The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced recently that an interagency working group tasked with reviewing the government’s 1997 Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity is recommending that a new “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA) classification be added to the 1997 standards, and is also proposing that OMB issue specific guidelines for the collection of data in subcategories within each of the current minimum race/ethnicity classifications.
The 1997 standards set the framework for the classifications of race and ethnicity data used by federal agencies, including the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), and the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP).
A recent notice published by OMB in the Federal Register summarizes the initial proposals from the Interagency Working Group for Research on Race and Ethnicity (Working Group), which in 2014 was tasked by OMB with reviewing the 1997 standards to identify areas that could improve upon the quality of race and ethnicity data collected and reported to the federal government. The Working Group is also considering whether to make the recommended new MENA classification and new subcategories mandatory reporting categories.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.