[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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