I 
116TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 4188 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish the Native American 
Language Vitalization and Training Program. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
AUGUST 16, 2019 
Mr. SABLAN (for himself, Ms. SCHRIER, Ms. GABBARD, and Mr. CASE) intro-
duced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Edu-
cation and Labor 
A BILL 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to establish 
the Native American Language Vitalization and Training 
Program. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Native American Lan-
guage Vitalization Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE VITALIZATION AND 
TRAINING PROGRAM. 
Part A of title III of the Higher Education Act of 
1965 (20 U.S.C. 1057 et seq.) is amended by inserting 
after section 316 (20 U.S.C. 1059c) the following: 
‘‘SEC. 316A. NATIVE AMERICAN LANGUAGE VITALIZATION 
AND TRAINING PROGRAM. 
‘‘(a) ESTABLISHMENT.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—From the amount appro-
priated under subsection (d), the Secretary shall es-
tablish the Native American Language Vitalization 
and Training Program under which the Secretary 
shall award grants, on a competitive basis, to eligible 
institutions to promote the preservation, revitaliza-
tion, relevancy, and use of Native American lan-
guages. 
‘‘(2) TERM.—The term of a grant under this 
section shall be not more than 5 years. 
‘‘(3) APPLICATION.— 
‘‘(A) STREAMLINED
PROCESS.—In car-
rying out the program under this section, the 
Secretary shall establish application require-
ments in such a manner as to simplify and 
streamline the process for the grant application 
under this section. 
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‘‘(B) IN GENERAL.—To be eligible to re-
ceive a grant under this subsection, an eligible 
institution shall submit to the Secretary an ap-
plication at such time, in such manner, and in 
accordance with any other application require-
ments described in subparagraph (A), that the 
Secretary may prescribe, and including the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘(i) A description of the 5-year pro-
gram of the eligible institution for meeting 
the needs of American Indians, Alaska Na-
tives, Native Hawaiians, or Native Amer-
ican Pacific Islanders as appropriate, in 
the area served by the institution, and how 
such plan is consistent with the purposes 
described in paragraph (1). 
‘‘(ii)(I) An identification of the popu-
lation to be served by the eligible institu-
tion; and 
‘‘(II) an identification of the status of 
Native American language understanding 
and use within that population and a de-
scription of the manner in which the pro-
gram will help preserve and revitalize the 
relevant Native American language. 
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