I 117TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 2271 To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance of the policy set forth in the Native American Languages Act. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 26, 2021 Mr. YOUNG (for himself, Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. GALLEGO, Ms. GARCIA of Texas, Mr. KAHELE, Mr. KILMER, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. PRICE of North Carolina, Mr. SABLAN, and Mr. CLEAVER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor A BILL To establish a Native American language resource center in furtherance of the policy set forth in the Native Amer- ican Languages Act. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Lan- 4 guage Resource Center Act of 2021’’. 5 SEC. 2. PURPOSES. 6 The purposes of this Act are to further the policies 7 set forth in the Native American Languages Act (25 8 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 2271 IH U.S.C. 2901 et seq.) by creating a national resource center 1 and, through such national resource center and actions, 2 to— 3 (1) preserve, protect, and promote the rights 4 and freedom of Native Americans to use, practice, 5 and develop Native American languages (as defined 6 in section 103 of the Native American Languages 7 Act (25 U.S.C. 2902)); 8 (2) allow the United States to fulfill its trust 9 responsibility to Native American communities and 10 address the effects of past discrimination against 11 Native American language speakers; 12 (3) support revitalization of Native American 13 languages; 14 (4) encourage and support the use of Native 15 American languages as a medium of instruction, in- 16 cluding use as a medium of education in schools op- 17 erated by Tribes, States, territories, the Federal 18 Government, and Native American language edu- 19 cational organizations; 20 (5) encourage and support the use and develop- 21 ment of Native American languages as the medium 22 of instruction for a wide variety of age levels and 23 academic content areas; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 2271 IH (6) support metrics aligned with the Native 1 American language of instruction, including assess- 2 ments, qualifications, and processes based on well- 3 demonstrated best practices in Native American lan- 4 guage medium education; 5 (7) identify— 6 (A) barriers to Native American language 7 education and learning within Federal laws; and 8 (B) actions needed for alignment with the 9 Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 10 2901 et seq.); 11 (8) encourage and support elementary schools, 12 secondary schools, and institutions of higher edu- 13 cation to include Native American languages in the 14 curriculum in the same manner as other world lan- 15 guages, including through cooperative agreements 16 and distance education, and to grant proficiency in 17 Native American languages the same full academic 18 credit as proficiency in other world languages; 19 (9) encourage and support the development of 20 appropriate teacher preparation programming for 21 the teaching of, and through, Native American lan- 22 guages, including appropriate alternative pathways 23 to teacher certification; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 2271 IH (10) provide a resource base to provide infor- 1 mation to Federal, Tribal, State, territory, and local 2 governments and Native American educational orga- 3 nizations to allow the spread of best practices in the 4 use, practice, and development of Native American 5 languages in Native American communities, includ- 6 ing use in educational institutions; 7 (11) provide a resource base for the use of tech- 8 nology in intensive community-, land-, and archive- 9 based programs, as well as hybrid and collaborative 10 programs in supporting the retention, use, develop- 11 ment, and teaching of Native American languages by 12 government and private entities; 13 (12) provide a developmental base from which 14 interested Tribal colleges and universities and other 15 Native American entities might develop fully func- 16 tioning Native American language medium education 17 systems that include associated preschool, elemen- 18 tary school, secondary school, and adult education 19 programs conducted through the medium of Native 20 American languages; 21 (13) provide a means to further collaboration 22 among formal government, institutional, and com- 23 munity-based Native American language programs, 24 resources, and research efforts with additional access 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 2271 IH to international best practices in indigenous lan- 1 guage revitalization; and 2 (14) develop a support center system for Native 3 American language participants to gather and share 4 helpful information and experiences. 5 SEC. 3. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CENTER. 6 Section 603 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 7 U.S.C. 1123) is amended— 8 (1) by redesignating subsections (b) and (c) as 9 subsections (c) and (d), respectively; 10 (2) by inserting after subsection (a) the fol- 11 lowing: 12 ‘‘(b) NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE RESOURCE CEN- 13 TER AUTHORIZED.— 14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary is authorized 15 to make a grant to, or enter into a contract with, 16 an eligible entity for the purpose of— 17 ‘‘(A) establishing, strengthening, and oper- 18 ating a Native American language resource and 19 training center as described in paragraph (2); 20 and 21 ‘‘(B) staffing the center with individuals 22 who have high-level fluency in American Indian, 23 Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian languages 24 and are experienced with Native American lan- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 2271 IH guage education in preschool, elementary 1 school, secondary school, adult education, and 2 higher education programs. 3 ‘‘(2) PURPOSES OF CENTER.—The Native 4 American language resource center established under 5 paragraph (1) shall serve as a resource to— 6 ‘‘(A) improve the capacity to teach and 7 learn Native American languages and further 8 Native American language acquisition; 9 ‘‘(B) preserve, protect, and promote the 10 rights and freedom of Native Americans to use, 11 practice, and develop Native American lan- 12 guages; 13 ‘‘(C) allow the United States to fulfill its 14 trust responsibility to Native American commu- 15 nities and address the effects of past discrimi- 16 nation against Native American language 17 speakers; 18 ‘‘(D) support revitalization of Native 19 American languages; 20 ‘‘(E) encourage and support the use of Na- 21 tive American languages as a medium of in- 22 struction, including use as a medium of edu- 23 cation in schools operated by Tribes, States, the 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 2271 IH Federal Government, and Native American lan- 1 guage educational organizations; 2 ‘‘(F) encourage and support the use and 3 development of Native American languages as 4 the medium of instruction for a wide variety of 5 age levels and academic content areas; 6 ‘‘(G) support metrics aligned with the Na- 7 tive American language of instruction, including 8 assessments, qualifications, and processes based 9 on well-demonstrated best practices in Native 10 American language medium education; 11 ‘‘(H) identify barriers to Native American 12 language education and learning within Federal 13 laws and actions needed for alignment with the 14 Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 15 2901); 16 ‘‘(I) encourage and support elementary 17 schools, secondary schools, and institutions of 18 higher education to include Native American 19 languages in the curriculum in the same man- 20 ner as other world languages, including through 21 cooperative agreements and distance education, 22 and to grant proficiency in Native American 23 languages the same full academic credit as pro- 24 ficiency in other world languages; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 2271 IH ‘‘(J) encourage and support the develop- 1 ment of appropriate teacher preparation pro- 2 gramming for the teaching of, and through, Na- 3 tive American languages, including appropriate 4 alternative pathways to teacher certification; 5 ‘‘(K) provide a resource base to provide in- 6 formation to Federal, Tribal, State, and local 7 governments and Native American educational 8 organizations to allow the spread of best prac- 9 tices in the use, practice, and development of 10 Native American languages in Native American 11 communities, including use in educational insti- 12 tutions; 13 ‘‘(L) provide a resource base for the use of 14 technology in intensive community-, land-, and 15 archive-based programs, as well as hybrid and 16 collaborative programs in supporting the reten- 17 tion, use, development, and teaching of Native 18 American languages by government and private 19 entities; 20 ‘‘(M) support the acquisition of distance 21 learning technologies and training for parents, 22 students, teachers, and learning support staff, 23 including the compilation and curation of dig- 24 ital libraries and other online resources in tar- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 2271 IH get Native American languages, the develop- 1 ment of distance learning curricula appropriate 2 for preschool, elementary school, secondary 3 school, adult education, and postsecondary edu- 4 cation, the pedagogical training for teachers, 5 and other efforts necessary to continue Native 6 American language acquisition through distance 7 learning; 8 ‘‘(N) provide a developmental base from 9 which interested Tribal colleges and universities 10 and other Native American entities might de- 11 velop fully functioning Native American lan- 12 guage medium education systems that include 13 associated preschool, elementary school, sec- 14 ondary school, and adult education programs 15 conducted through the medium of Native Amer- 16 ican languages; 17 ‘‘(O) provide a means to further collabora- 18 tion among formal government, institutional, 19 and community-based Native American lan- 20 guage programs, resources, and research efforts 21 with additional access to international best 22 practices in indigenous language revitalization; 23 ‘‘(P) develop a support center system for 24 Native American language participants to gath- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 2271 IH er and share helpful information and experi- 1 ences; and 2 ‘‘(Q) address any of the purposes of for- 3 eign language centers included under this sec- 4 tion if, in doing so, the Native American lan- 5 guage resource center— 6 ‘‘(i) does so as a subsidiary activity; 7 ‘‘(ii) focuses benefits on Native Amer- 8 icans living in Native American commu- 9 nities, or closely tied to such communities; 10 and 11 ‘‘(iii) ensures that one of the out- 12 comes being strengthened through this 13 subparagraph is the use of one or more 14 Native American languages in a Native 15 American community. 16 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 17 ‘‘(A) ELIGIBLE ENTITY.—The term ‘eligi- 18 ble entity’ means— 19 ‘‘(i) an institution of higher education; 20 ‘‘(ii) an entity within an institution of 21 higher education with dedicated responsi- 22 bility for Native American language and 23 culture education; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 2271 IH ‘‘(iii) a consortium of such institu- 1 tions; or 2 ‘‘(iv) a consortium of such institutions 3 and other entities with unique responsibil- 4 ities for Native American languages. 5 ‘‘(B) NATIVE AMERICAN; NATIVE AMER- 6 ICAN LANGUAGE.—The terms ‘Native Amer- 7 ican’ and ‘Native American language’ have the 8 meanings given those terms in section 103 of 9 the Native American Languages Act (25 U.S.C. 10 2902). 11 ‘‘(4) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.— 12 There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out 13 this subsection, $3,000,000 for each fiscal year.’’; 14 and 15 (3) in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of 16 subsection (c), as redesignated by paragraph (1), by 17 striking ‘‘subsection (a)’’ and inserting ‘‘this sec- 18 tion’’. 19 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 01:30 May 26, 2021 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H2271.IH H2271 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS