
totaling $3.7 billion (in FY 2022) and 22,800 grants via the temporary
Cares Act Restaurant Revitalization Fund totaling $5.95 billion (in FY
2021) to help small businesses and certain non-profit childcare centers
start up and expand.
· Good Jobs Challenge to support
AA and NHPI businesses. The Department of Commerce (DOC)’s Economic Development
Agency (EDA) announced grant awards to 32 industry-led workforce
training partnerships in 31 states and Puerto Rico as part of the $500
million Good Jobs Challenge funded by ARP.
· Resilient Hawaii: The Good Jobs Challenge is
investing $16 million in the University of Hawaii, an EDA University
Center and an Asian American and Native American Pacific
Islander-Serving Institution (AANAPISI), to support four of Hawaii’s
major industries: healthcare; information technology; energy and
resilience; and film, arts, and media. The sectoral partnerships funded
by this program will train thousands of workers, with a focus on NHPI
communities, to secure quality jobs with local employers including
Adventist Health Castle, Bank of Hawaii, and Diagnostic Laboratory
Services.
· Greater Boston Region (GBR)
Regional Workforce Training System (RWTS): The Good Jobs Challenge is
investing $23 million in the Economic Development and Industrial
Corporation of Boston. In partnership with over 100 local employers,
EDIC will create demand-driven pathways into quality childcare,
healthcare, and energy jobs. Its clean energy sector partnership, led
by Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology, an Asian American and
Native American Pacific Islander-serving Institution, will partner with
local unions to develop skilled journeymen workers to develop clean
energy infrastructure.
· Strengthening export
capacity. The
Department of Commerce (DOC)’s International Trade Administration (ITA)
is leading the U.S. Commercial Service’s Global Diversity Export
Initiative is committed to helping underserved communities in the
United States, including AA and NHPI businesses among others to
increase their exports. Through the Strategic Partnership Program, ITA
continues its partnership with the Asian American Chamber of Commerce
and the US Pan Asian American Chamber of Commerce.
· Investing in Equitable
Workforce Training. The
President is committed to creating pathways to the middle class,
especially for people from underserved communities, by expanding
skills-based hiring and increasing access to Registered Apprenticeship
and workforce training. States, localities, community colleges, and
community-based organizations have leveraged $40 billion in ARP funds
to deliver training, expand career paths, encourage more Registered
Apprenticeships, provide retention and hiring bonuses in critical
industries, and power efforts to help underserved Americans and those
who face barriers to employment secure good jobs. In 2022, the
Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $121 million in grants to expand,
diversify, and improve access to Registered Apprenticeships for
underserved communities, including AA and NHPIs. The agency is also
awarding $95 million to help people in marginalized and
underrepresented populations overcome barriers to career and technical
education programs they need to connect with quality jobs.
· Reversing decades of
disinvestment through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. For years, politicians
have talked about investing in our national infrastructure, but up
until now they have failed to follow through. The lack of investment
has fallen most heavily on underserved communities. The Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law will: replace lead pipes; increase access to
training and good-quality jobs; expand affordable high-speed internet,
reliable public transit, and clean drinking water; reconnect
neighborhoods divided by legacy highway infrastructure; and provide
other resources to communities.
· Ensuring digital equity. The Department of Commerce
(DOC)’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration
(NTIA) tentatively reserved $3 million to award grants to the U.S.
territories. In addition, NTIA tentatively reserved $15 million to
award grants to Indian Tribes, Alaska Native entities, and Native
Hawaiian organizations for the purpose of creating Tribal / Native
digital equity plans.
· Supporting rural
development. The
Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development mission area has so far
invested $467 million in Hawaii, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of
the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, the Federated States of Micronesia,
the Republic of Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau, in grants,
loans, and investments in infrastructure.
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Addressing Housing
Discrimination and Helping AA and NHPI Communities Stay in their
Homes. The
Administration implemented a series of measures that protected
homeowners from foreclosure, including a foreclosure moratorium,
increased options for mortgage payment forbearance, and enhanced loan
modifications to resolve delinquencies. In addition, the American
Rescue Plan is helping struggling homeowners catch up with their
mortgage payments and utility costs through the Homeowner Assistance
Fund.
· Protecting AA and NHPI access
to housing by combating housing discrimination. Following President
Biden’s Presidential Memorandum directing his Administration to address
racial discrimination in the housing market, in February 2023, Department
of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published a Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking to fulfill obligations under the Fair Housing Act
to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing. This rule would help overcome
patterns of segregation and to hold state, localities, and public
housing agencies that receive federal funds accountable for ensuring
that underserved communities have equitable access to affordable
housing opportunities.
· New actions to protect renters
and promote rental affordability. In January 2023, the Biden-Harris
Administration announced new actions to increase fairness in the rental
market and further principles of fair housing. This includes actions to
identify practices that may unfairly prevent applicants and tenants
from accessing or staying in housing such as the discriminatory use of
tenant background checks and algorithms in tenant screenings.
These actions align with a new Blueprint for a Renters
Bill of Rights. The Blueprint lays out a set of principles
to drive action by the federal government, state and local partners,
and the private sector to strengthen tenant protections and encourage
rental affordability.
· In March 2023, the Department
of Housing and Urban Development’s Office of Fair Housing and Equal
Opportunity (FHEO) awarded approximately $54 million in
funding for the Fair Housing Initiatives Program (FHIP) to address
violations of the Fair Housing Act and end housing discrimination.
Included within these awards were seven FHIP grants that serve the AA
and NHPI community. The grantees will provide education and outreach,
translate materials into Asian and Pacific Islander languages and
conduct enforcement related activities to address discriminatory acts
against the AA and NHPI community.
· HUD’s FHEO and its Fair Housing
Assistance Program partners have reached conciliation agreements in 54
housing discrimination cases in FY2021 and FY2022 where an AA and NHPI
individual filed a complaint based on race or national origin. For
example, in May 2021, HUD reached a settlement with
housing providers in California who had allegedly failed to provide
language access services to Vietnamese residents. The settlement
resulted in financial compensation to affected residents and with the
housing providers agreeing to make available free oral interpretation
services and translated documents when required by law.
· The Department of
Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) has supported homeownership in the AA and NHPI community
with a number of programs:
· FHA mortgage insurance
facilitated affordable home financing or refinancing for over 55,000 AA
and NHPI individuals and families over FY2021 and FY2022.
· More than 1,700 senior AA and
NHPI homeowners used FHA’s Home Equity Conversion Mortgage program to
age in place in their own homes over FY2021 and FY2022.
· Through expanded COVID-19
forbearance options, more than 52,000 AA and NHPI homeowners with
FHA-insured mortgages obtained a mortgage payment forbearance over
FY2021 and FY2022.
· HUD-approved housing
counseling agencies served more than 67,000 AA and NHPI clients over
FY2021 and FY2022.
· Providing stable housing for
Native Hawaiian families. The Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD)’s Office of Native American Programs (ONAP) made available $5
million in Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant (NHHBG) funding through
the Biden-Harris Administration’s American Rescue Plan, providing
critical rental and utility assistance to 564 low-income Native
Hawaiian families in FY 2022. HUD also supported homeownership by
issuing 107 Section 184A mortgage loan guarantees in FY 2021 and FY
2022 representing over $30 million dollars in mortgage capital to
Native Hawaiian families.
· The Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Office of Native American Program
(ONAP) provided training and technical assistance to the
Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) to create a tenant-based
rental assistance program for kupuna (elders). HUD published a proposed rule on
January 4, 2023, that would make changes to the NHHBG regulation to
clarify that NHHBG funds may be used for tenant-based or project-based
rental assistance, thereby diversifying the types of affordable housing
options available for Native Hawaiian communities.
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Ensuring Equitable Educational
Opportunity in K-12 Schools and an Education Beyond High School. The Biden-Harris
Administration has delivered the support necessary to enable every
school to return to full-time, in-person instruction and ensure student
success by accelerating academic recovery and addressing the mental
health needs of students. The Administration has also made college more
affordable, provided college students with supports for completion, and
helped federal student loan borrowers as they recover from the
pandemic. He has also worked to ensure equitable access to high-quality
education for AA and NHPI students.
· Confronting COVID-19 related
harassment in schools. In May 2021, the U.S. Department of Education wrote
a letter to educators to address the increased harassment and violence
directed at AA and NHPI students and families and remind schools about
their roles in protecting AA and NHPI students as they returned to
in-person learning. The Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR)
shared a resource guide on how to navigate these situations, and also
shared “How to File a Discrimination Complaint with the Office for
Civil Rights” in 24 languages, including in 11 Asian languages. The
Civil Rights Divisions of the Department of Justice and Department of
Education also partnered to create a resource on Confronting
COVID-19-Related Harassment in Schools, to assist AA and NHPI students
who have reported bullying and harassment by classmates because of
their race or national origin, including their ethnicity, ancestry, and
language.
· Safely reopening K-12 schools. The ARP has provided
more than $122 billion to help K-12 schools reopen safely. These
investments include set asides at the local and state level to ensure
states and districts address the learning loss and social and emotional
needs of students disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, including AA
and NHPI students, English learners, and students with disabilities.
· Supporting college students. The ARP provided more
than $36 billion in support to institutions of higher education,
including institutions that primarily serve AA and NHPI students, to
help students stay enrolled, lower costs, keep faculty and staff
employed, and slow the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. All students,
regardless of citizenship, who met the appropriate criteria were
eligible to receive emergency financial aid grants funded by the Higher
Education Emergency Relief Fund. The Biden-Harris Administration
delivered $5 billion in ARP funds to support Asian American and Native
American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs).
· In October 2022, The Department
of Commerce (DOC)’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) awarded
a Minority Colleges and
Universities grant to a Native Hawaiian Serving
Institution (NHSI), which is now the fourth MBDA Equity in Hawaii.
Chaminade University of Honolulu, Hawaii received $300,711 and
will develop and pilot a Sustainability Entrepreneurship course
(expanding to a public certificate program) and develop a “Pathways to
Entrepreneurship” series of workshops and seminars.
· The Department of
Defense (DoD)’s SMART Program is creating University Liaison
positions that will focus on building relationships with HBCUs, and
MSIs, to include AANAPISIs and ANNHs, to strengthen and expand SMART’s
academic partnership opportunities. The SMART Program received:
· 2,555 applicants for the 2022
cohort.
· 128 applicants attended an
Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution
(AANAPISI) and 8 attended an Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian
(ANNH)-Serving Institution.
· Among all applicants
(irrespective of institution), 8.9% identified as Asian and 0.1% Native
Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
· 482 individuals were
ultimately awarded a SMART scholarship as part of the 2022 cohort, with
21 awardees attending AANAPISI and 1 attending an ANNH.
· Among all awardees
(irrespective of institution), 8.9% identified as Asian and 0.1% as
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander.
· The SMART Program received
3,061 applicants for consideration in the 2023 cohort.
· 284 applicants attend an
AANAPISI and 4 attend ANNH institutions.
· Among all applicants
(irrespective of institution), 9.7% identified as Asian and 0.2% Native
Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander. Awardees for the 2023 cohort will
be announced in April 2023.
· On February 27, 2023,
the Department of Commerce (DOC)’s National Telecommunications
and Information Administration (NTIA), awarded more than $175
million to 61 colleges and universities as part of the Connecting Minority
Communities Pilot Program (CMC). These new awards cover
colleges and universities in 29 states and four territories. American
Samoa Community College was awarded $2.99 million and the College of
Micronesia –FSM was awarded $1.2 million. The grants will provide
access to affordable, reliable, high-speed internet service, which is
necessary for minority students and local communities to fully access
school, healthcare, and jobs.
· Providing support to
borrowers. President
Biden believes that a post-high school education should be a ticket to
a middle-class life, but for too many AA and NHPI students and
graduates, the cost of borrowing for college is a lifelong burden that
deprives them of that opportunity.
In August 2022, President
Biden announced a plan that:
· Provides one-time debt relief
to low- and middle-income borrowers to make sure borrowers are not
worse off with respect to their loans because of the pandemic. President Biden’s one-time
debt relief plan provides up to $20,000 in debt relief to Pell Grant
recipients with loans held by the Department of Education, and up to
$10,000 in debt relief to non-Pell Grant recipients. Borrowers are
eligible for this relief if their individual income is less than
$125,000 ($250,000 for married couples. No one in the top 5% of incomes
will benefit from this action. While litigation is currently preventing
the Administration from providing this debt relief, the Administration remains
confident that the program is legal. In the less than four weeks that
the application was available, 26 million people either applied for
debt relief or had already provided sufficient information to the
Department of Education to be deemed eligible for relief. Over 16
million of those borrowers’ applications were fully approved by the
Department and sent to loan servicers before the program was enjoined
in litigation.
· Makes the student loan system
more manageable for current and future borrowers. These steps include:
· Cutting monthly payments in
half for undergraduate loans. The Department of Education is proposing
an income-driven repayment plan that protects more low-income borrowers
from making any payments and caps monthly payments for undergraduate
loans at 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income—half of the rate that
borrowers must pay now under most existing plans. This means that the
average annual student loan payment will be lowered by more than $1,000
for both current and future borrowers.
· Fixing the broken Public
Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program by ensuring that borrowers who
have worked at a nonprofit, in the military, or in federal, state,
Tribal, or local government, receive appropriate credit toward loan
forgiveness. These regulatory changes build on temporary changes the
Department of Education made to PSLF, under which roughly 360,000
public servants received more than $24 billion in loan forgiveness.
· Ensuring targeted student loan
forgiveness programs work. To date, the Department of Education has
approved a total of more than $66 billion in relief to over 2.2 million
student loan borrowers who were defrauded by their college, enrolled in
a college that abruptly closed, are permanently disabled and unable to
work, and borrowers who serve our country through government or
non-profit work.
· Protecting future students and
taxpayers by reducing the cost of college and holding schools
accountable when they hike up prices. The President championed the largest increase
to Pell Grants in the last decade – a combined increase of $900 to the
maximum award for students over the last two years – and has a plan to
double the maximum Pell Grant by 2029 to nearly $13,000. To further
reduce the cost of college, the President will continue to fight to
make community college free. Meanwhile, colleges have an obligation to
keep prices reasonable and ensure borrowers get value for their
investments, not debt they cannot afford. This Administration has
already taken key steps to strengthen accountability, including in
areas where the previous Administration weakened rules such as holding
career colleges accountable for leaving their students with mountains
of debt that they cannot repay.
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Ensuring Language Access and
Native Language Revitalization for AA and NHPI Communities. At the President’s direction,
agencies across the Biden-Harris Administration have taken a number of
steps to improve access to vital federal programs for AA and NHPI communities.
· The Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD)’s Office of Field Policy and
Management translated the Office of Davis-Bacon and
Labor Standards’ Construction Workers Pocket Guide into Vietnamese and Chinese this
year, along with other languages, to increase accessibility and broader
understanding of federal wage protections in HUD-funded projects.
· The Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) conducted initial assessments to
determine which vital documents have been translated into top AA and
NHPI languages encountered in select homeland security programs,
specifically terrorist alerts and messaging on domestic extremism;
access to civil rights complaints; immigration detention; immigration
benefits; and security and safety statements related to immigration
enforcement during disasters. DHS translated its National Terrorism
Advisory System Bulletin into Chinese (Simplified and Traditional),
Korean, Tagalog, Thai, and Vietnamese and its statements on safety and
immigration issued during Hurricane Ida and Hurricane Ian into Chinese
(Simplified and Traditional) and Vietnamese.
· The Federal Housing
and Finance Agency (FHFA) translated multiple origination and
servicing-related documents into Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, and
Tagalog, and these translations are now available on FHFA’s website. In
March 2023, the requirement to ask for and maintain an applicants’
preferred language was implemented. The industry is now required to ask
borrowers their preferred language as part of an addendum to the loan
application and that information will transfer to the mortgage
servicer.
· The Social Security
Administration (SSA) expanded its internet site to include
Korean, Vietnamese, Tagalog and Simplified Chinese translated
publications. SSA also made linguistic updates to its visitor intake
kiosks to better facilitate the check-in process at local field
offices.
· In FY 2022, the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) posted translations
of 18 additional webpages in Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog
and continued to assess its language access capabilities by
reinvigorating its Language Access Working Group and beginning to identify
potential updates to the agency’s existing Language Access Plan.
· The Department of
Interior (DOI)’s Office of Native Hawaiian Relations developed
a Department Manual (DM) chapter to standardize the use of ʻŌlelo Hawai‘i by the Department.
· The Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) now provides document translation,
in-person and virtual interpretation, voice over/subtitle, web-support,
and telephonic interpretation services, which are available for all EPA
HQ and regional program offices. The telephonic interpretation service
is available for use by all EPA employees 24/7 with over 175 languages
available.
· The Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) awarded a new translations
contract which now allows the agency to provide enhanced translation
capability including in AA and NHPI languages. The Commission created
consumer-friendly fact sheets and other materials online about its
Affordable Connectivity Program and translated them into Chinese
(Simplified and Traditional), Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog.
· The Department of
Justice (DOJ) continued to make efforts to improve and expand
language access across its department and to law enforcement agencies.
Efforts include:
· Convening the Language Access
Working Group which provides technical assistance and training across
its components as they continue to improve language access for all,
including AA and NHPI communities;
· Launching the Law Enforcement Language
Access Initiative, a nationwide effort to assist law
enforcement agencies in meeting their obligations to provide meaningful
language assistance to Limited English Proficiency (LEP ) individuals;
and
· Adding information to its
website on reporting hate crimes in 24 languages, including 18 of the
most frequently spoken AA and NHPI languages in the country.
· Implementing Language
Access at HUD. HUD’s language access plan outlines
HUD’s commitment to providing meaningful access for people with limited
English proficiency across all programs, services, and activities
conducted by the Department. HUD developed social media and web-based resources for
housing counseling agencies to reach those with limited English
proficiency who may be struggling to make their mortgage payments due
to COVID-19. These materials are available in multiple languages,
including Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Samoan, Tagalog, Thai, Vietnamese,
and Punjabi. Similarly, HUD has general homebuying information
available for housing counselors to use with clients in multiple
languages, including Korean, Laotian, Tagalog, Mandarin, and
Vietnamese.
· Expanding language access and
assistance for arts programs. Using ARP funds, the National Endowment for
the Arts (NEA) expanded language access and language assistance,
including for the first time translating guidelines and supporting
materials into Chinese. The NEA has also held grant workshops
with the Asian American Arts Alliance, the Asian American Writers’
Workshop, the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, and
HowlRound. These workshops provided technical assistance for ARP grant
applications, better equipping culturally-specific organizations to
apply successfully for relief funding.
· Increasing access to
contracting, grant, employment, and internship opportunities at the
Department of Defense (DoD). Through the implementation of specific
outreach programs to advance inclusivity, the Department of Defense’s
Taking the Pentagon To The People Program (TTPTTP) is aimed at
increasing access to contracts, federal grants, resources, and
employment programs for AA and NHPIs and other underserved communities.
In addition, DOD is working to strengthen the capacity and the
infrastructure of Asian American Native American Pacific Islander
Serving Institutions (AANAPISIs) and other Minority-Serving Institutions
(MSIs) and increase opportunities for AA and NHPI serving institutions
to participate in Federal programs.
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