[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5192 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5192
To establish a grant program in the Department of Labor to assist
unemployed and under-employed workers to document the American
experience.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 11, 2023
Mr. Lieu (for himself, Ms. Leger Fernandez, Ms. Norton, Mr. Tonko, Mr.
Pocan, Ms. Garcia of Texas, Ms. Williams of Georgia, Mr. Schiff, and
Mr. Kilmer) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Education and the Workforce, and in addition to the
Committee on House Administration, for a period to be subsequently
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such
provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To establish a grant program in the Department of Labor to assist
unemployed and under-employed workers to document the American
experience.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``21st Century Federal Writers'
Project Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) In 1935, during the Great Depression, President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt established The Federal Writers'
Project of the New Deal Era. This program was organized to
employ writers, editors, historians, researchers, journalists,
librarians, broadcasters, photographers, and others to document
American society.
(2) The Federal Writers Project employed up to 10,000
people between its founding in 1935 during the Great Depression
and the publication of its first guides in 1943.
(3) The original Federal Writers' Project had many
successes, such as--
(A) the American Guide Series, which covered 48
States, 40 cities, 18 regions and territories, and
countless counties, with John Steinbeck calling the
Series, ``the most comprehensive account of the United
States ever got together, and nothing since has even
approached it. It was compiled during the depression by
the best writers in America'';
(B) creating opportunities for writers who went on
to become some of the United States greatest authors,
including Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Saul Bellow,
and Zora Neale Hurston;
(C) developing the Slave Narrative Project, the
largest project to document the experience of formerly
enslaved people, as part of the oral history and
photography project telling the story of 10,000 people
of the United States; and
(D) creating over 1,000 books and pamphlets
covering local and regional histories, folklore
collections, humor, ethnic studies, and nature studies.
(4) Between late 2019 and May 2022, more than 360
newspapers closed and the country is on track to lose more than
one-third of its total newspapers by 2025.
(5) Around 7 percent of America's counties are without a
local news outlet.
(6) The original Federal Writers' Project provided the
opportunity to observe and document the Great Depression as
part of a larger portrait of American society. The 21st Century
Federal Writers' Project will serve to update this portrait of
American society in the 21st Century.
SEC. 3. DOL GRANT PROGRAM.
(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of
enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Labor, working through the
Employment and Training Administration, shall establish a grant program
to provide eligible entities described in subsection (d) with funds to
assist individuals who are unemployed or underemployed in order to
document in writing and images the current state of the American
experience.
(b) Interagency Working Group.--
(1) Establishment.--There is established an interagency
working group for the purpose of developing the program's
guidelines.
(2) Members.--The interagency working group shall be
composed of the following members:
(A) The Secretary.
(B) The Chair of the National Endowment for the
Humanities.
(C) The Librarian of Congress.
(D) Experts in the field of journalism.
(E) Any other experts the Secretary determines to
be appropriate.
(3) Reports.--The working group shall issue a report on the
composition of the working group and how the program will be
structured, how grant recipients are determined, and another
report following disbursement on efficacy and lessons learned.
(4) Termination.--The working group shall terminate not
later than 180 days after the date on which the final grant
under this program is disbursed.
(c) Grant Features.--In administering the grant program under
subsection (a), the Secretary shall determine--
(1) the parameters of the grant program; and
(2) the amount and duration of grant awards under the
program, except that in no case may an individual grant awarded
under the program for a fiscal year exceed an amount equal to
7.5 percent of the amounts appropriated under subsection (j)
for such fiscal year.
(d) Eligible Entities.--To be eligible to receive a grant under
this section, an entity shall submit an application to the Secretary of
Labor at such time and in such manner as the Secretary may require and
be--
(1) a nonprofit organization that has experience in
writing, researching, collecting, curating, or disseminating
educational information;
(2) a newsroom, which may be a nonprofit or for-profit
entity;
(3) a public or nonprofit library; or
(4) a communications labor organization or guild.
(e) Preference for Certain Individuals.--In selecting individuals
to receive funds, a grant recipient shall give preference to
individuals who have experience or education in an occupation described
in the Standard Occupational Classification for categories 25-000 and
27-000.
(f) Geographic Diversity.--In selecting the recipients for a grant
under this section, the Secretary of Labor shall, to the extent
practicable, ensure equitable geographic distribution, including urban
and rural areas and Tribal lands.
(g) Repository.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary of Labor shall establish a
repository of works developed through the grant program, in
which grant recipients submit completed works from subgrant
recipients, give credit to each writer or artist of the
completed work, and make such works available to the public.
(2) Timing.--Not later than 90 days after receipt of a
completed work under paragraph (1), the Secretary of Labor
shall forward such work to the Librarian of Congress to archive
such material in accordance with subsection (g).
(h) Archive.--The Librarian of Congress shall establish an archive
program in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress to
collect the written and visual works collected by the Secretary under
subsection (f) and make such works publicly available in a digital and
print format, which format includes giving credit to each work's writer
or artist.
(i) Reporting Requirements.--
(1) Grant recipient reporting.--The Secretary of Labor
shall develop reporting guidelines for grant recipients under
this section to include, at a minimum, information regarding--
(A) the amount of funds received by each grant
recipient, the amount provided to subgrant recipients,
and the number of projects completed;
(B) the race, ethnicity, age, location in terms of
urban or rural, and regional diversity of subgrant
recipients;
(C) the number of requests made to review the
completed projects or works distributed (when
available); and
(D) such other data as the Secretary considers
important.
(2) Reporting to congress.--Not less than once each year
while the program under this section is in operation, the
Secretary of Labor shall submit a report summarizing the data
collected under paragraph (1) to the Committees on
Appropriations and Education and Labor of the House of
Representatives and the Committees on Appropriations and
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.
(j) Administrative Costs.--
(1) Secretary.--The Secretary of Labor may reserve 5
percent of the funds made available to carry out the program
under this section for administrative costs.
(2) Eligible entities.--An eligible entity that receives a
grant under this section for a fiscal year may reserve not more
than 10 percent of funds received for such year to administer
its program under the grant.
(k) Authorization of Appropriations.--There is authorized to be
appropriated to carry out this section $60,000,000 for fiscal year
2024.
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