I 

117TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2283 

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 contributions 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 

MARCH 29, 2021 

Ms. MENG (for herself, Mrs. BEATTY, Ms. BLUNT ROCHESTER, Ms. BUSH, 

Mr. CARSON, Ms. CLARK of Massachusetts, Mr. CORREA, Mr. DANNY K. 

DAVIS of Illinois, Ms. DELBENE, Ms. ESHOO, Mr. ESPAILLAT, Mr. 

GARCI ́A of Illinois, Mr. GREEN of Texas, Mr. HASTINGS, Ms. JACOBS of 

California, Ms. JAYAPAL, Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia, Mr. JONES, Mr. 

KHANNA, Mr. KILMER, Mr. KRISHNAMOORTHI, Ms. LEE of California, 

Mr. LIEU, Mrs. CAROLYN B. MALONEY of New York, Ms. MATSUI, Ms. 

MCCOLLUM, Mr. MEEKS, Mr. MOULTON, Mr. NADLER, Mrs. NAPOLITANO, Ms. NORTON, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, Mr. RASKIN, Ms. 

ROYBAL-ALLARD, Mr. RUSH, Mr. SAN NICOLAS, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. 

SUOZZI, Mr. TAKANO, Mr. TORRES of New York, Mrs. TRAHAN, Mr. 

TRONE, and Ms. VELA ́ZQUEZ) 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, 


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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 contributions 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. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Teaching Asian Pacific 

5 American History Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) The United States of America has benefited 

9 from the integral role Asian Americans and Pacific 

10 Islanders have played in our country’s history and 

11 contributions to the world. 

12 (2) The Pacific Island Territories of Guam, 

13 American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the 

14 Northern Mariana Islands have unique histories that 

15 are often overlooked in American history despite 

16 their immense contributions to our Nation. 

17 (3) The traditional American K–12 curriculum 

18 continues to be taught from a Eurocentric point of 

19 view and exclude histories of racist immigration laws 

20 relevant to policies today. 


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1 (4) K–12 social studies textbooks poorly rep2 resent Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, over3 look the diversity within those communities, and 

4 print images of Asian Americans and Pacific Island5 ers in stereotypical roles. 

6 (5) The Federal Government, through support 

7 for educational activities of national museums estab8 lished under Federal law, can assist teachers in ef9 forts to incorporate historically accurate instruction 

10 on the comprehensive history of Asian Americans 

11 and Pacific Islanders and assist students in their ex12 ploration of Asian Pacific American history as an in13 tegral part of American history. 

14 (6) The history of America’s system of immi15 gration is rife with racism, embedded in goals of hir16 ing workers to work for cheaper wages and labor in 

17 heinous working conditions. 

18 (7) Congress has continuously passed anti19 Asian laws as the result of the scapegoating of Asian 

20 immigrant laborers for the United States economic 

21 downturns. 

22 (8) The history of South Asian Americans in 

23 the United States dates back to the late 1700s. 


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1 (9) The history of Native Hawaiians and Pa2 cific Islanders in what is now considered to be the 

3 United States predates the founding of our Nation. 

4 (10) In 1993, Congress passed a resolution that 

5 was signed into law formally apologizing for the 

6 United States role in the illegal overthrow of the 

7 Kingdom of Hawaii, which resulted in the suppres8 sion of the inherent sovereignty of the Native Ha9 waiian people. 

10 (11) Twelve thousand Chinese laborers worked 

11 in atrocious conditions to build the Transcontinental 

12 Railroad, many dying from harsh weather conditions 

13 and the dangers of handling explosives. 

14 (12) The Page Act of 1875 was the United 

15 States first restrictive immigration law, which 

16 sought to prevent the entry of Asian women per17 ceived as immoral or suspected of prostitution. 

18 (13) After the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 

19 banned Chinese immigrants from immigrating to the 

20 United States, Japanese were hired. After the Japa21 nese were banned from immigrating due to the Gen22 tleman’s Agreement of 1907, which halted immigra23 tion from Japan, Filipinos were hired under 3-year 

24 contracts. 


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1 (14) Filipino farm workers helped found the 

2 farm worker labor movement. 

3 (15) The Immigration Act of 1917 restricted 

4 immigration to the United States by barring immi5 gration from the Asia-Pacific zone. 

6 (16) The Immigration Act of 1924 set a na7 tional origin quota to deter immigration. 

8 (17) President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Execu9 tive Order 9066 authorized the incarceration of over 

10 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry, two-thirds of 

11 whom were American citizens, based solely on race. 

12 (18) Beginning in 1954, the United States dis13 placed over 3,000,000 refugees from Cambodia, 

14 Laos, and Vietnam due to covert and overt United 

15 States military operations in Southeast Asia. 

16 (19) The Immigration Act of 1965 made family 

17 unification and skills-based migration the bedrock 

18 principle of immigration to the United States. 

19 (20) The United States conducted nuclear test20 ing on the Bikini and Enewetak Atoll of the Mar21 shall Islands have made parts of the island nation 

22 uninhabitable and caused forced migration and 

23 health complications that still impact the community 

24 today. 


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1 (21) The United States ratified a Compact of 

2 Free Association with the Federated States of Mi3 cronesia, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the 

4 Republic of Palau enabling citizens of these Pacific 

5 Island nations to legally migrate to the United 

6 States visa-free while the United States retains cer7 tain strategic military rights over their territorial 

8 waters. 

9 (22) In the aftermath of the Vietnam War, the 

10 Refugee Act of 1980 helped more than 500,000 

11 Southeast Asians gain permanent resident status in 

12 the United States within the first decade of its pas13 sage. 

14 (23) The Pacific Islander community represents 

15 the largest concentration of any ethnic group en16 listed in the United States military, as well as rep17 resenting the highest numbers of casualties in the 

18 current wars on terror. 

19 (24) The ‘‘model minority’’ myth perpetuates 

20 the stigma of Asian Americans as perpetual for21 eigners, and such stereotypes are used to pit minor22 ity groups against one another. 

23 (25) The pattern of hate crimes and hate inci24 dents directed at Asians and Asian Americans has 

25 repeated itself throughout history. 


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1 (26) Asian-American and African-American his2 tories of fighting against oppression and racism are 

3 intertwined, from the Black Power Movement of the 

4 1960s that birthed the Asian American Movement to 

5 civil rights protests today. 

6 (27) Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and 

7 their allies continue to fight discrimination, racial 

8 prejudice, hate crimes, scapegoating, structural rac9 ism, economic inequities, and benign and overt omis10 sion of the integral role they played in the develop11 ment of this country. 

12 SEC. 3. AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS EDUCATION. 

13 (a) PROGRAM AUTHORIZED.—Section 2231(a) of the 

14 Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

15 U.S.C. 6661(a)) is amended— 

16 (1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 

17 inserting ‘‘, which shall include Asian Pacific Amer18 ican history,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; and 

19 (2) in paragraph (2)— 

20 (A) by inserting ‘‘which shall include Asian 

21 Pacific American history,’’ after ‘‘American his22 tory,’’; and 

23 (B) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 

24 Asian Pacific American history’’ after ‘‘tradi25 tional American history’’. 


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1 (b) PRESIDENTIAL AND CONGRESSIONAL ACADEMIES

2 FOR AMERICAN HISTORY AND CIVICS.—Section 2232 of 

3 the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 

4 U.S.C. 6662) is amended— 

5 (1) in subsection (a)— 

6 (A) in paragraph (1), by inserting ‘‘, which 

7 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 

8 after ‘‘American History’’; and 

9 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘, which 

10 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 

11 after ‘‘American History’’; 

12 (2) in subsection (c)(1), by inserting ‘‘, which 

13 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 

14 ‘‘American history’’; 

15 (3) in subsection (e)— 

16 (A) in paragraph (1)— 

17 (i) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 

18 Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 

19 ‘‘American history’’; 

20 (ii) in subparagraph (A)— 

21 (I) by inserting ‘‘, which shall in22 clude Asian Pacific American his23 tory,’’ after ‘‘teachers of American 

24 history’’; and 


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1 (II) by inserting ‘‘, which shall 

2 include Asian Pacific American his3 tory,’’ after ‘‘subjects of American 

4 history’’; and 

5 (iii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 

6 ‘‘, which shall include Asian Pacific Amer7 ican history,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; 

8 (B) in paragraph (2), by inserting ‘‘, which 

9 shall include Asian Pacific American history,’’ 

10 after ‘‘American history’’; and 

11 (C) in paragraph (4), by inserting ‘‘, and 

12 with the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific 

13 American Center to provide programs and re14 sources for educators and students’’ after ‘‘Na15 tional Parks’’; and 

16 (4) in subsection (f)— 

17 (A) by inserting ‘‘, which shall include 

18 Asian Pacific American history,’’ after ‘‘Amer19 ican history’’; 

20 (B) in subparagraph (A), by inserting ‘‘, 

21 which shall include Asian Pacific American his22 tory,’’ after ‘‘American history’’; and 

23 (C) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ‘‘, 

24 which shall include Asian Pacific American his25 tory,’’ after ‘‘American history’’. 


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1 (c) NATIONAL ACTIVITIES.—Section 2233 of the Ele2 mentary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 

3 6663) is amended— 

4 (1) in subsection (a), by inserting ‘‘which shall 

5 include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 

6 ‘‘American history,’’; and 

7 (2) in subsection (b), by inserting ‘‘which shall 

8 include Asian Pacific American history,’’ after 

9 ‘‘American history,’’. 

10 (d) NATIONAL ASSESSMENT OF EDUCATIONAL

11 PROGRESS.—Section 303(b)(2)(D) of the National As12 sessment of Educational Progress Authorization Act (20 

13 U.S.C. 9622(b)(2)(D)) is amended by inserting ‘‘(which 

14 shall include Asian Pacific American history)’’ after ‘‘his15 tory,’’. 

Æ 


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