The AAMC and the AAMC Center for Health Justice submitted a letter on April 17 to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) in response to the request for comment on the Initial Proposals for Updating OMB’s Race and Ethnicity Statistical Standards (also known as SPD 15). The center recommended that the OMB add “Middle Eastern or North African” (MENA) as a new minimum reporting category separate from "White," use detailed race and ethnicity categories by default, and remove terms that reinforce racial and ethnic hierarchy. The center also recommended that federal agencies collaborate with communities and other non-governmental agencies, and collect data on LGBTQ+ status along with data on other key areas that intersect with people’s identities to improve the data infrastructure for understanding inequities.
The center worked closely with AAMC CHARGE members to develop the comments via survey, including participating in a listening session hosted by OMB. More AAMC CHARGE members contributed to the comments via survey and submitted their own comments to the OMB.