Issue 41 • DECEMBER 6, 2022
PRESENTED BY THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
👋 Good morning, and welcome to The Yappie’s AAPI politics briefing — your guide to the policy news and activism affecting Asian Americans + Pacific Islanders. S
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— Edited by Shawna Chen
THE BIDEN ERA
Return of Native Hawaiian ancestral lands still blocked by military failures, regulatory disputes
A
ProPublica
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Honolulu Star-Advertiser
investigation by Rob Perez has exposed a decades-long stall and organizational failures in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ remediation efforts on Native Hawaiian lands that were previously used for military training, including “live-fire exercises,” during World War II.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
What’s at stake: Inaction on the part of the Army Corps—charged with removing unexploded ordnance (UXO) from the former Waikoloa Maneuver Area (WMA)—has derailed the plans of hundreds of Native Hawaiians hoping to buy and purchase homes on lands that the federal government set aside for them in a trust.
Ongoing struggle: In 2014, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development ordered a freeze on federal housing funds through the region over safety concerns involving the detonation of UXO. Eight years later, however, advocates say the dragged-out delay has hindered Native Hawaiians’ ability to build financial equity as real estate costs in Hawai‘i skyrocket.
Yet questions over how best to detect and remove UXO have been ongoing for years. In 2020, the Hawai‘i Department of Health designated all areas within the WMA, even those previously cleared by the Army Corps, as having a “residual risk” of UXO.
Questions of responsibility: Native Hawaiians have called on the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands—established by Congress to help people of at least 50% Native Hawaiian descent regain ownership of their ancestral lands—to finance and support UXO remediation efforts.
But the department, which received $600 million from Congress this year to finance housing and land acquisition, argues that the federal government should be responsible for covering the costs, Perez reports. Advocates have also demanded greater federal oversight from Congress and the Biden administration.
CATCH UP
🚨 ICE DATA LEAK ENDANGERS ASYLUM SEEKERS: Last week, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) accidentally leaked the names, birthdates, nationalities, and detention locations of 6,252 immigrants on the agency website, Hamed Aleaziz reports for the Los Angeles Times.
Context: The data breach, which is under review, puts at risk the safety of the compromised individuals, many of whom applied for protection from persecution and torture. Legal organizations and immigrant advocates pointed to the mistake as a symptom of larger systemic failures involving immigrants seeking asylum in the U.S.
📢 BIDEN ADMIN ANNOUNCES NEW ACTIONS FOR INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES: Ahead of the White House’s Tribal Nations Summit, the Biden administration released a fact sheet announcing new intended actions to support Indigenous people.
What’s relevant to Native Hawaiians: The establishment of a senior advisor and liaison for Native American affairs position within the Department of Defense, the creation of a National Native Language Resource Center, and the release of translations for a landmark Native voting rights report.
Further action? A new initiative, led by the Department of the Interior, will provide three relocation grants and eight adaptation planning grants to tribes severely impacted by climate change in Alaska, Washington, California, Arizona, Louisiana, and Maine. Such efforts raise questions about prioritization for future climate mitigation efforts in Indigenous communities, given the devastation caused by extreme weather and rising sea levels in Hawai‘i and the Pacific Islands.
📝 MAKING MOVES — LEGAL COUNSEL JOSH HSU TO DEPART WHITE HOUSE: Josh Hsu, Vice President Kamala Harris’ chief legal adviser and the first Asian American to serve in the role, is leaving the administration for private practice at the end of the year, Axios’s Sophia Cai reports. He played a key role in advising on reproductive rights, voting rights, and judicial nominations.
🗣️ FEDERAL AGENCIES TO REVIEW LANGUAGE ACCESS POLICIES: Last month, the Department of Justice released a memorandum formally asking federal agencies to review and strengthen their language access practices and policies to better support individuals with limited English proficiency. AAPI advocacy groups welcomed the action as a first step towards removing language barriers to federal services.
— By
Cindy Xie
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
Since 1996, the Kauffman Foundation has tracked entrepreneurial data to understand how it has evolved over time.
Important highlights from 2021 data include a notable shift toward older new entrepreneurs and the rise in the share of new Asian entrepreneurs – from 3.4% in 1996 to 7.3% in 2021.
ON THE HILL
🔥 LIEU SECURES HISTORIC HOUSE LEADERSHIP WIN: Rep. Ted Lieu (D-California) bested three other Congress members in a closed-door vote for the House Democratic Caucus vice chair, the fifth-ranking spot in the party. Lieu, a Taiwanese immigrant, is now the highest-ranking Asian American member of Congress, writes The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Mychael Schnell.
Lieu, who comfortably won re-election in California’s newly drawn 36th congressional district for his fifth term in the House, will replace fellow California Rep. Pete Aguilar (D), who will serve as caucus chair in the next legislative session.
Worth noting: In 2021, Lieu led a group of more than 100 members of Congress in urging a probe into the Justice Department’s alleged racial profiling of Asian Americans under the China Initiative, a controversial Trump-era program scrapped earlier this year. Lieu currently serves as whip for the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus.
🪑 AMI BERA’S BID TO LEAD THE DCCC: In the running for another prominent party leadership role is Rep. Ami Bera (D-California), who announced his candidacy for chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) in November. Bera, who became the third Indian American elected to Congress in 2012, is up against California Rep. Tony Cárdenas (D), for the top party job.
Newly elected Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-New York) will handpick the next DCCC chair following an amendment that made the selection, previously determined by a caucus vote, a unilateral decision.
The powerful DCCC chair will be in charge of securing Democratic votes in 2024 after Republicans narrowly flipped the House this November.
🔍 KAHELE REMAINS UNDER ETHICS SCRUTINY: Outgoing Rep. Kai Kahele (D-Hawai‘i) is facing allegations that he misused official resources, including posting videos shot inside the Capitol and retweeting press releases on his personal social media accounts, to bolster his gubernatorial campaign, according to a report by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE).
Remember: Kahele was also under OCE investigation for his ties to Hawaiian Airlines, where he was employed as a part-time pilot while serving in Congress. But the OCE cleared Kahele of any wrongdoing and found no evidence that the freshman Congress member leveraged his government position to benefit his other employer, writes Honolulu Civil Beat’s Nick Grube.
The OCE said Kahele declined to provide requested information and made misleading statements during its Hawaiian Airlines probe. It recommended the House Ethics Committee subpoena Kahele for further questioning of his social media use.
💸 SCHATZ VIES TO REVIVE FUNDS FOR NATIVE HAWAIIAN HOUSING (AGAIN): Hawai‘i Sen. Brian Schatz (D) is pushing to reauthorize the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, which would guarantee federal housing loans for Native Americans and Native Hawaiians but expired in 2013.
Bills to reauthorize the act have been introduced in every Congress since 2013 but have failed repeatedly to pass.
Schatz, who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, helped secure $22 million in federal dollars for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands earlier this year. Native Hawaiian leaders have said they need more funding and assistance.
📡 ON OUR RADAR
THE PUSH TO DIVERSIFY CONGRESSIONAL STAFFING: The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) and the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) are calling on incoming members of House and Senate leadership to elevate diverse representation in House staffing.
In a letter issued Monday, the two organizations emphasized the need for hiring and promoting diverse staff at all levels, as well as investment in establishing Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander senior advisers and designated community liaisons.
In the current Congress, no AAPI, biracial, Middle Eastern, North African, or Native American serves in any of the 41 committee staff director positions or any of the top 20 staff positions in leadership offices of either party, according to APAICS.
— By
Mary Yang
+
Shawna Chen
CAMPAIGN WATCH
🗳️ ELECTION 2022 — GEORGIA DECIDES
The AAPI Victory Fund hosted a rally for Warnock in Atlanta on Saturday, joined by several Democratic members of Congress, state lawmakers, and Asian American celebrities. Ahead of the runoff, Warnock’s campaign has been promoting in-language ads in Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Korean. It’s the first time a U.S. Senate campaign has sponsored an AAPI-specific GOTV rally, according to Rep. Grace Meng (D-New York).
👀 SPOTTED
And keep an eye on...
Ro Khanna, one of California’s House Democrats who could be a frontrunner in the race to succeed Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) in 2024. Though Feinstein, the oldest-serving member of Congress at 89, has not yet announced plans to retire, progressives are already urging Khanna to run, reports POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White.
Nikki Haley, the prominent Republican gearing up for a possible 2024 run. Haley and former Vice President Mike Pence are both shoring up their dark money groups and building out an infrastructure for campaign staff, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs writes.
Harmeet Dhillon, a Trump-linked lawyer who is challenging incumbent Ronna McDaniel to serve as chair of the Republican National Committee (RNC). Dhillon, currently the RNC national committee chairwoman from California, told Fox News’ Haris Alic it's time to reconsider party leadership after “successive disappointing election cycles.”
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— By
Mary Yang
A MESSAGE FROM THE KAUFFMAN FOUNDATION
The Kauffman Foundation helps unlock opportunity for all so that people can achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity – regardless of race, gender, or geography.