Issue 55 • JUNE 14, 2023
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
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— Edited by Shawna Chen and Mary Yang
THE BIDEN ERA
✍️ WHITE HOUSE PLAN FOR AANHPIS TAKES SHAPE: As Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month came to a close, the Biden administration released a statement detailing further plans to support AA and NHPI communities nationwide. Here’s what you need to know.
The Biden administration said it will increase research to collect equitable and disaggregated demographic data for AA and NHPI populations. Doing so would help target disparities between AA and NHPI groups in order to form policies that will better address their needs, according to the administration.
Several federal agencies have assessed language barriers and plan to begin publishing key documents in Vietnamese, Tagalog, ‘Ōlelo Hawai‘i, Samoan, Punjabi, and more. Expanding translations and revitalizing Native languages will improve access to federal resources such as social security, healthcare, immigration benefits, housing assistance, and labor protections.
Promoting economic opportunity is also a priority, with ongoing financial investments in small businesses, equitable workforce training, debt relief, and institutions for K-12 and higher education. U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai has worked to establish a recurring report on the “distributional effects of trade and trade policy on underrepresented and underserved communities,” according to the statement.
The administration said it will continue combating anti-Asian hate on both federal and local levels by educating law enforcement and community members about how to identify and report hate crimes.
🗳️ ASIAN AMERICANS REFLECT ON VOTING RIGHTS ACT: The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Black voters in Alabama after finding that the state’s congressional map violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The 5-4 vote came as a surprise to many, given the court’s conservative majority. The state of Alabama is now required to redraw its congressional districts, and the ruling may impact other states in the South.
🗣️ Asian American advocates expressed support for the court’s decision: “Asian Americans over the decades have often found themselves splintered across numerous districts, which has made it more challenging to harness the community’s political power and often leaves the community’s needs unmet,” Senior Director of Census and Voting Programs at Asian American Advancing Justice Terry Ao Minnis wrote in an email to AsAmNews.
Some Asian American voters currently experience gerrymandering in their congressional districts. Last year, the Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund and other civil rights organizations built a case against the state of Texas, accusing the legislature of dividing Asian American voters and potentially reducing their chances of electing their preferred candidates.
“This case could have hurt our Texas case,” Jerry Vatamala, director of the Democracy Program at AALDEF, told AsAmNews. “This decision reaffirms what we were arguing in the Texas case.”
— By
Sonia Prasad
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SPOTLIGHT
🎂 CAPASA TURNS 25: Asian American and Pacific Islander staffers on Capitol Hill gathered in person last week to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Staff Association.
Established in the late 1990s to serve as a “pipeline” for Asian and Pacific American staffers working for members and committees of Congress, the staffers’ association has grown significantly since its founding and led to the establishment of the Congressional Korean American Staff Association and the Congressional South Asian-American Staff Association.
👉 The Yappie spoke with two of CAPASA’s original founding members on how it began:In 1995, Adeline Yoong and Peter Wong were both staffing for Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-California) when they began tracking down AAPI staffers across Capitol Hill and organizing brown bags, mealtime sessions with members of Congress.
“It was very informal, early on,” said Yoong. “We were pretty much all friends.”
Yoong, who worked on the Hill from 1994 to 1996, said she and a handful of Democratic House staffers—as well as one Republican—began talking about creating a formal network for current and future AAPI Hill staffers. They used email to recruit members and organize events, she said.There were very few AAPIs on the Hill in the late 1990s, said Wong, who split his time between Roybal-Allard’s office and the House Budget Committee during his time on the Hill.
He really noticed the lack of AAPI representation on one night during the government shutdown, when dozens of staffers and Democratic members of Congress were meeting in a room trying to reach a deal.
“I looked across the room, and then there was this API staffer,” Wong told The Yappie in a phone interview. It was David Chiu, who is now the city attorney for San Francisco, Wong said.
“David and I just kind of caught each others’ eyes, and that was because we were the only APIs in the room.” They still tell this story, he added.Other affinity-based staff associations were beginning to spring up on Capitol Hill, including the Congressional Black Associates, which launched in 1980, and the Congressional Hispanic Staff Association.
“We wanted to have a counterpart for APIA staffers,” said Yoong.
Wong said he and a handful of other staffers tried to track down all AAPIs working on Capitol Hill by “canvassing” the Capitol, walking from office to office, and cold calling their desks. They often reached legislative staffers and occasionally chiefs of staff, but most often reception folks.
“I don’t remember ever having any APIs pick up the phone,” he said.
💡 But the number of AAPIs working on the Hill—along with AAPI members of Congress—has significantly grown over the last two decades.
According to a new report released in May, Asian and Pacific American staffers now occupy dozens of leadership positions in offices on the Hill, including 16 chiefs of staff and 18 legislative directors.
Getting jobs on Capitol Hill is all about making connections, and CAPASA was created with the importance of networking in mind, said Wong, who said he is happy to know there are more, ambitious Asian American and Pacific Islander staffers on the Hill.“Having a network, and then having more AAPIs interested in working as a policy staff, or communications, or a political staff in a place like Washington, D.C. only helps.”
— By
Mary Yang
ON THE HILL
🚧 JULIE SU CONFIRMATION DELAYED IN CONGRESS: The confirmation of Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su, whom Biden nominated in March to replace Marty Walsh, has been delayed as a few holdouts threaten to tank the vote if it reaches the Senate floor.
Democratic lawmakers in the House are urging the Senate to confirm Su “without delay,” but Senate Republicans, along with a small group of Democrats, have criticized Su for her tenure as California’s top labor official, during which California lost billions of dollars to unemployment insurance fraud.
House Democrats, however, reiterated their support for Su and praised her time in California, saying she “collaborated with employers impacted heavily by the COVID-19 pandemic to keep their businesses’ doors open while still providing critical services.”
Su needs at least 50 “yes” votes to be confirmed as Biden’s new labor secretary. Vice President Kamala Harris would cast the tie-breaking vote.
White House officials could find a partner in Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who voted to nominate Su for deputy secretary and crossed party lines to support Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, reports POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn, Eli Stokols, and Lauren Egan.
Yes, but: Murkowski, a member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, voted to kill Su’s nomination before it reached a floor vote.
DILAWAR SYED SET FOR SBA DESPITE STALLS IN SENATE: Senators confirmed businessman Dilawar Syed, currently the special representative for commercial and business affairs at the State Department, to serve as deputy administrator of the Small Business Association in a floor vote last week. Syed, who was born in Pakistan, will be the highest-ranking Muslim official in the Biden administration.
Syed previously oversaw policies affecting AAPIs as a member of former President Barack Obama’s advisory commission on Asian Americans. Syed chaired the Economic Growth Committee, where he met with representatives from the SBA and Department of Commerce, and led White House engagement with entrepreneurs in the private sector, according to his LinkedIn.
Republicans had blocked Syed’s confirmation for two years, failing to show up for committee votes and condemning the SBA’s use of pandemic aid to support abortion providers, reports Associated Press’ Mary Clare Jalonick. Biden nominated Syed in March 2021.
The vote passed 54-42, with four senators not voting.
— By
Mary Yang
CAMPAIGN WATCH
📺 NIKKI HALEY FLEXES FOREIGN POLICY DURING CNN TOWN HALL: While GOP presidential hopefuls, including frontrunners Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, have stayed away from directly laying out their plans for Ukraine, Haley broadcast her support for the nation during a CNN town hall, calling it “a war about freedom” and “one we have to win.”
Haley, the UN ambassador under Trump, has also criticized Biden for his handling of the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
— By
Mary Yang
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