Title: Expressing support for the recognition of April as Arab American Heritage Month and celebrating the heritage and culture of Arab Americans in the United States.
Policy area: Immigration

Summary:
This resolution supports the designation of the month of April of each year as Arab American Heritage Month.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 1022 Introduced in House (IH)]

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117th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 1022

   Expressing support for the recognition of April as Arab American 
    Heritage Month and celebrating the heritage and culture of Arab 
                    Americans in the United States.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 1, 2022

   Ms. Tlaib (for herself and Mrs. Dingell) submitted the following 
resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Oversight and Reform

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
   Expressing support for the recognition of April as Arab American 
    Heritage Month and celebrating the heritage and culture of Arab 
                    Americans in the United States.

Whereas, every April, the United States celebrates Arab American Heritage Month;
Whereas, since migrating to the United States, people of Arab descent have 
        shared their rich culture and traditions with neighbors and friends, 
        while also setting fine examples of model citizens and public servants;
Whereas Arab Americans have brought with them to the United States their 
        resilient family values, strong work ethic, dedication to education, and 
        diversity in faith and creed that have added strength to our democracy;
Whereas, for over a century, Arab Americans have been making valuable 
        contributions to every aspect of American society--in medicine, law, 
        business, technology, civic engagement, government, and culture;
Whereas Arab Americans contribute to our country's unique diversity through the 
        process of attaining citizenship and integration, as modeled by the 
        family of Dr. Joseph Arbeely, the first recorded Arab family to come to 
        the United States with the intention of becoming citizens, and whose two 
        sons, Najeeb and Ibrahim, went on to establish the first Arabic language 
        newspaper in the United States (Kawkwab America);
Whereas Americans of Arab descent helped grow this country through the 
        development of industry and free enterprise, as in the case of world 
        fairs, which attracted many immigrants from the Arab world;
Whereas historical Arab-American communities boasted dozens of restaurants and 
        grocery stores, newspapers, in both Arabic and English, houses of 
        worship, as well as numerous manufacturers, importers, and purveyors of 
        women's clothing, as in the case of the first major Arab-American 
        community, ``Little Syria'', which was depicted in Ameen Rihani's 1911 
        masterpiece, ``The Book of Khalid'';
Whereas the growth and development of Arab-American communities transforms and 
        enriches all areas of American civic, social, and political life, 
        including in the areas of religious pluralism, poetry and philosophy, 
        and journalism, to name just a few;
Whereas Joseph Howar, a Palestinian American born in 1879 as Mohammad Issa Abu 
        Al Hawa who worked in the United States as a peddler before becoming a 
        real estate developer whose contributions include the Islamic Center of 
        Washington, DC, the first mosque in the city, demonstrates the 
        transformational quality of Arab-American contributions to American 
        society;
Whereas Arab-American poet Kahlil Gibran's 1923 masterpiece, ``The Prophet'', 
        was a transformative piece of literature which discusses topics of the 
        human condition in the most eloquent of ways by highlighting inclusion 
        and understanding of all peoples, and which was translated into over 100 
        languages, making it one of the most translated books in history;
Whereas in 1959 Mohamed Atalla, an Egyptian-American engineer who was an 
        important pioneer and contributor to the early field of modern 
        electronics, invented the metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect 
        transistor (MOSFET), which is the most frequently manufactured device in 
        history, the basis of the contemporary 4th Industrial Revolution, and 
        hailed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as one of the most 
        important inventions in electronics;
Whereas the Lebanese-American woman Helen Thomas covered every United States 
        President from John F. Kennedy to Barack Obama, served as White House 
        correspondent for United Press International, later serving as the White 
        House Bureau Chief and Dean of the White House Press Corps, and was 
        recognized by the World Almanac as one of the 25 Most Influential Women 
        in America;
Whereas the Federal Government has overstepped its constitutional boundaries in 
        regard to surveillance and suspicion of the Arab-American community as 
        far back as the 1960s, when the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 
        included Arabs as targets of its Counterintelligence Program 
        (COINTELPRO);
Whereas, in 1972, the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism directed the State 
        Department, FBI, and Immigration and Nationality Service (INS) to enact 
        ``special measures'' to monitor both non-citizen residents of Arab 
        origin and Arab Americans who were United States citizens, including 
        unconstitutional interrogation of Arab students' political views, often 
        leading to deeper FBI investigation, and close scrutinization of visa 
        status, often leading to enforced penalties such as deportation;
Whereas media representations of Arab Americans in the post-9/11 era reinforce 
        longstanding racial stereotypes about Arabs, which contribute to anti-
        Arab hate crimes and obscure the actual character and complexity of 
        community members;
Whereas Raza v. City of New York demonstrates the persistence of anti-Arab bias 
        in Federal, State, and local law enforcement programs as well as the 
        contributions to community safety of Arab-American community 
        organizations like the Arab American Association of New York;
Whereas systemic and structural anti-Arab discrimination have impacted the 
        health outcomes, socioeconomic conditions, and life chances of Arab 
        Americans in ways not captured by the Federal data on racial and ethnic 
        minorities, leading to the persistence of racist disparities;
Whereas socioeconomic and health disparities between Arab Americans and the 
        general population are obscured by Federal data collection and reporting 
        standards, which do not disaggregate between Arab Americans and White 
        people on the United States Census, nor in the Office of Management and 
        Budget's Federal Statistical Policy Directives;
Whereas the Arab American Institute estimates that there are roughly 3,700,000 
        Arab Americans living in the United States;
Whereas the establishment of a Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) category 
        within the United States Census and Statistical Policy Directive Number 
        15 of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which sets the Federal 
        Government's standards for data demographic data collection and 
        reporting standards, would allow for the collection and reporting of 
        disaggregated data between White people and ``Middle Eastern and North 
        African'' people and demonstrate the unique impact of systemic anti-Arab 
        racism on Arab Americans' socioeconomic conditions, health outcomes, and 
        life chances;
Whereas there is a need for public education, awareness, and policies that are 
        culturally competent when describing, discussing, and addressing the 
        impacts of being Arab American in all aspects of American society;
Whereas, according to Census Bureau data, Arabic is one of the fastest growing 
        languages in the United States;
Whereas President Biden recognized the celebration of Arab American Heritage 
        Month in an April 19th, 2021, letter to Arab America and the Arab 
        America Foundation, making him the first sitting U.S. President to do 
        so;
Whereas the Department of State recognized April as National Arab American 
        Heritage Month in 2021;
Whereas at least 40 States and territories have taken steps to recognize April 
        as Arab American Heritage Month, including the governments of Arizona, 
        Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of 
        Columbia, Georgia, Hawai`i, Idaho, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, 
        Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, 
        Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, 
        North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, 
        South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, 
        Wisconsin, and Wyoming;
Whereas numerous cities, towns and counties across America have taken steps to 
        recognize April as Arab American Heritage Month, including Los Angeles, 
        CA; Orange County, CA; San Francisco, CA; San Diego, CA; Gainesville, 
        FL; Orlando, FL; Atlanta, GA; Chicago, IL; Cook County, IL; Baltimore, 
        MD; Detroit, MI; Wayne County, MI; Dearborn, MI; Dearborn Heights, MI; 
        Flint, MI; Yonkers, NY; Westchester County, NY; Raleigh, NC; Cuyahoga 
        County, OH; Cleveland, OH; Toledo, OH; Portland, OR; Philadelphia, PA; 
        Dallas, TX; Alexandria, VA; Richmond, VA; Milwaukee, WI; and Madison, 
        WI; and
Whereas the incredible contributions and heritage of Arab Americans have helped 
        us build a better Nation: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) supports the designation of the month of April of each 
        year as Arab American Heritage Month;
            (2) esteems the integral role of Arab Americans in the 
        economy, culture, and identity of the United States; and
            (3) urges the people of the United States to observe Arab 
        American Heritage Month with appropriate programs and 
        activities that recognize, address, and celebrate the unique 
        contributions of Arab Americans to the United States.
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