Guam Delegate Bordallo Introduces Bill to Fund Pacific Health Survey
Press Release #0509-66
Palikir, Pohnpei – FSM Information Services
May 29, 2009

From Guam PDN story by Steve Limtiaco (5/26/09)

The federal government is supposed to collect statistical data for native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders separately from the data collected for Asian Americans, but most federal agencies haven’t been doing that, Guam Delegate Madeleine Bordallo said on the House floor late last week.

Bordallo, last Thursday, introduced a bill that would fund a health survey specifically for native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders living in the United States or in the Freely Associated States.

According to Bordallo, meaningful statistics about native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders have been unavailable to health organizations or policymakers at all levels of government because so little data has been collected.

“Native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders communities are eager to move forward with their efforts to improve public health.  This scientific survey would establish baseline health information to inform health policy and interventions so that individual and community health can be properly tracked and evaluated,” Bordallo said in the Congressional Record.

The text of her bill is not yet available, but it would amend the Public Health Service Act to provide funding for the survey through the Department of Health and Human Services.