Darlene Superwell
Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a bill June 13 that would create a committee to study the creation of a national museum of Asian American and Pacific Islander history in the United States.
“I am honored to sign a law that is long overdue,” he said at a White House ceremony.
The “Committee to Study the Potential Creation of the National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture” created an eight-member committee to examine how such a museum could be established in Washington, including whether it should become part of the Smithsonian Institution.
The Senate Majority and Minority Leaders, as well as the House Speaker and House Minority Leader, will each appoint two research committee members.
The House passed the bill in April and the Senate in May, and Biden designated it as Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Vice President Kamala Harris, the first person of Indian descent elected to the position, attended the ceremony with Biden. Harris’ mother is Indian.
Harris said such a museum would help “fight ignorance” and “dispel misinformation about Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders”
The Smithsonian is in the early planning stages of two new museums, the National Museum of Latin America and the Smithsonian Museum of American Women’s History.
The National Museum of the American Indian and the National Museum of African American History and Culture are both managed by the Smithsonian.
The legislation was initiated by the House of Representatives. Grace Meng, D-N.Y.; Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii.
