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White House API Commission Still in Limbo

Leaders not celebrating yet

President Bush has yet to take any clear action regarding the White House API Commission, originally established under the Clinton administration.

By Neela Banerjee

A week after APA heritage celebrations began, President Bush made it official. On May 7, he issued a proclamation, which focused on Asian Pacific American achievements that “have greatly enriched our quality of life and help determine the course of our nation’s future.”

It was an important gesture, but not all Asian American leaders are convinced the Bush administration is committed to the community. Their main concern: the status of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

So far, no definitive moves have been made to appoint a new chairperson or create a new budget for the one-year old program, while rumors about its doomed fate run rampant in the community.

API Commission members and other Asian American appointees in Clinton’s administration.

“That they don’t even mention the initiative in the [heritage month] proclamation is a real problem,” Shamina Singh, former executive director of the White House Initiative, said. “This is supposed to be a badge of achievement and an honor to our community.”

While some Asian American community leaders say they are working closely with the new administration to create a stronger initiative, many White House officials have been silenced from talking about the issue at all. All four staff members in the Initiative office have been prevented from speaking to the press, and even from mentioning the initiative at a cultural event they held this week in honor of APA Heritage month.

“You have non-Asian Americans in charge of what is happening to this initiative and they are choosing to silence people,” Singh said.

Meanwhile, leaders such as Clayton Fong, executive director of the National Asian Pacific Center on Aging, said he has been working closely with the Bush administration to make sure the initiative moves forward. He adds that the transition period, not lack of interest, has resulted in delays.

“You have to realize that the last administration took two years to organize this and we are asking this administration to do it in three months,” Fong said. “There aren’t even sub-cabinet and senior-level positions filled yet. The wheels of government turn very slowly.”

President Clinton signed Executive Order 13125 on June 7, 1999 “to improve the quality of life of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through increased participation in Federal programs where they may be underserved.” This executive order established the President’s Advisory Commission on APIs as well as a Federal Interagency Working group. The White House Initiative on APIs was also established at this time as the coordinating office of these two groups. Currently, the initiative is housed in the Department of Health and Human Services.

Clinton appointed some 15 Asian American commissioners, all of whom are experts health, education, housing and labor.

Through a series of town hall meetings, the commissioners gathered testimony from communities in California, New York and the South. They organized that testimony into a 239-page report. The interim report, which was just the beginning of the commission’s work, gave voice to hundreds of Asian Americans and allowed for a direct line to the government for the first time ever.

The study, entitled “A People Looking Forward – Action for Access and Partnerships in the 21st Century,” references 95 percent of the submissions of testimony that were heard over the year.

When the initiative was created by the Clinton administration, it only provided funding for one year. Thus, the commission has been working without a budget since last October.

“The fact that just a couple of months ago we issued this groundbreaking report that showed all the promise of this executive order — and now practically nothing,” Singh said. “It was the most grassroots oriented, comprehensive, across-the-board compilation of issues facing this community, in their own voice. And now you have this new administration that is saying it doesn’t care. They are discounting 11 million people by saying ‘You are not priority.’”

In response to claims that the transition is to blame for the delay, Singh pointed out that other similar programs such as AIDS office and the Hispanic Initiative have already been reestablished.

Some say the hold-up may be for political reasons. Clinton appointed nearly all Democratic commissioners. Bush needs time to streamline the project and make it his own.

“The reality is that this is a new administration,” Fong said. “Even if it were Al Gore, you would see new people appointed.”

By appointing a new executive director or making a move to house the initiative under Elaine Chao or Norman Mineta in the Department of Labor or Transportation, the Bush administration would send a signal that they were invested in this project. Both Chao and Mineta have been quiet on this issue as well, but Asian American Republicans are pushing for Chao to take over.

“The most important thing is that the initiative resides somewhere where it is very prominent and visible,” Commissioner Tessie Guillermo said. “So my bias is that wherever it goes, it is at a high enough level of commitment with the secretary of that department. I will not be satisfied [if it were] buried in a place where it is not seen as a priority.”

Jin Sook, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, agreed in that she has no direct preference for who takes over, but emphasized that the work needs to be continued.

“We can go back and forth whether we want Elaine Chao or some other person, but to me that is irrelevant next to following through on the recommendations made by the commission,” Sook said.

The initiative had planned two more major Town Hall meetings in the Midwest and the Pacific Basin, which would help finish the report. In the meantime, commissioners and staff members continue to distribute the interim report and work with the community on ways to utilize the information.

“We are just going to keep going forward on what we have because there was a tremendous amount of work done already,” Commission Chairwoman Martha Choe said. “I hope that this work is built on with whatever happens in the future.”

Fong believes that the new administration will bring positive changes to the initiative, by focusing more on issues such as small business and utilizing Asian Americans to improve trade relations across the Pacific.

“I think it will be stronger than it was before,” Fong said. “We can use this opportunity and look at the initiative holistically and identify areas where things should have been emphasized more strongly.”