National Reparations Organization Requests Designation for the Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States

The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants (NAASD) has formally requested that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) designate the classification “African American” exclusively for the "Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States". Since 2021, NAASD has met directly with Biden Administration officials on this issue since President Biden has made equitable data collection a priority with the signing of the Executive Order On Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government. The OMB’s revised Statistical Policy Directive (SPD) 15 recommendation must conform to this Executive Order.

For the first time since 1997, the Office of Management and Budget is now accepting public comments on their initial proposal from the Federal Interagency Technical Working Group on Race and Ethnic Standards which was released in January 2023. The final proposal set to be unveiled by the end of this year, will revise the OMB’s Statistical Policy Directive which sets the “standards for maintaining, collecting and presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity”. The OMB’s current definition of Black or African-American is “a person having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa”. This current definition does not denote any specific ethnic group and does not reflect that a distinct ethnic group emerged from U.S. Slavery.

Because of the present flawed definition of Black/African-American, in addition to the growing diversity of the Black community, current data collection on our community is not accurately providing insight to the well being of African Americans.

California's AB3121 has set precedence with specificity for Descendants of Persons Enslaved in the United States. California Governor Gavin Newsom also signed into law SB189; Section 14 which disaggregates Black Americans and provides a category for data collection specifically for “African Americans who are descendants of persons enslaved in the United States.”

It is time for the OMB to follow suit. It is the recommendation of NAASD that the OMB’s revised SPD 15 definition of “African American” means: “a person having origins in the United States with ancestors historically classified as African, Negro, Black or Colored who were either born free or enslaved in the United States and emancipated nationally by the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution”.

We urge the public to give public comment to the OMB and share this point of view through April 27, 2023 in support of our position here. If you need guidance, we have also prepared a toolkit to be shared with family, friends, and organizations within the African American Community. Now is the time for the largest Black population in the United States to unite for the disaggregation of data that will support accurate data collection and billions of dollars coming directly into our community.

The National Assembly of American Slavery Descendants was founded in 2019 to advance reparative policy and legislation for Black American Descendants of U. S. Chattel Slavery .

Shalanda Young becomes first Black woman to lead White House budget office

Shalanda Young on Tuesday became the first Black woman to lead the White House budget office after the Senate confirmed her to the Cabinet-level position with bipartisan support. The vote was 61-36.

Young has served as acting director of the Office of Management and Budget for the past year. She was confirmed last March by the Senate to serve as the deputy director and ascended to the top role after Neera Tanden's nomination was withdrawn because Tanden didn't have enough support in the Senate. Nearly nine months after Tanden's nomination was withdrawn, Biden officially nominated Young as director.

Young was the first Black woman to serve as the staff director of the House Appropriations Committee and won bipartisan praise for her work in that role. She worked on the committee for more than 14 years and took over as staff director in 2017.

The key office, which oversees all budget development and execution and has significant influence over the President's agenda, has been without a Senate-confirmed leader since the President took office last January. It was the last Cabinet-level position that remained unfilled.

President Biden nominates Shalanda Young for OMB director

President Joe Biden has nominated Shalanda Young to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget, giving her an opportunity to officially take on the role she has been serving in as acting director for the past eight months.

Young received bipartisan support with a 63-37 vote when she was confirmed to the deputy director position in March, and if confirmed as budget director, she would become the first Black woman to hold the post.

"In her eight months as acting director of OMB, she's continued to impress me and congressional leaders as well," Biden said in a pre-recorded video announcing the nomination on Wednesday.

Young previously served as the staff director for Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee, where Biden says she "earned the trust, respect and admiration of Democrats and Republicans alike."

Young has over 14 years of combined experience in various roles with the House Appropriations Committee, oversaw $1.4 trillion in annual federal funding and played a key role in shaping coronavirus relief legislation.

The Office of Management and Budget is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States. OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, policies, and procedures to see whether they comply with the president's policies and coordinates inter-agency policy initiatives.