Requests to Large Companies on Corporate DEI Continue Coming In

Several Democratic-led caucuses in Congress are requesting diversity, equity, and inclusion-specific information from Fortune 500 and 100 companies, with several NAMIC member companies among those receiving this outreach.

The latest iteration comes from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, which sent letters to Fortune 100 companies Feb. 12 urging company leadership to investigate their organizations’ DEI practices specifically for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. This includes questions on numbers and percentages of different levels of staff that are AANHPI and what DEI practices specific to that group the companies have established.

This follows efforts by the Congressional Black Caucus, which put out a DEI corporate data call in December. The CBC’s notice went to Fortune 500 companies and originally asked for companies to reaffirm their DEI commitments made in the wake of the George Floyd murder. Then a subsequent letter went out on Jan. 8 requesting answers to 20 questions on the caucus’ online tracker. For both inquiries, it is unclear what confidentiality and protection any responding company will receive.

Additionally, it has been reported there are differing opinions and fractures within these groups as to how these efforts have been rolled out – putting less pressure on companies to respond until there is more clarity on questions of confidentiality and details on how the data will be used.