The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has published an official notice announcing that it is forming a new Interagency Technical Working Group to review and possibly revise the current standards governing the race and ethnicity categories used in collecting and reporting demographic data to the federal government. Formally known as “Statistical Policy Directive No. 15 (Directive No. 15): Standards for Maintaining, Collecting, and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity,” the standards, which were last revised in 1997, set the framework for the classifications of race and ethnicity data used by various federal agencies, including the Census Bureau, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
According to the June 15th announcement, OMB will convene the Interagency Technical Working Group in the coming months, with a goal of completing any revisions to the current standards by the summer of 2024. The announcement also indicates that OMB intends to engage the public on this issue.
Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.