ISSUE 27 — OCTOBER 3, 2021By Mary Yang, Dan Hu, Andrew Peng, and Shawna Chen
Good morning and welcome to The Yappie’s Asian American + Pacific Islander politics briefing. We (Mary and Dan) have been reporting from Capitol Hill over the past week and are excited to take the lead on the newsletter. Make sure to connect with us at @MaryRanYang and @byDanHu. Send tips and feedback to [email protected], apply to join our team, and support The Yappie‘s work by making a donation.
🎉 October is Filipino American History Month! Filipino Americans make up 18% of the U.S. Asian population with a total of over 4.2 million, according to a Pew Research Center study. A “growing force in our civic movements and engagement,” Filipino Americans are a “living reminder of the courage of immigrants,” the White House said in a statement honoring the month, which was first recognized in 2009.
THE BIG STORY
Photo courtesy of Mary Yang for The Yappie.
🔎 DEEP DIVE—PRAMILA’S BIG WEEK: In the scramble to save President Joe Biden’s agenda, Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Washington) solidified her role as one of the most powerful members of Congress this week, arguably second only to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-California).
What happened: As chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and the first Indian American woman elected to the House, Jayapal emerged in the national spotlight as a critical negotiator, holding firm on her commitment to pass the $3.5 trillion Build Back Better Act, which would fund historic investments in universal pre-K, affordable housing, education, and health care.
Why it’s complicated: The spending package—a priority for progressives—had been linked with a separate bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure bill touted by moderate Democrats, a strategy employed by Pelosi to push both acts through Congress. But on Monday, Pelosi unlinked the two pieces of legislation, scheduling the infrastructure bill for a vote first while making few commitments on the Build Back Better Act. In response, Jayapal and a majority of her progressives colleagues threatened to pull their votes and doom the infrastructure bill.
Amid the legislative chaos, Jayapal testified Thursday at a committee hearing on abortion rights, which comes as the Biden administration challenges Texas’ abortion crackdown in court. The third-term lawmaker publicly shared her abortion story for the first time in 2019 but said in an MSNBC interview Wednesday that testifying “puts it in the record.”
“I would never tell people who don’t choose to have an abortion that they should; nor should they tell me that I shouldn’t,” Jayapal said. “This is a constitutionally protected, intensely personal choice.”
Jayapal wasn’t the only Asian American woman lawmaker in headlines this week. Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Florida), a Vietnamese refugee and chair of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, was one of the key lawmakers who pushed for a Thursday vote for the bipartisan infrastructure bill. But no vote came, much to moderates’ dismay, leaving Murphy “profoundly disappointed and disillusioned by this process.”
What’s next: As of Friday, more than 50 progressives led by Jayapal have succeeded in pressuring Pelosi to delay the vote on infrastructure—an unprecedented step that demonstrates the growing clout of the Democratic Party’s more liberal wing. Whether it will ultimately lead to a deal remains to be seen. “Courage is born out of crisis,” Jayapal told The New York Times. “It is a muscle; you have to learn to flex it.”
ON THE HILL
📡 ON OUR RADAR
The Senate voted 50-48 on Thursday to confirm Rohit Chopra as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). During the Trump administration, the chamber gave Chopra unanimous support to serve as the second-ever Asian American on the Federal Trade Commission. However, Republicans worked to stall his CFPB confirmation under Biden, citing his “aggressively anti-business agenda.”
BIPARTISAN PUSH FOR MICRONESIA ENVOY: Congress members on both sides of the aisle are demanding that the Biden administration designate an envoy to manage stalled negotiations with three Micronesian countries over renewal of the Compact of Free Association (COFA), The Yappie’s Javan Santos reports.
Meanwhile… Federal officials have reportedly stonewalled islanders on key issues, “including dealing with the leakage of U.S. radioactive waste in parts of the Marshall Islands,” according to Foreign Policy.
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✍️ UPDATE—HIRONO, MENG PRESS DOJ ON HATE CRIMES LAW: Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-
Hawai'i
) and Rep. Grace Meng (D-New York) have written to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland seeking updates on the Justice Department’s implementation of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which was signed into law four months ago.
Remember: When previously questioned about the agency’s efforts to combat anti-Asian hate in June, Garland told senators that “we have accomplished all of the things that Congress asked us to do,” The Yappie’s Andrew Peng notes.
BIG BUCKS FOR NATIVE HAWAIIAN EDUCATION: Native Hawaiian education programs will receive over $28 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Hawai'i Sens. Hirono and Brian Schatz (D) announced last month. The recipients of 35 federal grants include the University of Hawaii system, small business incubators, Hawaiian language programs, and public charter schools.
👀 WHAT TO WATCH—RADIATION REPARATIONS FOR GUAM? Guam residents were exposed to radiation during decades of U.S. nuclear weapons testing. Embattled Guam Del. Michael San Nicholas (D), who is reportedly mulling a run for governor while under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, has introduced legislation that would offer financial compensation for the toxic health impacts. The Justice Department would approve the claims if the bill passes, the Pacific Daily News’ Jackson Stephens reports.
KIM, BERA LEAD SUPPORT FOR UYGHURS: A bipartisan bill aimed at supporting Uyghurs against the Chinese government’s abuse, co-led by California Reps. Young Kim (R) and Ami Bera (D), heads to the House floor after clearing the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Thursday.
THE BIDEN ERA
⚖️ UPDATE—
BIDEN RESHAPES FEDERAL BENCH WITH ASIAN NOMINEES: 23% of Biden’s federal judicial nominees are now of AAPI descent, with the administration announcing three additional Asian American court picks on Thursday, a White House official tells The Yappie. The new wave of nominations includes the ACLU’s Dale Ho, who helped challenge the Trump administration’s controversial 2020 Census citizenship question.
SOUNDING THE ALARM ON ABORTION RIGHTS: The National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum and Asian Americans Advancing Justice - AAJC warned the Supreme Court in an amicus brief that “millions of AAPI women” in at least 22 states would be harmed by a decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
The brief outlines the ramifications of nullifying the landmark 1973 ruling, which guarantees the constitutional right to an abortion, and notes that AAPI women already face “significant barriers” to obtaining abortions.
“The model minority myth masks Asian Americans’ health-care needs, including those in reproductive health. Still more troubling, almost no national data exists on AAPI abortion rates,” NAPAWF’s Sung Yeon Choimorrow wrote in an essay for The Lily.
Also: Thousands marched in cities across the nation on Saturday to rally for abortion justice. NAPAWF helped organize AAPI women to participate in Houston, Tampa, and Washington, D.C.
💬 AAPI ADVOCATES RALLY AROUND HAITI REFUGEES: In a show of solidarity with Haitian migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border, 34 AAPI groups signed a joint letter calling on the Biden administration to cease Title 42 deportations after images of Border Protection officers charging at refugees went viral. “We recognize the U.S. immigration system is rooted in white supremacy,” the letter states.
OCA-Asian Pacific American Advocates called the situation a “monumental failure”—just days after attending a roundtable with Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and other AAPI nonprofits.
IMMIGRATION BACKLOG PROVES HEADACHE FOR BIDEN ADMIN: As many as 80,000 employment-based green cards expired on Friday, a deadline that hit as the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services struggles to process a yearslong backlog. The windfall has exacerbated frustration and helplessness for the 1.2 million affected immigrants—most of whom hail from India and work in tech.
ON THE TRAIL
🗳️ 2022 WATCH—GOP TARGETS GEORGIA: The Republican National Committee has opened its second AAPI outreach center ahead of the looming midterm elections, this time in Gwinnett County, where Asian American voters helped deliver the Senate to Democrats earlier this year.
The RNC made headlines in June after launching an office in California’s Little Saigon as part of a “multi-million dollar” effort to engage with communities of color.
BIDEN ALLIES HONE IN ON LANGUAGE ACCESS: The nonprofit Building Back Better—in partnership with progressive AAPI groups—has launched an effort to ensure Asian and Latino voters who speak limited English are granted bilingual resources, POLITICO reports.
🔥 TRANSFORMING MASSACHUSETTS POLITICS: Asian Americans have long been underrepresented in state and national politics. But that could soon change with Michelle Wu’s (D) swift rise to the top of Boston’s mayoral race and state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz (D) gunning for the governorship, WBUR writes.
AAPI NATION
💸 NUMBER OF THE WEEK
0.5
That’s the percentage of national philanthropic funding that goes towards AAPI communities, according to The Asian American Foundation.
Here's what else is happening across America..
While Native Hawaiian nonprofits have received $38 million in federal funds to lift the community’s lagging COVID-19 vaccination rates, activists are still calling for better information and more vaccination sites, the Honolulu Civil Beat’s Lauren Teruya notes.
A new study finds that data collection on Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities at the federal and state levels remains “virtually nonexistent,” writes Axios’ Shawna Chen. Most states lump Asian Americans and NHPIs together, despite a longstanding recommendation for data disaggregation.
Prominent California state Assemblymember David Chiu (D) has been tapped to serve as San Francisco’s first Asian American city attorney. Chiu, a lawyer who also served on the city’s Board of Supervisors, has spent years fighting for affordable housing and immigration reform.
Community groups in New York are still waiting to access $10 million in emergency funding, which the state promised six months ago in a bid to combat anti-Asian violence, THE CITY’s Christine Chung reports.
Chicago’s 11th Ward map could be redrawn to create the city’s first ward with an Asian American majority—a plan heavily advocated by Chinatown leaders.
Some in Minnesota’s Hmong community see parallels in the Afghan refugee crisis and their own desperate escape from Laos decades ago, MPR News’ Hannah Yang writes.
The gunman who killed eight people, including six Asian women, in mass shootings in Atlanta has pleaded not guilty to four of the murders.
While the Marines have reluctantly allowed a Sikh officer to wear a turban, First Lt. Sukhbir Toor tells The New York Times that it’s not enough—and that he is still banned from wearing his turban while in a combat zone or as part of a ceremonial unit.
Over 130 years after arsonists burned down a once-thriving Chinatown in San Jose, California, city officials unanimously apologized to the Chinese American community and acknowledged decades of racist “acts of fundamental injustice, terror, cruelty and brutality.”
The Asian American Foundation (TAAF) announced a new national advocacy network to fight anti-AAPI hate, Axios' Shawna Chen and Hope King report. The initiative launched action centers in Oakland, Chicago, and New York, which TAAF will invest in and fund as part of an effort to act as a bridge for local and national AAPI groups.
Finally... San Francisco Chinatown workers have unionized to reach a $1.61 million wage settlement with the owners of a Sichuanese restaurant, reports NBC Asian America’s Claire Wang. The 22 employees claimed they never received overtime pay or state-mandated meal breaks.
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