H.R.5810

            I 

116TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION H. R. 5810 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve the American 

History for Freedom grant program. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 7, 2020 
Mr. BLUMENAUER (for himself, Mr. COLE, Ms. SCHRIER, Mr. MOOLENAAR, 

Mr. HIMES, and Ms. STEFANIK) introduced the following bill; which was 
referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 

A BILL 
To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to improve 

the American History for Freedom grant program. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1

tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3

This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Understanding and 4

Studying American Civics Act of 2020’’ or the ‘‘USA 5

Civics Act of 2020’’. 6

SEC. 2. AMERICAN CIVICS EDUCATION PROGRAM. 7

Section 805 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 8

U.S.C. 1161e) is amended— 9

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2 

•HR 5810 IH

(1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘HIS-1

TORY FOR FREEDOM’’ and inserting ‘‘CIVICS 2

EDUCATION PROGRAM’’; 3

(2) in subsection (a)— 4

(A) by striking ‘‘subsection (f)’’ and insert-5

ing ‘‘subsection (g)’’; 6

(B) by striking ‘‘the Secretary is author-7

ized to award three-year grants, on a competi-8

tive basis,’’ and inserting ‘‘the Secretary is au-9

thorized to award grants, once every 3 years 10

and on a competitive basis,’’; 11

(C) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-12

ing the following: 13

‘‘(1) American political thought and history;’’; 14

(D) in paragraph (2) by striking ‘‘or’’ after 15

the semicolon; 16

(E) by striking paragraph (3) and insert-17

ing the following: 18

‘‘(3) the history, achievements, and impact of 19

American representative democracy and constitu-20

tional democracies globally; or’’; and 21

(F) by adding at the end the following: 22

‘‘(4) the means of participation in political and 23

civic life.’’; 24

(3) in subsection (b)— 25

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3 

•HR 5810 IH

(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘as de-1

fined in section 101.’’ and inserting ‘‘, or a 2

partnership that includes an institution of high-3

er education and one or more nonprofit organi-4

zations, whose missions and demonstrated ex-5

pertise are consistent with the purpose of this 6

section.’’; 7

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘that 8

emerged’’ and all that follows through the pe-9

riod at the end and inserting ‘‘founded on the 10

principles of representative democracy, constitu-11

tional government, individual rights, market ec-12

onomics, religious freedom and religious toler-13

ance, and freedom of thought and inquiry.’’; 14

and 15

(C) by striking paragraph (3) and insert-16

ing the following: 17

‘‘(3) AMERICAN POLITICAL THOUGHT AND HIS-18

TORY.—The term ‘American political thought and 19

history’ means— 20

‘‘(A) the significant constitutional, polit-21

ical, intellectual, economic, social, and foreign 22

policy trends and issues that have shaped the 23

course of American history; and 24

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4 

•HR 5810 IH

‘‘(B) the key episodes, turning points, 1

texts, and figures involved in the constitutional, 2

political, intellectual, diplomatic, social, and 3

economic history of the United States.’’; 4

(4) in subsection (c)(2)— 5

(A) in subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘tra-6

ditional’’ and all that follows through the semi-7

colon and inserting ‘‘American political thought 8

and history, free institutions, the impact of 9

American representative democracy and con-10

stitutional democracies globally, or the means of 11

participation in political and civic life;’’; and 12

(B) in subparagraph (B), by inserting ‘‘, 13

which may include the creation or use of open 14

educational resources’’ after ‘‘subsection 15

(e)(1)(B)’’; 16

(5) in subsection (d)— 17

(A) by striking paragraph (1) and insert-18

ing the following: 19

‘‘(1) increase access to quality programming 20

that expands knowledge of American political 21

thought and history, free institutions, the impact of 22

American representative democracy and constitu-23

tional democracies globally, or the means of partici-24

pation in political and civic life;’’; and 25

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5 

•HR 5810 IH

(B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘tradi-1

tional American history, free institutions, or 2

Western civilization’’ and inserting ‘‘American 3

political thought and history, free institutions, 4

the impact of American representative democ-5

racy and constitutional democracies globally, or 6

the means of participation in political and civic 7

life.’’; 8

(6) by striking subsection (e) and inserting the 9

following: 10

‘‘(e) USE OF FUNDS.— 11

‘‘(1) REQUIRED USE OF FUNDS.—Funds pro-12

vided under this section shall be used— 13

‘‘(A) to establish or strengthen academic 14

programs or centers focused on American polit-15

ical thought and history, free institutions, the 16

impact of American representative democracy 17

and constitutional democracies globally, or the 18

means of participation in political and civic life, 19

which may include— 20

‘‘(i) design and implementation of 21

programs of study, courses, lecture series, 22

seminars, and symposia; 23

‘‘(ii) development, publication, and 24

dissemination of instructional materials; 25

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6 

•HR 5810 IH

‘‘(iii) research; 1

‘‘(iv) support for faculty teaching in 2

undergraduate and, if applicable, graduate 3

programs; or 4

‘‘(v) support for graduate and post-5

graduate fellowships, if applicable; or 6

‘‘(B) for teacher preparation initiatives 7

that stress content mastery regarding American 8

political thought and history, free institutions, 9

the impact of American representative democ-10

racy and constitutional democracies globally, or 11

the means of participation in political and civic 12

life; 13

‘‘(C) for collaboration with local edu-14

cational agencies for the purpose of providing 15

elementary school and secondary school teach-16

ers an opportunity to enhance their knowledge 17

of American political thought and history, free 18

institutions, the impact of American representa-19

tive democracy and constitutional democracies 20

globally, or the means of participation in polit-21

ical and civic life; and 22

‘‘(D) to conduct outreach activities to en-23

sure that information about the activities fund-24

ed under this section is widely disseminated— 25

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7 

•HR 5810 IH

‘‘(i) to undergraduate students (in-1

cluding students enrolled in teacher edu-2

cation programs, if applicable); 3

‘‘(ii) to graduate students (including 4

students enrolled in teacher education pro-5

grams, if applicable); 6

‘‘(iii) to faculty; 7

‘‘(iv) to local educational agencies; 8

and 9

‘‘(v) within the local community. 10

‘‘(2) ALLOWABLE USES OF FUNDS.—Funds 11

provided under this section may be used to sup-12

port— 13

‘‘(A) collaboration with entities such as— 14

‘‘(i) nonprofit organizations whose 15

missions and demonstrated expertise are 16

consistent with the purpose of this section, 17

for assistance in carrying out activities de-18

scribed under subsection (a); and 19

‘‘(ii) Federal or State humanities pro-20

grams, which may include those funded by 21

the National Endowment for the Human-22

ities; 23

‘‘(B) the creation and use of open edu-24

cational resources on American political thought 25

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8 

•HR 5810 IH

and history, free institutions, or the impact of 1

American representative democracy and con-2

stitutional democracies globally, or the means of 3

participation in political and civic life; and 4

‘‘(C) other activities that meet the pur-5

poses of this section.’’; 6

(7) by redesignating subsection (f) as sub-7

section (g); 8

(8) in subsection (g), as redesignated by para-9

graph (7), by striking ‘‘2009’’ and inserting ‘‘2021’’; 10

and 11

(9) by inserting after subsection (e) the fol-12

lowing: 13

‘‘(f) RULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in this sec-14

tion shall be construed to authorize the Secretary to pre-15

scribe an American political thought and history cur-16

riculum.’’. 17

Æ 

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