Senate Judiciary Committee Approves Bill To Reflect The Diversity Of Asian Pacific Islander Community

Sacramento, CA – The Senate Judiciary Committee approved Assembly Bill (AB) 295, a bill by Assemblymember Ted Lieu (D-Torrance) that would ensure that state-collected data is separated into additional Asian Pacific Islander (API) ethnic groups, by a 3-1 vote.

“It’s shameful that the Federal Government collects data for more API groups than California does,” Lieu said.  “AB 295 will put California back out in front of this issue.”

Under current law, California collects data for eleven API ethnic groups. AB 295 would expand the number of API ethnic group categories as well as align these categories with API data reported in the federal U.S. Census. AB 295 would add Hmong, Tongan, Thai, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Indonesian, Taiwanese, and Fijian to the current API ethnic group categories.

Asian Pacific Islanders represent about 14% of California’s population and continue to grow. Data separated by API ethnic groups reveals that many groups experience significant problems and challenges.

“California has the largest and most diverse API Community of any state in the Nation,” Lieu said. “AB 295 will give us a complete picture of how API’s in our State are doing.”