Dear Chair Sanchez, Chair Spilka, Vice Chair Kulik and Vice Chair Lovely,
This is Helen Yang from Asian Americans for Equal Rights (AAER) and I am a resident of Massachusetts. I am writing to ask you to STOP MA H.4408 that is currently assigned to the Committee on Ways and Means for the following three reasons:
1. The entire premise of the bill (as well as the preceding MA H.3361), that state agencies can copy the Census form, is COMPLETELY WRONG. Chief Karen Battle of the Population Division at the Census Bureau agreed that state agencies and other federal agencies should NOT copy the census form, because the census data is subject to Title 13 that safeguards the privacy and security of the data, while other agencies do not have the same protection in place hence shouldn’t blindly copy the census form.
2. The census data is available to all, down to the block level. There is absolutely no reason for state agencies to reinvent the wheel.
3. The Census Bureau is still in the process of finalizing the census form for 2020, and any discussions about copying the census form should wait after. This is, in fact, a moot point because of #1 and #2 above.
It is a real shame that we have to continue to keep a close eye on H.4408 as summer vacation approaches. You have heard from over a thousand of us loud and clear during the hearing of H. 3361 that Asian Americans are every bit as American as other races and we don’t want to be discriminated against. There shouldn’t have been H.4408 at the first place. If someone intends to take advantage of the summer when people are away to push it through, we will have to bring it to court. There are still many unanswered questions about the order of testimony during the H. 3361 hearing. Two youth groups including my own daughter took a day off from school and I saw with my own eyes while standing in line at the top of the stairs how others wearing the same “No H3361” yellow stickers let the youth groups to the front of the line and yet they didn’t get to speak until after 6 pm. And even that was at the mercy of Chair Benson who allowed them to speak “out of order”. After repeated inquiries, we were never given an explanation of how the order was determined. Perhaps Einstein could explain it with his time and space warps.
I am copying Director Ron Jarmin and Chief Karen Battle from the Census Bureau as well as Executive Director Holly Ham from the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, so they can see the extraordinary pain we are going through at the state level.
Please STOP H.4408 and best wishes for a wonderful summer. All of us have spent so much time and effort on this which could have been used for community services, family meals, or simple leisure. We are all very busy with our work and life and let’s waste no more.
Best regards,
Helen Yang
Vice President, Asian Americans for Equal Rights (AAER)
June 16th, 2018
Open Letter to MA State Legislators to Stop Data Disaggregation Bill H. 4408