Yesterday, President Obama signed the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) conceived a decade ago under Clinton. The executive order aims to improve evidence-based research on the historically underserved AAPI community and increase their participation across all federal agencies. The Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and other AAPI advocacy groups see potential in the initiative, but I wonder how long it will take to see results. The track record on the initiative is not great. The first interim reports produced under Clinton and Bush’s first term identified reforms needed in the areas of health, education, civil rights, and access to federal programs and services. For example, community members wanted bilingual ballot initiatives in AAPI communities and greater promotion of the vaccine for hepatitis B, which is much more common among Asian immigrants. That eagerness, however, translated into a bulky document that was overly ambitious for its time. To make matters worse, Bush then drastically reduced the scope of the initiative, leaving it to fade gradually into obscurity. So, there's little to show for the recommendations made years ago, much less metrics by which to measure their progress. Obama has taken the first step toward restoring the broad mission of the initiative by naming two Cabinet secretaries, Arne Duncan and Gary Locke, to co-chair the corresponding commission. He’s also mandated 23 federal agencies to get involved. They are expected to continue to reach out to AAPI communities and implement the outstanding recommendations. While the presence of a very diverse group of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders at yesterday’s signing serves as a humbling reminder of their hard-won solidarity, tangible evidence of their -- and the initiative’s -- power has yet to be seen. Given the current economic climate and the legislative backlog in Congress, progress will likely take some time. As of now, most AAPI community leaders are simply happy that they’re back on the president’s radar. -- Linda Li Linda Li is a Prospect fall 2009 intern.
