[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3370 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 3370

    To designate the area between the intersections of 3rd Street, 
   Southwest and E Street, Southwest and 4th Street, Southwest and E 
  Street, Southwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as ``Hidden 
                 Figures Way'', and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            August 23, 2018

     Mr. Cruz (for himself, Mr. Markey, Mr. Thune, and Mr. Nelson) 
introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the 
        Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To designate the area between the intersections of 3rd Street, 
   Southwest and E Street, Southwest and 4th Street, Southwest and E 
  Street, Southwest in Washington, District of Columbia, as ``Hidden 
                 Figures Way'', and for other purposes.

    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 ``Hidden Figures Way Designation 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) before the development of electronic computers, the 
        term ``computer'' was a job title designating individuals at 
        the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (referred to in 
        this section as ``NACA''), which would later become the 
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration (referred to in 
        this section as ``NASA''), who performed mathematical equations 
        and calculations by hand;
            (2) in 1935, Virginia Tucker received notice of her 
        appointment to Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory and 
        joined 4 other women in the first ``computer pool'' at the 
        laboratory;
            (3) by 1942, human computers had become essential to 
        operations at NACA, as indicated in a memo dated April of that 
        year which stated that ``the engineers admit themselves that 
        the girl computers do the work more rapidly and accurately than 
        they could'';
            (4) over the next 30 years, hundreds of women, mostly with 
        degrees in math or other sciences, would serve as human 
        computers;
            (5) reading, calculating, and plotting data from tests in 
        the wind tunnels and research divisions at Langley Memorial 
        Aeronautical Laboratory, human computers played an integral 
        role in aeronautical and aerospace research at the laboratory 
        from the mid 1930s into the 1970s;
            (6) the majority of computing work at the Langley Memorial 
        Aeronautical Laboratory involved reading film, running 
        calculations, and plotting data;
            (7) the computing work described in paragraph (6) was done 
        by hand, using slide rules, curves, magnifying glasses, and 
        basic calculating machines, like the Marchant or the more 
        popular Friden, which could multiply and calculate square 
        roots;
            (8) human computers played an integral role during World 
        War II;
            (9) between 1941 and 1945, employee numbers at Langley 
        Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory increased from 940 to 3,220;
            (10) during the 1940s, the Langley Memorial Aeronautical 
        Laboratory began recruiting African-American women with college 
        degrees to work as computers who were grouped in a segregated 
        section of the laboratory known as the ``West Area Computers'';
            (11) despite having degrees, all African-American computers 
        were required to take a course in chemistry at Hampton 
        Institute before starting as computers at Langley Memorial 
        Aeronautical Laboratory;
            (12) the first African-American computers did the same work 
        as their White counterparts, but in a period during which 
        segregation was policy across the South and in the armed 
        services, African-American computers encountered segregated 
        dining and bathroom facilities and barriers to other 
        professional jobs;
            (13) Katherine Johnson joined the West Area Computers in 
        1953, and would go on to join the Space Task Force in 1958, at 
        which she calculated trajectories for the spaceflights of Alan 
        Shepard and John Glenn and synched the lunar lander of Project 
        Apollo with the moon-orbiting command and service module;
            (14) Dorothy Vaughan served as the head of the segregated 
        West Area Computing Unit at NACA from 1949 until 1958;
            (15) Mary Winston Jackson spent 2 years working the 
        computing pool at NACA before working for engineer Kazimierz 
        Czarnecki in the 4-foot by 4-foot supersonic pressure tunnel;
            (16) in 1958, Mary Winston Jackson became the first 
        African-American engineer at NASA;
            (17) in 1967, Christine Darden began working as a human 
        computer at NASA;
            (18) frustrated by her lack of promotion after 5 years of 
        computing and programming, Christine Darden was transferred to 
        sonic boom research where she would go on to spend 25 years 
        working on sonic boom minimization before being appointed as 
        the director in the Program Management Office of the Aerospace 
        Performing Center in 1999;
            (19) often overlooked or hidden in history, human computers 
        took pride in their work, enjoyed the challenge the work 
        offered, and proved that women could successfully do the work 
        that was required of their positions; and
            (20) renaming the street in front of NASA headquarters in 
        the District of Columbia as Hidden Figures Way serves to 
        recognize Virginia Tucker, Katherine Johnson, Dr. Christine 
        Darden, Dorothy Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and all of the human 
        computers who have dedicated their lives to honorably serving 
        their country, advancing equality, and contributing to the 
        space program of the United States.

SEC. 3. DESIGNATION OF HIDDEN FIGURES WAY.

    (a) Designation of Hidden Figures Way.--
            (1) In general.--The area between the intersections of 3rd 
        Street, Southwest and E Street, Southwest and 4th Street, 
        Southwest and E Street, Southwest in Washington, District of 
        Columbia, shall be known and designated as ``Hidden Figures 
        Way''.
            (2) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
        document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
        area referred to in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to be a 
        reference to Hidden Figures Way.
    (b) Designation of Address.--
            (1) Designation.--The address of 300 E Street, Southwest, 
        Washington, District of Columbia, shall be redesignated as 
        ``300 Hidden Figures Way''.
            (2) References.--Any reference in a law, map, regulation, 
        document, paper, or other record of the United States to the 
        address referred to in paragraph (1) shall be deemed to be a 
        reference to 300 Hidden Figures Way.
    (c) Signs.--The Administrator of General Services shall construct 
street signs that shall--
            (1) contain the phrase ``Hidden Figures Way'';
            (2) be similar in design to the signs used by Washington, 
        District of Columbia, to designate the location of Metro 
        stations; and
            (3) be placed on--
                    (A) the parcel of property that is closest to 
                Hidden Figures Way; and
                    (B) the intersections of 3rd Street, Southwest and 
                E Street, Southwest and 4th Street, Southwest and E 
                Street, Southwest in Washington, District of Columbia.
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