Under the auspices of the ACA Prevention Implementation Workgroup and the Section 4302 Implementation Subgroup, the HHS Data Council was asked to recommend data standards for race, ethnicity, sex, primary language and disability status to support the implementation of Section 4302 of the Affordable Care Act. The HHS Data Council is the principal, senior internal Departmental forum and advisory body to the Secretary on health and human services data policy and coordinates HHS data collection and analysis activities. A special workgroup within the Data Council, the Section 4302 Standards Workgroup, was formed to lead this task. The Workgroup included representatives from HHS, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Census Bureau. The Workgroup examined current federal data collection standards, adequacy of prior testing, and quality of the data produced in prior surveys; consulted with statistical agencies and programs; reviewed OMB data collection standards and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) Report Race, Ethnicity, and Language Data Collection: Standardization for Health Care Quality Improvement, and built on its members’ experience with collecting and analyzing demographic data.