Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders
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Democrats are taking America in a New Direction, working to defend our country, restore accountability to Washington, grow our economy, strengthen our families, and protect our planet.
The New Direction Congress will help restore the American dream – creating greater opportunity and a chance for prosperity for all Americans, not just the privileged few.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are a critical part of our nation’s growth and success. With more than 14.4 million Americans that identify themselves with an Asian or Pacific Islander background, AAPIs are one of the fastest growing communities in the United States. Representing more than 16 ethnic backgrounds, speaking nine different languages, and belonging to a number of different religions and cultures, their diversity is the beauty and strength of our country.
During the month of May, our nation celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month and recognizes the valuable contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) to every aspect of American life. Learn more here>>
Click here for back issues of The Capitol, Speaker Pelosi's newsletter for the Asian American and Pacific Islander community>>
To ensure a prosperous future, fiscal responsibility is critical in every reform – to reduce our deficit and balance our budget – instead of passing the debt onto the next generation. Democrats are committed to making sure that AAPIs and all Americans are part of a new direction that will:
Provide high quality education, creating a nation ready for the challenges of the 21st century |
Give millions of Americans a pay raise, with the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade |
Provide access to quality, affordable health care, critical to the well being of America, today and in the future |
Create job opportunities, ensuring financial security for our families |
Grow our economy with investments in innovation, new American "green" jobs, reduced energy costs, and 21st Century Farm Bill reforms |
Uphold equality, to ensure that all Americans have the same opportunities and rights across our country |
Honor our troops and veterans' service to the nation |
Provide fair and safe immigration policy |
Provide high quality education, creating a nation ready for the challenges of the 21st century
Passed by Congress and signed into law by the President, the College Cost Reduction and Access Act is the single largest investment in higher education since the GI Bill in 1944 – at no new cost to taxpayers. The investment would be paid for by reducing excessive federal subsidies to the student loan industry.
- Making college more affordable for all Americans, reducing the cost on student loans and increasing the size of Pell Grant scholarships.
- Rewarding public service, with loan forgiveness for firefighters, police, nurses, early childhood educators, and more.
- Making new investments in minority-serving institutions and for the first time creating a new designation for Asian American and Pacific Islander serving institutions.
Give millions of Americans a pay raise, with the first increase in the federal minimum wage in a decade
The longest increase gap in the history of the law left millions of families behind—with their paycheck’s spending power reaching its lowest effective level in nearly half a century. Increasing the minimum wage was one of the first measures taken up by the new Congress and was signed into law on July 24th.
- An estimated 250,000 hardworking Asian American workers will benefit from an increase in the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour.
- Over the last five years, the number of Asian American/Pacific Islanders living in poverty has grown by 189,000 and the real median household income of AAPI families is down $1,381.
Provide access to quality, affordable health care, critical to the well being of America, today and in the future
With strong bipartisan support, Congress passed the Children Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which would protect health coverage for six million children—and expand to cover nearly four million more uninsured kids. Replacing expensive emergency room care with health care coverage is cost-effective for families and taxpayers, and helps ensure children succeed. More than 2.1 million AAPIs are uninsured.
- Improves outreach tools to streamline enrollment of eligible children. The bill provides $100 million in grants for new outreach activities to states, local governments, schools, community-based organizations, safety-net providers and others.
- Is fully paid for – by raising the tobacco tax by 61 cents a pack. The higher the cost of cigarettes, the less likely kids will take up smoking.
Create job opportunities, ensuring financial security for our families
Democrats will work to provide tax relief for middle and low-income Americans and small businesses, increasing funding for the Small Business Association, which helps minority-owned small businesses grow. AAPIs own more than 1.1 million small businesses across the nation and employ more than 2.2 million people. The number of AAPI-owned businesses grew 24 percent between 1997 and 2002, approximately twice the national average for all businesses.
- Cutting taxes for small businesses to help them invest in new equipment and hire new workers.
- Extending middle-income tax relief beyond the 2010 expiration in a fiscally responsible way, including extending marriage penalty relief and the child tax credit.
Grow our economy with investments in innovation, new American “green” jobs, reduced energy costs, and 21st Century Farm Bill reforms
Earlier this year, the House passed the landmark Farm Bill, which will reform America’s farm policy, invest in energy independence, support conservation, and strengthen nutrition assistance. It takes America’s farm policy in a New Direction that stands with our farmers and ranchers and recognizes their vital role of providing food, fiber, and fuel for America and the world.
- Setting landmark energy efficiency standards to reduce home, business and industry energy costs by up to $600 billion through 2030, and create incentives for clean, renewable energy technologies.
- Increasing funding for minority outreach for socially disadvantaged farmers and ranchers at $75 million and changes the program to provide more outreach, coordination and technical assistance to the AAPI community.
- Establishing a Minority Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee at USDA to review civil rights cases.
- Providing $1.6 billion for fresh fruits and vegetables, which helps AAPI farmers, who tend to be specialty crop farmers.
Uphold equality, to ensure that all Americans have the same opportunities and rights across our country
Democrats are committed to upholding the constitution, making sure that all Americans are provided due process with the full protection of our laws.
- The Hate Crimes Prevention Act was passed in Congress to strengthen the prosecution of crimes motivated by discrimination based on religion, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, national origin, or disability.
- The Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA), is an historic advancement for gays and lesbians and their families that would prohibit discrimination against employees on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.
Honor our troops and veterans' service to the nation
In the military, soldiers say that they will not leave any soldier on the battlefield. We say when they come home, we will not leave any veteran behind. Congress passed the largest veterans' funding increase in the 77-year history of the VA to serve the growing number of returning veterans. There are more than 321,000 veterans of AAPI descent, and 62,378 AAPIs who are currently on active duty in the military. Nearly 44,000 brave AAPI men and women have been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan since September 2001.
- Strengthening military health care through the Wounded Warriors Act, to clean up the scandal of inadequate care for our wounded soldiers at Walter Reed hospital and facilities nationwide.
- Giving our troops a pay raise of 3.5% – more than the President requested – a raise President Bush calls "unnecessary."
- Introducing legislation to provide Filipino World War II Veterans full veterans’ benefits.
Provide fair and safe immigration policy
The United States is a country made up of immigrants, and it is part of what makes us so strong and vibrant. And while immigration reform remains an unsolved challenge for our nation, the Democratic-led House is committed to achieving comprehensive reform.
- In July, Speaker Pelosi hosted a citizenship workshop in San Francisco, providing free assistance to individuals who were eligible to apply for American citizenship.
- In March, the House began the critical work of immigration reform when a group of bipartisan members introduced the Security Through Regularized Immigration and a Vibrant Economy Act of 2007 (STRIVE), which would overhaul the current immigration system in a way that better protects and enforces our borders, while respecting the hard work and contributions of immigrants to our country and reflecting the realities of our workforce and the needs of our communities.
- AAPIs currently face an immigration backlog that has forced some immigrants to wait as long as twenty years to rejoin their families. Family reunification provisions are critical to comprehensive immigration reform.
- Speaker Pelosi and Congresswoman Woolsey have secured $750,000 in proposed federal funding for the renovation of the Angel Island Immigration Station Hospital building. Angel Island is a significant historical landmark of immigrant history.