Sign up here to receive The Yappie‘s weekly briefing on Asian American + Pacific Islander politics and support our work by making a donation.
Top U.S. trade official Katherine Tai will co-chair the expanded White House Initiative on Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (WHIAANHPI) as the Biden administration relaunches the office with a more aggressive agenda, Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra announced Thursday.
WHIAANHPI, first created in 1999, has historically worked to improve AANHPIs’ access to federal programs and resources. But President Joe Biden handed the initiative a much broader mandate in May—charging its new executive director Krystal Ka’ai with coordinating the federal government’s response to issues ranging from anti-Asian hate crimes to the lack of disaggregated data collection.
On Thursday, senior federal health and AANHPI officials celebrated WHIAANHPI’s return to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the agency where it was originally housed during the Clinton administration.
The strategic transfer to HHS aimed to “reinvigorate” the initiative, Deputy Assistant to the President and senior AANHPI liaison Erika Moritsugu told The Yappie, and will help center WHIAANHPI’s work on health equity and advancing “the broader effort to address social determinants to health.”
WHIAANHPI will primarily focus on delivering COVID-19 relief as the pandemic continues to disproportionately impact Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander communities. NHPIs have some of the highest infection and death rates of any racial or ethnic group in states that report disaggregated data.
“Leading this initiative with Secretary Becerra will be a critical part of our work across government to expand opportunity, confront systemic barriers to success, and address the rising violence targeted at the AA and NHPI community,” Tai said in a statement on Thursday.
Tai, who is the first woman of color and first Asian American to serve as U.S. Trade Representative, will also co-lead the President’s Advisory Commission on AANHPIs with Becerra.
The Yappie is your must-read briefing on AAPI power, politics, and influence. Make a donation, subscribe, and follow us on Twitter (@theyappie). Send tips and feedback to [email protected].
