Teaching Asian Pacific American History Act

I 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 8519 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 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 and Pacific Islanders and their relation to current events, and the impact and con- tributions of Asian Americans 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 OCTOBER 2, 2020 Ms. MENG (for herself, Ms. JUDY CHU of California, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. TED LIEU of California, Mr. SUOZZI, Mr. MEEKS, Ms. VELA´ZQUEZ, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. CLARKE of New York, Mr. CASE, Mr. RASKIN, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Mr. RUSH, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. LEE of California, Mr. KHANNA, Mr. TRONE, Mr. SHERMAN, Mr. COX of California, Mr. CORREA, Mr. CARSON of Indiana, Mr. CA´RDENAS, and Ms. SPEIER) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 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 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 and Pacific Islanders and their relation to current VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 8519 IH events, and the impact and contributions of Asian Ameri- cans to the development and enhancement of American life, United States history, literature, the economy, poli- tics, body of laws, and culture, and for other purposes. 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 ‘‘Teaching Asian Pacific 4 American History Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 6 Congress finds the following: 7 (1) The United States of America has benefited 8 from the integral role Asian Americans and Pacific 9 Islanders have played in our country’s history and 10 contributions to the world. 11 (2) The Pacific Island Territories of Guam, 12 American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the 13 Northern Mariana Islands have unique histories that 14 are often overlooked in American history despite 15 their immense contributions to our Nation. 16 (3) The traditional American K–12 curriculum 17 continues to be taught from a Eurocentric point of 18 view and exclude histories of racist immigration laws 19 relevant to policies today. 20 (4) K–12 social studies textbooks poorly rep- 21 resent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, over- 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 8519 IH look the diversity within those communities, and 1 print images of Asian Americans and Pacific Island- 2 ers in stereotypical roles. 3 (5) The Federal Government, through support 4 for educational activities of national museums estab- 5 lished under Federal law, can assist teachers in ef- 6 forts to incorporate historically accurate instruction 7 on the comprehensive history of Asian Americans 8 and Pacific Islanders and assist students in their ex- 9 ploration of Asian Pacific American history as an in- 10 tegral part of American history. 11 (6) The history of America’s system of immi- 12 gration is rife with racism, embedded in goals of hir- 13 ing workers to work for cheaper wages and labor in 14 heinous working conditions. 15 (7) Congress has continuously passed anti- 16 Asian laws as the result of the scapegoating of Asian 17 immigrant laborers for the United States economic 18 downturns. 19 (8) The history of South Asian Americans in 20 the United States dates back to the late 1700s. 21 (9) The history of Native Hawaiians and Pa- 22 cific Islanders in what is now considered to be the 23 United States predates the founding of our Nation. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 8519 IH (10) In 1993, Congress passed a resolution that 1 was signed into law formally apologizing for the 2 United States role in the illegal overthrow of the 3 Kingdom of Hawaii, which resulted in the suppres- 4 sion of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Ha- 5 waiian people. 6 (11) Twelve thousand Chinese laborers worked 7 in atrocious conditions to build the Transcontinental 8 Railroad, many dying from harsh weather conditions 9 and the dangers of handling explosives. 10 (12) After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 11 banned Chinese immigrants from immigrating to the 12 United States, Japanese were hired. After the Japa- 13 nese were banned from immigrating due to the Gen- 14 tleman’s Agreement of 1907, which halted immigra- 15 tion from Japan, Filipinos were hired under 3-year 16 contracts. 17 (13) Filipino farm workers helped found the 18 farm worker labor movement. 19 (14) The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted 20 immigration to the United States by barring immi- 21 gration from the Asia-Pacific zone. 22 (15) The Immigration Act of 1924 set a na- 23 tional origin quota to deter immigration. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 8519 IH (16) The Immigration Act of 1965 made family 1 unification and skills-based migration the bedrock 2 principle of immigration to the United States. 3 (17) The United States conducted nuclear test- 4 ing on the Bikini and Enewetak Atoll of the Mar- 5 shall Islands have made parts of the island nation 6 uninhabitable and caused forced migration and 7 health complications that still impact the community 8 today. 9 (18) The United States ratified a Compact of 10 Free Association with the Federated States of Mi- 11 cronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the 12 Republic of Palau enabling citizens of these Pacific 13 Island nations to legally migrate to the United 14 States visa-free while the United States retains cer- 15 tain strategic military rights over their territorial 16 waters. 17 (19) In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the 18 Refugee Act of 1980 helped more than 500,000 19 Southeast Asians gain permanent resident status in 20 the United States within the first decade of its pas- 21 sage. 22 (20) President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Execu- 23 tive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of over 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 8519 IH 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of 1 whom were American citizens, based solely on race. 2 (21) The Pacific Islander community represents 3 the largest concentration of any ethnic group en- 4 listed in the United States military, as well as rep- 5 resenting the highest numbers of casualties in the 6 current wars on terror. 7 (22) The ‘‘model minority’’ myth perpetuates 8 the stigma of Asian Americans as perpetual for- 9 eigners, and such stereotypes are used to pit minor- 10 ity groups against one another. 11 (23) The pattern of hate crimes and hate inci- 12 dents directed at Asians and Asian Americans has 13 repeated itself throughout history. 14 (24) Asian-American and African-American his- 15 tories of fighting against oppression and racism are 16 intertwined, from the Black Power Movement of the 17 1960s that birthed the Asian American Movement to 18 civil rights protests today. 19 (25) Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and 20 their allies continue to fight discrimination, racial 21 prejudice, hate crimes, scapegoating, structural rac- 22 ism, economic inequities, and benign and overt omis- 23 sion of the integral role they played in the develop- 24 ment of this country. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 8519 IH SEC. 3. AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS EDUCATION. 1 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—Section 2231(a) of the 2 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 3 U.S.C. 6661(a)) is amended— 4 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 5 inserting ‘‘, which shall include Asian Pacific Amer- 6 ican history,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; and 7 (2) in paragraph (2)— 8 (A) by inserting ‘‘which shall include Asian 9 Pacific American history,’’ after ‘‘American his- 10 tory,’’; and 11 (B) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 12 Asian Pacific American history’’ after ‘‘tradi- 13 tional American history’’. 14 (b) PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL ACADEMIES 15 FOR AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS.—Section 2232 of 16 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 17 U.S.C. 6662) is amended— 18 (1) in subsection (a)— 19 (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, which 20 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 21 after ‘‘American History’’; and 22 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘, which 23 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 24 after ‘‘American History’’; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 8519 IH (2) in subsection (c)(1), by inserting ‘‘, which 1 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 2 ‘‘American history’’; 3 (3) in subsection (e)— 4 (A) in paragraph (1)— 5 (i) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 6 Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 7 ‘‘American history’’; 8 (ii) in subparagraph (A)— 9 (I) by inserting ‘‘, which shall in- 10 clude Asian Pacific American his- 11 tory,’’ after ‘‘teachers of American 12 history’’; and 13 (II) by inserting ‘‘, which shall 14 include Asian Pacific American his- 15 tory,’’ after ‘‘subjects of American 16 history’’; and 17 (iii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 18 ‘‘, which shall include Asian Pacific Amer- 19 ican history,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; 20 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘, which 21 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 22 after ‘‘American history’’; and 23 (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘, and 24 with the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 8519 IH American Center to provide programs and re- 1 sources for educators and students’’ after ‘‘Na- 2 tional Parks’’; and 3 (4) in subsection (f)— 4 (A) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 5 Asian Pacific American history,’’ after ‘‘Amer- 6 ican history’’; 7 (B) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘, 8 which shall include Asian Pacific American his- 9 tory,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; and 10 (C) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ‘‘, 11 which shall include Asian Pacific American his- 12 tory,’’ after ‘‘American history’’. 13 (c) NATIONAL ACTIVITIES.—Section 2233 of the Ele- 14 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 15 6663) is amended— 16 (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘which shall 17 include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 18 ‘‘American history,’’; and 19 (2) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘which shall 20 include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 21 ‘‘American history,’’. 22 (d) NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL 23 PROGRESS.—Section 303(b)(2)(D) of the National As- 24 sessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 8519 IH U.S.C. 9622(b)(2)(D)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(which 1 shall include Asian Pacific American history)’’ after ‘‘his- 2 tory,’’. 3 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 00:30 Oct 30, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H8519.IH H8519 pbinns on DSKJLVW7X2PROD with BILLS