118 HR 3239 IH: Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Act of 2023
U.S. House of Representatives
2023-05-11
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I
118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 3239
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
May 11, 2023
Ms. Lee of California (for herself, Mr. Bowman, Mr. Kim of New Jersey, Ms. Clarke of New York, Ms. Bonamici, Mr. Evans, Ms. Scanlon, and Mr. Takano) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and the Workforce
A BILL
To address systemic racism through the arts and humanities in the United States.
1.

Short title
This Act may be cited as the “Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Act of 2023”.
2.

Findings
Congress makes the following findings:
(1)
Access to the arts and cultural programming influences positive social determinants and is integral to healthy communities.
(2)
In America, the received narrative is that the arts are for entertainment or for artists, but a deeper look shows the profound effect access to the arts has on those most impacted by the justice system, children, veterans, low-income communities, and self-designated non-artists.
(3)
Concentrated cultural districts are associated with reduced poverty without neighborhood displacement, improved child welfare, and lower morbidity.
(4)
Low-income neighborhoods with cultural resources have 14 percent fewer cases of child abuse and neglect, and 18 percent less serious crime than low-income neighborhoods without cultural resources.
(5)
Low-income students who participate in the arts, both in school and after school, have a dropout rate of just 4 percent or 5 times lower than their peers. Children with access to arts programming in schools showed a 22.55 percent improvement in math proficiency, a 12.62 percent improvement in reading, and suspensions were reduced by as much as 89 percent.
(6)
Seventy-one percent of at-risk students with high arts involvement attend college, whereas only 48 percent of at-risk students with low arts involvement attend college.
(7)
Participation in after-school arts programs causes juvenile crime to fall by 4.2 percent on average, and slightly more (5.4 percent) in lower-income cities.
(8)
Arts programming in prisons showed an 89-percent drop in infractions.
(9)
The cultural economy is significant not only in cities, but also in rural and tribal communities. Forty percent of Native American households on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota, depend on home-based arts enterprises.
(10)
The arts heal the mental, physical, and moral injuries of war for military servicemembers and veterans, as well as aid in their reintegration into the community.
(11)
Arts and culture is an $878,000,000,000 industry in the U.S. (nonprofit, commercial, education). The nonprofit arts industry alone generates $166,300,000,000 in annual economic activity spending by organizations and their audience, which supports 4,600,000 jobs and generates $27,500,000,000 in government revenue.
(12)
The National Endowment for the Arts is the only arts funder in the United States, public or private, that provides access to the arts in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States.
(13)
Many of the most far-reaching victories for racial healing in the United States have been greatly enhanced by the involvement, support, and dedication of individuals from any and all racial groups.
(14)
At the same time, much of the progress toward racial healing and racial equity in the United States has been limited or reversed by our failure to address the root cause of racism, the belief in the myth of a hierarchy of human value based on superficial physical characteristics such as skin color and facial features.
(15)
Limited arts access is linked to economic and racial inequities as well as resource deprivation.
(16)
Arts organizations serving communities of color are, in general, much less financially secure and far smaller than their counterparts in White communities. The median budgets of the 20 largest arts organizations serving communities of color in a given discipline, such as dance, theater, or music, were more than 90 percent smaller than the budgets of the largest organizations in that discipline.
(17)
Children of color, who make up the overwhelming percentage of the children living in poverty in the United States, and other students with lower socioeconomic status, have a lower probability of accessing arts education.
(18)
Access to arts education declined significantly more for Black and Brown students than it did for White children between 1982 and 2008. There was less than a 2 percent decrease for White children, while there was a 49 percent decrease for Black children and a 40 percent decrease for Latin children.
(19)
The arts are in everyone. Everyone should have access to the arts.
(20)
Racial and ethnic inequality is a result of systematic and internalized racism and racist public and private policies and practices. Dismantling structural racism through the arts and humanities is critical to the health of our Nation.
3.

Definitions
(1)

Antiracism
The term “antiracism” means a collection of antiracist policies and practices that lead to racial equity, are substantiated by antiracist ideas, and include a policy or practice that recognizes pervasive racism in society, and actively combats racial prejudice and discrimination in order to promote racial justice and equity.
(2)

Antiracist
The term “antiracist” means any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups, including any policy or practice that produces active resistance to and dismantling of the system of racism.
(3)

Systemic racism
The term “systemic racism” means systems of power, unfair policies, discriminatory practices, and normalized dynamics (historical, cultural, internalized, interpersonal, institutional) that routinely produce inequitable outcomes for oppressed people and advantages for privileged people, with the effect of creating and sustaining inequities.
(4)

Equity
The term “equity” means fair and impartial outcomes, opportunities, and access for an individual (or entity) engaging with an organization or systems (political and socio-economic), to receive or experience what is needed (not equal) in order to maintain fairness.
(5)

BIPOC
The term “BIPOC” is an acronym to refer inclusively to—
(A)
“Black, Indigenous, and People of Color”, which includes South West Asian and North African (SWANA);
(B)
Black and African American; Hispanic and Latino; and
(C)
Native American, Alaska Native, and Indigenous American; Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) peoples.
(6)

Hispanic
The term “Hispanic” means an individual whose origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or any other Spanish-speaking country.
(7)

BIPOC-led
The term “BIPOC-led” means an organization that is founded by or currently has executive leadership made up of BIPOC individuals, but excludes an organization that is predominantly White or serves predominantly White audiences that simply have a BIPOC individual in a token leadership position.
(8)

Chairpersons
The term “Chairpersons” means the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
(9)

Promising practices
The term “promising practices” means programs that have strategies, activities, or approaches which have supporting research and evaluation, as well as measurable outcomes that have shown the program to be effective and impactful for participants.
(10)

Humanities
The term “humanities” means a discipline and method to share stories, ideas, and experiences.
(11)

Humanities organization
The term “humanities organization” means an organization that connects people through stories, ideas, and experiences that positively change lives and strengthen communities, bringing communities together for meaningful encounters, and includes—
(A)
cultural and tribal organizations; museums; performing artists; and
(B)
libraries and archives; media; historical societies; publishers; arts and crafts groups; educational institutions; and more.
4.

Advancing equity through the arts and humanities program
(a)

In general
(1)

Antiracism program
There is established an Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Program, to be carried out by the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts (in this Act referred to as the NEA) and the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities (in this Act referred to as the NEH) to increase engagement with public and nonprofit entities (including faith-based and community-based organizations that serve and are led by people of color) and to support arts and humanities projects that directly combat systemic racism through the arts and humanities.
(2)

Program components
Under the Advancing Equity through the Arts and Humanities Program, the Chairpersons of NEA and NEH shall—
(A)
encourage, consult with, and engage in capacity building with public and nonprofit entities, including faith-based and community-based organizations, led by majority BIPOC to—
(i)
build and implement a competitive grant program that directly combats systemic racism through the arts and humanities;
(ii)
review and augment existing NEA and NEH programs to include strategies to dismantle systemic racism through the arts and humanities;
(iii)
develop and implement outreach strategies and provide pre- and post-technical support for NEA and NEH programs that directly combat systemic racism through the arts and humanities; and
(iv)
provide free grant writing training and technical support for grant applicants, including potential and unapproved applicants;
(B)
collaborate with governmental agencies, universities, museums, and non-profit, faith-based, and community-based organizations with anti-racism initiatives focused on dismantling systemic racism by helping remove barriers to access;
(C)
build a database of grantees to increase participation and outreach in consultation with the advisory task force created under this Act;
(D)
ensure grant panelists include majority BIPOC members, majority artists, advocates, community leaders, researchers, people who have participated in arts programing while incarcerated, and educators;
(E)
ensure that grantees who partner with other organizations do so with those who employ and center communities of color;
(F)
have the discretion to extend grant funding for multi-year initiatives in good standing and waive matching grant requirements; and
(G)
create an advisory task force, not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, to develop guidelines for the grantmaking process and reassess equitable outreach and education as follows:
(i)
Members of the task force shall include: majority BIPOC members, majority artists, arts and humanities advocates representing the diversity of the spectrum of arts and humanities, community leaders, researchers, at least 1 person who has participated in arts programing while incarcerated, an educator from a public institution, youth, and represent geographic and multigenerational diversity.
(ii)
Members of the task force shall be paid a fair wage for their service.
(iii)
The task force shall, not later than 180 days after formation, submit to the Chairpersons of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and make publicly available, a report that includes—
(I)
recommended guidelines for the grantmaking process and reassess equitable outreach and education;
(II)
a recommended antiracism framework for the selection of panelists and grantees, including eligibility requirements;
(III)
a recommended framework to increase accessibility to grants, such as free grant writing classes, culturally and linguistically appropriate pre and post technical assistance to apply for grants and produce reports, in-language resources, and partnerships with community-based organizations and other public and private nonprofits;
(IV)
recommendations to ensure that requests for proposals (RFPs) are equitable and accessible to all individuals;
(V)
review a database of grantees to increase participation and outreach; and
(VI)
implement recommendations aligned with task force guidelines.
5.

Grant program
(a)

Establishment
Not later than 180 days after the funds are appropriated to carry out this Act, the Chairpersons, in consultation with the advisory task force, shall establish a competitive grant program to be administered jointly in the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, to make grants to eligible entities to create and expand programs to support public and nonprofit arts and humanities organizations that directly combat systemic racism through the arts and humanities, including dance, music, theater, musical theater, literary, poetry and spoken word, visual and public art, performing, media arts, social justice, faith-based, folk and traditional, and other arts and humanities organizations.
(b)

Eligible entities
To carry out the components of the program under this section, the Chairpersons shall—
(1)
give priority in this order to the following eligible entities:
(A)
public and nonprofit organizations that work to combat systemic racism through arts and humanities projects, including—
(i)
public and nonprofit organizations that are BIPOC-led;
(ii)
public and nonprofit organizations that have majority BIPOC executive staff and board members and center them as decision makers;
(iii)
public and nonprofit organizations that have a proven history of effective and ongoing antiracism work that has made demonstrative change in organizational culture and shows a commitment to supporting the BIPOC community; and
(iv)
organizations, including community-based organizations, that are fiscally sponsored; and
(2)
not include any for-profit entity.
(c)

Allowable use of funds
An eligible entity that receives a grant under this section shall carry out 1 or more of the following:
(1)
Planning, developing, and implementing an initiative and programming that work to combat systemic racism through arts and/or humanities, including—
(A)
the arts or humanities engagement and education, such as artist residency, arts festivals, coalition building, community co-creation of art, performances, and public art;
(B)
design, such as artist or designer-facilitated community planning, design of artist space, design of cultural facilities, and public space design;
(C)
artist and creative industry support, such as creative business development and professional artist development;
(D)
arts and humanities programs for incarcerated individuals and for the prevention of re-incarceration; and
(E)
other arts and humanities programming that work to dismantle systemic racism.
(2)
General support, including capital funding, salaries, contractors and consultants, office space and supplies, benefits and insurance and other operational needs.
(3)
Research to further the grant recipient’s work to dismantle systemic racism through the arts or humanities.
(4)
Training to further the grant recipient’s work to dismantle systemic racism through the arts or humanities.
(d)

Administrative expenses
The Chairpersons may use not more than 5 percent of funds available to carry out this section for administration of the Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Program, including technical assistance, collaboration with other relevant agencies, and dissemination of best practices.
(e)

Grantees
An eligible entity that receives a grant under this section shall submit an annual report to the Chairpersons describing—
(1)
the proposed and actual uses of funds, including a description of how much funding supported which promising practices;
(2)
racial and ethnic demographics of persons administering and implementing the grants in a manner that protects personally identifiable information;
(3)
how funds were used and its effect on dismantling systemic racism and other outcomes, which may include success measures such as community culture surveys, workplace culture surveys, community and program participant feedback, and existing diagnostic or formative assessments, disaggregated by race and ethnicity, age, and gender in a manner that protects personally identifiable information; and
(4)
how the grant funds were supplemented with State and local funds, or other funding streams.
(f)

Reports to Congress
Beginning 1 year after the first grants are awarded under this section, and annually thereafter, the Chairpersons shall publicly submit and digitally publish a report to Congress detailing—
(1)
the criteria on which grants were awarded;
(2)
eligible entities that received grants and amount of funding received by each grantee;
(3)
barriers to access for BIPOC individuals and communities, how NEA and NEH addressed these challenges, and recommendations for Congress to help support NEA and NEH address these barriers;
(4)
the proposed and actual uses of funds, including—
(A)
a description of community impact; racial and ethnic demographics of persons administering and implementing the grants; and
(B)
racial and ethnic demographics of grant panel, in a manner that protects personally identifiable information;
(5)
available outcomes related to the grant’s impact to dismantle systemic racism through the arts and humanities;
(6)
the technical assistance activities of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities and costs of these activities, dissemination costs, and costs of other activities supported by the set-aside for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities; and
(7)
any other information as deemed appropriate by the Chairpersons.
(g)

Authorization of appropriations
There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.