119-hr3551

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 3551 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 3551

 To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible 
entities to carry out educational programs that include the history of 
peoples of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander descent in the 
 settling and founding of America, the social, economic, and political 
 environments that led to the development of discriminatory laws 
 targeting Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and their 
 relation to current events, and the impact and contributions of Asian 
 Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to the development 
 and enhancement of American life, United States history, literature, 
 the economy, politics, body of laws, and culture, and for other 
 purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 May 21, 2025

 Ms. Meng (for herself, Ms. Ansari, Ms. Barragan, Mr. Bera, Ms. 
Bonamici, Mr. Case, Ms. Chu, Mr. Cisneros, Ms. Clarke of New York, Mr. 
Cleaver, Mr. Connolly, Mr. Davis of Illinois, Mr. Garamendi, Mr. Garcia 
 of California, Mr. Garcia of Illinois, Mr. Goldman of New York, Mr. 
Gomez, Mr. Gottheimer, Mr. Green of Texas, Ms. Norton, Ms. Jayapal, Mr. 
 Kennedy of New York, Mr. Khanna, Mr. Krishnamoorthi, Mr. Latimer, Mr. 
Lieu, Mr. Lynch, Mr. Magaziner, Ms. Matsui, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Min, Mr. 
Mullin, Mr. Nadler, Ms. Omar, Mr. Pocan, Ms. Sanchez, Ms. Scanlon, Ms. 
 Schakowsky, Ms. Sherrill, Ms. Simon, Ms. Strickland, Mr. Subramanyam, 
Mr. Takano, Mr. Thanedar, Ms. Tokuda, Mr. Tonko, Mr. Tran, Mr. Vargas, 
 Ms. Velazquez, and Ms. Williams of Georgia) introduced the following 
 bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

 A BILL

 To authorize the Secretary of Education to award grants to eligible 
entities to carry out educational programs that include the history of 
peoples of Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander descent in the 
 settling and founding of America, the social, economic, and political 
 environments that led to the development of discriminatory laws 
 targeting Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and their 
 relation to current events, and the impact and contributions of Asian 
 Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders to the development 
 and enhancement of American life, United States history, literature, 
 the economy, politics, body of laws, and culture, and for other 
 purposes.

 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

 This Act may be cited as the ``Teaching Asian American, Native 
Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander History Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

 Congress finds the following:

    (1) The United States has benefitted from the integral role 
 Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders have 
 played in our Nation's history and contributions to the world.

    (2) The Pacific Island Territories of Guam, American Samoa, 
 and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and all of 
 the Pacific Islands including Melanesia, Micronesia, and 
 Polynesia have unique histories that are often overlooked in 
 American history despite their immense contributions to our 
 Nation.

    (3) The traditional American history curriculum for 
 kindergarten through grade 12 continues to be taught from a 
 Eurocentric point of view and excludes histories of racist 
 immigration laws relevant to policies today.

    (4) Social studies textbooks for kindergarten through grade 
 12 poorly represent Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and 
 Pacific Islanders, overlook the diversity within those 
 communities, and print images of Asian Americans, Native 
 Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in stereotypical roles.

    (5) The Federal Government, through support for educational 
 activities of national museums established under Federal law, 
 can assist teachers in efforts to incorporate historically 
 accurate instruction on the comprehensive history of Asian 
 Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders and assist 
 students in their exploration of Asian American, Native 
 Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history as an integral part of 
 American history.

    (6) The history of America's system of immigration is rife 
 with racism, embedded with goals of hiring workers to work for 
 cheaper wages and labor in heinous working conditions.

    (7) Congress has continuously passed anti-Asian laws as the 
 result of the scapegoating of Asian immigrant laborers for 
 economic downturns in the United States.

    (8) The history of South Asian Americans in the United 
 States dates back to the late 1700s.

    (9) The history of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders 
 in what is now considered to be the United States predates the 
 founding of our Nation.

    (10) In 1993, Congress passed a joint resolution that was 
 signed into law formally apologizing for the role of the United 
 States in the illegal overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, which 
 resulted in the suppression of the inherent sovereignty of the 
 Native Hawaiian people.

    (11) Twelve thousand Chinese laborers worked in atrocious 
 conditions to build the Transcontinental Railroad, many dying 
 from harsh weather conditions and the dangers of handling 
 explosives.

    (12) The Page Act of 1875, the first restrictive 
 immigration law in the United States, sought to prevent the 
 entry of Asian women perceived as immoral or suspected of 
 prostitution.

    (13) After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 banned Chinese 
 immigrants from immigrating to the United States, Japanese 
 immigrants were hired. After the Japanese were banned from 
 immigrating due to the Gentleman's Agreement of 1907, which 
 halted immigration from Japan, Filipino immigrants were hired 
 under 3-year contracts.

    (14) Filipino farm workers helped found the farm worker 
 labor movement in the United States.

    (15) The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted immigration to 
 the United States by barring immigration from the Asia-Pacific 
 zone.

    (16) The Immigration Act of 1924 set a national origin 
 quota to deter immigration.

    (17) President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 
 authorized the incarceration of more than 120,000 persons of 
 Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of whom were American citizens, 
 based solely on race.

    (18) Beginning in 1954, the United States displaced more 
 than 3,000,000 refugees from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam due to 
 covert and overt United States military operations in Southeast 
 Asia.

    (19) The Immigration Act of 1965 made family unification 
 and skills-based migration the bedrock principle of immigration 
 to the United States.

    (20) The nuclear testing conducted by the United States on 
 the Bikini and Enewetak Atoll of the Marshall Islands has made 
 parts of the island nation uninhabitable and caused forced 
 migration and health complications that still impact the 
 community today.

    (21) The United States ratified a Compact of Free 
 Association with the Federated States of Micronesia, Republic 
 of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau enabling 
 citizens of these Pacific Island nations to legally migrate to 
 the United States visa-free while the United States retains 
 certain strategic military rights over their territorial 
 waters.

    (22) In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the Refugee Act 
 of 1980 helped more than 500,000 Southeast Asians gain 
 permanent resident status in the United States within the first 
 decade of its passage.

    (23) The Pacific Islander community represents the largest 
 concentration of any ethnic group enlisted in the United States 
 military, as well as representing the highest numbers of 
 casualties in recent wars.

    (24) The ``model minority'' myth perpetuates the stigma of 
 Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, and such stereotypes 
 are used to pit minority groups against one another.

    (25) The pattern of hate crimes and hate incidents directed 
 at Asians and Asian Americans has repeated itself throughout 
 history.

    (26) Asian American and African American histories of 
 fighting against oppression and racism are intertwined, from 
 the Black Power Movement of the 1960s that birthed the Asian 
 American Movement to civil rights protests in present day.

    (27) Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific 
 Islanders and their allies continue to fight discrimination, 
 racial prejudice, hate crimes, scapegoating, structural racism, 
 economic inequities, and benign and overt omission of the 
 integral role they played in the development of this Nation.

SEC. 3. AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS EDUCATION.

    (a) Program Authorized.--

Section 2231

    (a) of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6661

    (a) ) is amended--

    (1) in the matter preceding paragraph

    (1) , by inserting ``, 
 which shall include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and 
 Pacific Islander history,'' after ``American history''; and

    (2) in paragraph

    (2) --
        (A) by inserting ``which shall include Asian 
 American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``American history,''; and
        (B) by inserting ``, which shall include Asian 
 American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history'' after ``traditional American history''.

    (b) Presidential and Congressional Academies for American History 
and Civics.--

Section 2232 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act 
of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6662) is amended--

    (1) in subsection
            (c) (1) , by inserting ``, which shall 
 include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``American history'';

    (2) in subsection

    (e) --
        (A) in paragraph

    (1) --
            (i) in the matter preceding subparagraph
        (A) , by inserting ``, which shall include Asian 
 American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``American history'';
            (ii) in subparagraph
        (A) --
            (I) by inserting ``, which shall 
 include Asian American, Native 
 Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``teachers of American 
 history''; and
            (II) by inserting ``, which shall 
 include Asian American, Native 
 Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``subjects of American 
 history''; and
            (iii) in subparagraph
        (B) , by inserting ``, 
 which shall include Asian American, Native 
 Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history,'' after 
 ``American history'';
        (B) in paragraph

    (2) , by inserting ``, which shall 
 include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific 
 Islander history,'' after ``American history''; and
            (C) in paragraph

    (4) , by inserting ``, and with the 
 Smithsonian Institution's Asian Pacific American Center 
 to provide programs and resources for educators and 
 students'' after ``National Parks''; and

    (3) in paragraph

    (1) of subsection

    (f) --
        (A) in the matter preceding subparagraph
        (A) , by 
 inserting ``including Asian American, Native Hawaiian, 
 and Pacific Islander history'' after ``American 
 history'';
        (B) in subparagraph
        (A) , by inserting ``, which 
 shall include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and 
 Pacific Islander history,'' after ``American history''; 
 and
            (C) in subparagraph
        (B) , by inserting ``, which 
 shall include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and 
 Pacific Islander history,'' after ``American history''.
            (c) National Activities.--

Section 2233 of the Elementary and 
Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 6663) is amended--

    (1) in subsection

    (a) , by inserting ``which shall include 
 Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander 
 history,'' after ``American history,''; and

    (2) in subsection

    (b) --
        (A) in the matter preceding paragraph

    (1) , by 
 inserting ``which shall include Asian American, Native 
 Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history,'' after 
 ``American history,''; and
        (B) in paragraph

    (1)
        (A) , by inserting ``which shall 
 include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific 
 Islander history,'' after ``American history,''.
            (d) National Assessment of Educational Progress.--

Section 303

    (b)

    (2)
            (D) of the National Assessment of Educational Progress 
Authorization Act (20 U.S.C. 9622

    (b)

    (2)
            (D) ) is amended by inserting 
``(which shall include Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific 
Islander history)'' after ``history''.
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