Intelligence Community revises its language on ancestry and ethnicity

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has revised the paperwork accompanying its request to job applicants to identify their “ancestry and ethnicity,” in order to make it clear that the Intelligence Community needs this information, in aggregate form, to tailor its recruitment and retention policies, “not for equal employment opportunity business purposes.”

Government Security News reported on the Intelligence Community’s original request for this ancestry and ethnicity information in an article published on June 19, 2009, following a Federal Register notice by ODNI on the same subject the prior month.

The Intelligence Community has now revised its original request by including a more detailed explanation of its authority to seek such information, as well as detailed statements regarding how it complies with privacy and paperwork reduction laws.

“Revisions also include making the collection instrument a stand alone form, and not an addendum to the SF 181, Ethnicity and Race Identification, as previously proposed,” said ODNI’s chief human capital officer, in a new Federal Register notice published on March 12. Standard Form 181 is the document with which the U.S. Office of Personnel Management traditionally collects a job application’s information related to “Race and National Origin Identification.”

“The data captured from this proposed collection instrument is to assess the IC’s progress in recruitment and retention and not for equal opportunity business purposes,” says the latest IC notice.

The notice estimates that 50,000 applicants will voluntarily complete the three questions in the ancestry and ethnicity questionnaire.

One member of the public, who dubbed himself “Joe Applicant,” filed a formal response to ODNI’s original proposal, questioning the motives of the intelligence agencies. “I think applicants, specially first and second-generation citizens, might assume that the reason for collecting this type of information might be to exclude certain nationalities for the usual reasons – affirmative action, etc.,” wrote Joe Applicant, in his formal comment.

ODNI’s chief human capital officer described it differently: “The data collected, obtained by responding to three questions, will enable the Intelligence Community to assess progress in recruiting and retaining U.S. citizens who possess native or near-native familiarity with the culture of countries and geographic regions relevant to national security interests.”

Further information is available from the Office of the Chief Human Capital Officer at ODNI at 703-275-3369.