Mr. President, I rise today with deep admiration and praise for an integral presence within America's diverse society – Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Every May, during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we commemorate the major contributions made by this small, but by no means insignificant, part of the U.S. population.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, both in the aggregate and in groups of distinct and unique ethnic origin, comprise a growing force in our citizenry. Whether their ancestry is Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, Indian, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Laotian, Hmong, or other Asian American, or Native Hawaiian, Chamorro, Samoan, Micronesian, Tongan, Fijian, or other Pacific Islander American, they are a vibrant part of our society. If one could see numbers about each of the distinct peoples in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, they would observe that we make up one of the fastest growing segments of the population. Our reach in communities across America is increasing. Asian Pacific Americans should not be thought of as located only in a few select states such as Hawaii or California. We have migrated over time from various points of origin in the U.S. to all parts of the country and have come to contribute to local business, education, and politics in every state.
Nearly 11 million Asian and Pacific Islanders lived in the U.S. in about 2.5 million families, according to last year's estimates. About four-fifths of these families were headed by married couples. Furthermore, the Census Bureau projects that the Asian and Pacific Islander population will more than triple to nearly 38 million by the middle of this new century, climbing from four to nine percent of the American population. This growth in the number of Asian Pacific Americans will be felt across the country, and more light will be shed on the multifaceted strengths and varied needs of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
President Clinton recognized the importance of increasing awareness about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders when he signed Executive Order 13125 in June, 1999. The Executive Order established the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders with the goal of improving the quality of life for this population by increasing their participation in Federal programs. Such programs include those related to health, human services, housing, education, labor, transportation, economic development, and community development programs – encompassing those which currently serve this population and those which may not have served this population in the past.
I am happy to say that the Initiative is marching onward through high-level, interagency meetings involving all major agencies in the Executive Branch, and the establishment of the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. The Commission will be sworn in later this week and includes 15 members representing various interests and diverse segments of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. It will be chaired by an esteemed colleague, former Congressman Norman Mineta, and will include representatives such as Haunani Apoliona from my State of Hawaii. I hope that now and in the next Administration, the Initiative and the Commission will continue to work hand-in-hand toward: – increased research and data collection; – private sector, public sector and community involvement; and, – development, monitoring, and coordination of Federal efforts toward improved quality of life for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
There is clear evidence to show that this type of Federal attention is needed. As stated in the Presidential Proclamation for Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2000, despite many successes, the needs in the community still continue to be great: "While many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders today are thriving, others are still struggling to overcome obstacles. Because of oppression in their countries of origin, some new immigrants have arrived without having completed their education; once here, some have encountered language and cultural barriers and discrimination. Pacific Islanders, too, must overcome barriers to opportunity caused by their geographic isolation and the consequences of Western influences on their unique culture. For these and other reasons, too many Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders face low-paying jobs, inadequate health care, and lack of educational opportunity." The Initiative, Advisory Commission, and the Asian American and Pacific Islander community have much work to do in these areas. I urge that the proper resources and attention continue to flow to support this combined effort.
Mr. President, within this Federal effort, I cannot underscore enough how much we need to focus on improving data collection for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. The tremendous diversity in the community poses challenges that have produced data and statistics that are inadequate. Most data collection tends to lump the various Asian American and Pacific Islander ethnicities together in a single category, swallowing up numbers for each distinct group and failing to present an accurate picture of the services needed.
For example, the respected organization The College Board produced a report regarding minority achievement in higher education. The report failed to include Asian Pacific Americans because we were considered to be over-represented in higher education. Unfortunately, in the making of the report, differences between individual groups within the community were ignored. For example, higher educational attainment is greater for groups like Japanese and Chinese Americans than it is for American Samoan and Southeast Asian Americans. Statistics such as these must be brought to light so that educational agencies and institutions know to which groups they should target their limited resources. Thankfully, Congressman Robert Underwood, the Chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific Caucus, worked to counter this problem and, in the end, reached an agreement with The College Board to work to gather and analyze disaggregated data for the population.
As another example of data collection challenges, I have worked on Office of Management and Budget Statistical Policy Directive No. 15, which governs the racial and ethnic data collection by Federal agencies. In 1993, I began efforts to change the Directive so that Native Hawaiians would be disaggregated from the Asian Pacific Islander category. My main concern was that Native Hawaiians, as an indigenous people, were being classified with populations that had immigrated to the U.S., thereby creating the misperception that Native Hawaiians were immigrants rather than the indigenous peoples of Hawaii.
I finally succeeded in 1997, when OMB Policy and Statistical Directive No. 15 was revised. Native Hawaiians were disaggregated from the Asian Pacific Islander category and a new category entitled, "Native Hawaiians and Other Pacific Islanders" was created. That was one step toward fixing inaccuracies in data collection. Agencies have until January 1, 2003 to make all existing recordkeeping or reporting requirements consistent with its standards. However, provisions of the revised directive took effect immediately for all new and revised recordkeeping or reporting requirements that include racial and/or ethnic information. It is my understanding that only the Department of Health and Human Services has established a policy with respect to the requirements of OMB Directive 15. I have encouraged all Federal agencies to actively work to implement this Directive, especially in collaborative efforts with the White House Initiative and President's Advisory Commission.
As a further example, on March 14, 2000, I hosted a forum to discuss Census 2000 and its impact on Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders in Honolulu. The forum included panel members from the Federal government, Congress, and Native Hawaiian, Samoan, and Chamorro community organizations. The issue which generated the most concern regarding Census 2000 was the application of multiracial reporting. This issue is one of particular sensitivity in Hawaii, where a large percentage of the population has multiethnic backgrounds.
In Hawaii, it is very common for individuals, when asked for their ethnicity, to list their entire ethnic background. Only when asked which ethnicity the individual most identifies with will the individual limit the answer to one ethnic background. Furthermore, it was revealed through forum discussion that there is no resolution as to how data will be reported for those who check off more than one race on the 2000 Census form. This raises the fear that the final counts of various Pacific Islander populations — such as the Native Hawaiian population — where multiple-race backgrounds are common, would be inaccurate. Statisticians verify that this has enormous effect on smaller populations.
I am continuing to work on this problem because of the tremendous impact that Federal data has in its use in deciding funding and participation in thousands of Federal, state and local programs. Inaccurate data means that many individuals will not be served, and we must do what we can to prevent this from happening. We must work on these and other issues facing the Asian American and Pacific Islander community, just as we do for issues facing our country's other populations, because it is part of our responsibility to keep each part of our diverse America as strong as it can be.
Mr. President, I recently introduced related legislation that would allow us to take a broader look at, and emphasize the heterogeneous nature of, America. S. 2478, or the Peopling of America Theme Study Act of 2000, takes pride in America's diversity by authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to identify regions, areas, districts, structures and cultures that illustrate and commemorate key events or decisions in the peopling of this country. I hope that this effort will provide a basis for the preservation and interpretation of the complex movement of people, ideas, and cultures to and across the American continent that resulted in the peopling of the nation, and the development of our unique, pluralist society – one that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are fully a part.
The bill encourages development of preservation and education strategies to capture elements of our national culture and history such as immigration, migration, ethnicity, family, gender, health, neighborhood, and community. The prehistory and the history of this nation are inextricably linked to the mosaic of migrations, immigrations and cultures that has resulted in the peopling of America. Americans are all travelers from other regions, continents and islands, and I feel we need a better understanding and appreciation of this coherent and unifying theme in America. This is the source of our nation's greatness and strength. Our rich American heritage includes the traditions, cultures, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, both as a group and as individuals.
Mr. President, I would like to conclude my statement with a note of praise and congratulations to some of the members of the Asian Pacific American community most deserving of recognition. President Clinton recently approved the Army nominations of 21 Asian Pacific American World War II veterans to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. This concluded a review that I requested of service records of Asian American and Pacific Islanders who received the Distinguished Service Cross during World War II. The approval of the Medal of Honor for these 21 men who served with valor in World War II – 19 from the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and 100th Infantry Battalion – is long overdue recognition of the heroic service and bravery displayed by these Asian American soldiers and their comrades in arms. As we honor these patriots, including my colleague Senator Daniel Inouye, let us also remember the thousands of young men, living and deceased, whose courage, sacrifice and spirit proved that patriotism is a circumstance of the heart, not a consequence of the skin.
The 100th/442nd fought with incredible courage and bravery in Italy and France. Its members won 1 Medal of Honor, 53 DSCs, and more than 9,000 Purple Hearts. The unit itself won 8 Presidential Unit Citations. The fact that the 100th/442nd saw such fierce and heavy combat, yet received only one Medal of Honor award, and then only posthumously and due to Congressional intervention, raised serious questions about the fairness of the award process at the time. Unfortunately, Asian Pacific Americans were not accorded full consideration for the Medal of Honor at the time of their service. A prevailing climate of racial prejudice against Asian Pacific Americans during World War II precluded this basic fairness, the most egregious example being the internment of 120,000 Japanese Americans. The bias, discrimination, and hysteria of that time unfortunately had an impact on the decision to award the military's highest honor to Asians and Pacific Islanders. I commend Secretary Caldera and all the Army personnel who conducted the DSC review in a thorough and professional manner. They carried out the difficult task of identifying and reconstructing the records of more than one hundred veterans with diligence, sensitivity, and dispatch. The stories documented for each of the 104 DSC recipients will astonish and humble all who read them and underscore our faith in a nation that produces such heroes.
As the only Chinese American in this body and the sole Native Hawaiian in the Congress, I am proud of the legacy that we as Americans are leaving for the world. I am proud of our great country, and I am proud of the citizens that make our country great – including our nation's Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. We have much to celebrate during Asian Pacific Heritage Month 2000.
Mr. President, thank you again for this opportunity, and I yield back the balance of my time.
