BILL ANALYSIS Ó
-----------------------------------------------------------------
|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 532|
|Office of Senate Floor Analyses | |
|(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | |
|327-4478 | |
-----------------------------------------------------------------
THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 532
Author: McCarty (D), et al.
Amended: 9/3/15 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE GOVERNMENTAL ORG. COMMITTEE: 10-2, 6/29/15
AYES: Hall, Block, Gaines, Glazer, Hernandez, Hill, Hueso,
Lara, McGuire, Vidak
NOES: Berryhill, Runner
NO VOTE RECORDED: Galgiani
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE: 6-1, 8/27/15
AYES: Lara, Beall, Hill, Leyva, Mendoza, Nielsen
NOES: Bates
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15 (Consent) - See last page for
vote
SUBJECT: State agencies: collection of data: race or ethnic
origin
SOURCE: Author
DIGEST: This bill requires any state agency, board, or
commission that collects demographic data to provide forms that
offer respondents the option of selecting one or more ethnic or
racial designations.
Senate Floor Amendments of 9/3/15 add a provision clarifying
that any state entity that collects ethnic or racial data solely
to comply with federal requirements may continue to collect and
report that data to any other state entity in the form required
by the federal government.
AB 532
Page 2
ANALYSIS:
Existing law requires a state agency, board, or commission that
directly, or by contract, collects demographic data as to the
ancestry or ethnic origin of Californians, to use separate
collection categories and tabulations for each major Asian group
and each major Pacific Islander group. This data is required to
be made available to the public in accordance with state and
federal law, except for personal identifying information, which
shall be deemed confidential.
This bill:
1)Requires state agencies, boards, or commissions that directly
or by contract collect demographic data on ethnic origin,
ethnicity, or race of Californians to provide forms that offer
respondents the option of selecting one or more ethnic or
racial designations.
2)Requires state agencies, boards, or commissions when reporting
respondent data to any other state agency, board, or
commission to tabulate and report all of the following:
a) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
with each ethnic or racial designation alone and not in
combination with any other ethnic or racial designation.
b) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
with each ethnic or racial designation, whether alone or in
combination with other ethnic or racial designations.
c) The number or percentage of respondents who identify
with multiple ethnic or racial designations.
d) Federally mandated actions related to civil rights
monitoring and enforcement.
3)Requires state agencies, boards, or commissions to comply as
early as reasonably feasible when updating forms, software,
hardware, or collection procedures, but no later than January
1, 2022.
AB 532
Page 3
4)Permits any state agency, board, or commission that collects
demographic data from a local entity to continue to collect
and report that data in the form the local entity submits.
5)Clarifies that any state agency, board, or commission that
collects ethnic or racial data solely to comply with federal
requirements may continue to collect and report that data to
any other state agency, board, or commission in the form
required by the federal government.
6)Contains legislative findings and declarations relative to the
fact that California has the largest population of people in
the United States who identify with more than one ethnicity
race and that many state forms require respondents to choose
only a single ethnicity or race which forces multiracial
Californians to deny a significant portion of their heritage
which in turn deprives the state of accurate data with which
to meet the needs of its diverse communities.
Background
Purpose of AB 532. Existing law sets minimum requirements but
does not limit the amount of demographic data state entities may
collect. Current collection forms seek to provide multiple
racial designations from which an individual may select more
than one designation to express their racial identity.
Difficulty arises, however, when an individual finds that their
racial identity cannot be accurately expressed through the
limited number of racial designations listed on the forms.
The author's office points out that, "in 1997 the federal
government revised its Standards for Maintaining, Collecting,
and Presenting Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity - since then,
federal agencies have been required to ensure that multiracial
individuals have the option of selecting one or more ethnic or
racial designations on federal government forms requesting such
data." The author's office also reports that "over the past ten
years, considerable research has been conducted on the
population segment reporting multiple races, and the fact that
people may identify themselves as being more than one race has
become a common part of discussions and understanding of race
and ethnicity. Results from the 2010 Census provided new
AB 532
Page 4
information on the two or more races population in the United
States and, for the first time, enabled comparisons of this
population from two major data points."
According to the author's office, "current data collection
practices can be unfair and offensive to the rapidly increasing
population of Californians who identify with more than one
ethnicity or race. Roughly one in six births overall in the
state and one in four births to native-born mothers is
multiracial/ethnic. While many state agencies have taken the
initiative to put in place measures to recognize this reality,
many multiracial Californians are still forced to deny
significant parts of their racial and ethnic identity on state
forms when they are required to select only one ethnic or racial
designation."
The author's office emphasizes that "by allowing multiracial
Californians the choice of selecting one or more ethnic/racial
designations, AB 532 will give policymakers, service providers,
health practitioners and others a truer picture of the state's
diversity."
Prior/Related Legislation
AB 1088 (Eng, Chapter 689, Statutes of 2011) required certain
state agencies to collect and tabulate data for additional major
Asian groups, as listed, in order to better reflect the
diversity of Asian American, Hawaiian and Pacific Islander
communities in California.
AB 1281 (Portantino, 2009) would have enacted the California
School Racial Equality Designation Act and required any state
agency, board, or commission that directly, or by contract,
collects demographic data on the race or ethnicity of pupils in
any elementary or secondary school to provide written
instructions for reporting racial information that specify that
multiracial pupils may select 2 or more racial categories.
(Vetoed - Governor's message stated the California Department of
Education has already put into place processes to update forms
and instructions to accommodate the inclusion of multiracial
students. Therefore, this bill is unnecessary.)
AB 532
Page 5
SB 26 (Simitian, 2007) would have enacted the "Ethnic Heritage
Respect and Recognition Act of 2007" requiring any state entity
that collects demographic data on the ancestry, ethnic origin,
ethnicity, or race of Californians to provide forms that offer
respondents the option of selecting one or more ethnic or racial
designations. (Died in Assembly Appropriations)
SB 1615 (Simitian, 2006) would have enacted the Ethnic Heritage
Respect and Recognition Act to require any state agency, board,
or commission that directly or by contract collects demographic
data, as soon as reasonably feasible and in no event later than
January 1, 2014, to provide forms that offer respondents the
option of selecting one more ethnic or racial designation
according to specified federal standards. (Died in Senate
Appropriations)
AB 2324 (Chan, 2004), among other things, would have required
each state program directly involved in furnishing information
to, or rendering services to, the public to collect data
regarding the race, ethnicity, and primary language of all
participants, on a voluntary basis. (Died in Assembly
Appropriations)
FISCAL EFFECT: Appropriation: No Fiscal
Com.: Yes Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee, unknown, but
significant overall costs to comply with the bill's mandates.
Many state entities report minor and absorbable costs to comply
by 2022, and many others are unaffected by the bill because they
don't collect demographic data. The following entities that
provided information would have significant costs:
The Department of Human Resources and the State
Personnel Board (CalHR) estimates costs in the range of
$250,000 (General Fund), primarily associated with
programming duties to update systems.
The Administrative Office of the Courts (Judicial
Council) indicates that several of the mandated duties of
the courts require the collection of demographic data.
AB 532
Page 6
Some of these procedures either currently allow for
multiple racial or ethnic designations, or could be updated
in the normal course of business by 2022. Courts also
collect race data on criminal defendants through case
management systems, most of which offer the option to
identify as "multiracial" or "other," but not to select
more than one designation. Costs to update 58 separate
case management systems are unknown, but likely
significant. (Trial Court Trust Fund)
Unknown costs to the Employment Development Department
(EDD), potentially in the range of $1 million (General
Fund). EDD indicated costs related to the May 20 version
of the bill would be approximately $6.5 million, largely
attributable to costs to add a new "multiractial"
designation to multiple IT systems and programs. The
author's amendments adopted by this committee would remove
the option for respondents to identify as multiracial, so
staff assumes the initial identified costs will be
substantially decreased. Updated fiscal estimates from EDD
are currently unavailable.
SUPPORT: (Verified 9/4/15)
California Immigrant Policy Center
Project RACE
OPPOSITION: (Verified 9/4/15)
None received
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT: Writing in support, the California
Immigrant Policy Center states that "Current data collection
practices not only create a false picture of the state's
diversity but also set up a situation where accurate, reliable
information is not available to doctors, teachers, service
providers, and policymakers. For example, there is an
increasing awareness in the healthcare community that intake
forms requiring people to mark 'only one race' can prevent
doctors from providing culturally appropriate and medically
relevant information to their multiracial patients."
AB 532
Page 7
Also writing in support, Project RACE states, "We support
legislation that includes self-identification and a multiracial
identifier or check box on forms that require racial and ethnic
information. We support AB 532 as written."
ASSEMBLY FLOOR: 76-0, 5/26/15
AYES: Achadjian, Alejo, Travis Allen, Baker, Bigelow, Bonilla,
Bonta, Brough, Brown, Burke, Calderon, Campos, Chang, Chau,
Chiu, Chu, Cooley, Cooper, Dababneh, Dahle, Daly, Dodd,
Eggman, Frazier, Beth Gaines, Gallagher, Cristina Garcia,
Eduardo Garcia, Gatto, Gipson, Gomez, Gonzalez, Gordon, Gray,
Grove, Hadley, Roger Hernández, Holden, Irwin, Jones,
Jones-Sawyer, Kim, Lackey, Levine, Linder, Lopez, Low,
Maienschein, Mayes, McCarty, Medina, Melendez, Mullin,
Nazarian, Obernolte, O'Donnell, Olsen, Patterson, Perea,
Quirk, Rendon, Ridley-Thomas, Rodriguez, Salas, Santiago,
Steinorth, Mark Stone, Thurmond, Ting, Wagner, Waldron, Weber,
Wilk, Williams, Wood, Atkins
NO VOTE RECORDED: Bloom, Chávez, Harper, Mathis
Prepared by:Arthur Terzakis / G.O. / (916) 651-1530
9/4/15 10:48:02
**** END ****