I 
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. BARRAGA´N, 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. GARCI´A 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. SA´NCHEZ, 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. VELA´ZQUEZ, 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 Ha-
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waiian, and Pacific Islander descent in the settling and 
founding of America, the social, economic, and political 
environments that led to the development of discrimina-
tory laws targeting Asians, Native Hawaiians, and Pa-
cific 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 cul-
ture, and for other purposes. 
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 ‘‘Teaching Asian Amer-
ican, 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 Is-
lands including Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia 
have unique histories that are often overlooked in 
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American history despite their immense contribu-
tions 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 ex-
cludes 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 estab-
lished under Federal law, can assist teachers in ef-
forts 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, Na-
tive Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander history as an in-
tegral part of American history. 
(6) The history of America’s system of immi-
gration is rife with racism, embedded with goals of 
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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 Pa-
cific Islanders in what is now considered to be the 
United States predates the founding of our Nation. 
(10) In 1993, Congress passed a joint resolu-
tion that was signed into law formally apologizing 
for the role of the United States in the illegal over-
throw 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 pre-
vent the entry of Asian women perceived as immoral 
or suspected of prostitution. 
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(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 immi-
gration from the Asia-Pacific zone. 
(16) The Immigration Act of 1924 set a na-
tional origin quota to deter immigration. 
(17) President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Execu-
tive 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 dis-
placed more than 3,000,000 refugees from Cam-
bodia, Laos, and Vietnam due to covert and overt 
United States military operations in Southeast Asia. 
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(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 com-
munity today. 
(21) The United States ratified a Compact of 
Free Association with the Federated States of Mi-
cronesia, 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 cer-
tain 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 pas-
sage. 
(23) The Pacific Islander community represents 
the largest concentration of any ethnic group en-
listed in the United States military, as well as rep-
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resenting the highest numbers of casualties in recent 
wars. 
(24) The ‘‘model minority’’ myth perpetuates 
the stigma of Asian Americans as perpetual for-
eigners, and such stereotypes are used to pit minor-
ity groups against one another. 
(25) The pattern of hate crimes and hate inci-
dents directed at Asians and Asian Americans has 
repeated itself throughout history. 
(26) Asian American and African American his-
tories 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— 
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(1) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 
inserting ‘‘, which shall include Asian American, Na-
tive 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 Is-
lander 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 subpara-
graph (A), by inserting ‘‘, which shall in-
clude Asian American, Native Hawaiian, 
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and Pacific Islander history,’’ after ‘‘Amer-
ican history’’; 
(ii) in subparagraph (A)— 
(I) by inserting ‘‘, which shall in-
clude Asian American, Native Hawai-
ian, and Pacific Islander history,’’ 
after ‘‘teachers of American history’’; 
and 
(II) by inserting ‘‘, which shall 
include Asian American, Native Ha-
waiian, and Pacific Islander history,’’ 
after ‘‘subjects of American history’’; 
and 
(iii) in subparagraph (B), by inserting 
‘‘, which shall include Asian American, Na-
tive Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander his-
tory,’’ 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 re-
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sources for educators and students’’ after ‘‘Na-
tional 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 Ha-
waiian, and Pacific Islander history,’’ after 
‘‘American history’’; and 
(C) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ‘‘, 
which shall include Asian American, Native Ha-
waiian, and Pacific Islander history,’’ after 
‘‘American history’’. 
(c) NATIONAL ACTIVITIES.—Section 2233 of the Ele-
mentary 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 Pa-
cific Islander history,’’ after ‘‘American history,’’; 
and 
(2) in subsection (b)— 
(A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), 
by inserting ‘‘which shall include Asian Amer-
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ican, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander his-
tory,’’ 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 As-
sessment 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 Pa-
cific Islander history)’’ after ‘‘history’’. 
Æ 
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