Congress passes legislation to create Smithsonian museums on Latino and women’s history

Congress approved legislation Monday that would create Smithsonian museums for Latino and women's history as part of the nearly $900 billion COVID-19 relief package.

 Two separate proposals for the National Museum of the American Latino and Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum were blocked  this month.

The museums would be funded by splitting private donations and public money. A congressional report in2011 estimated that the more than 310,000-square-foot Latino museum would cost $600 million, and the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated last year that the women's museum would cost $375 million over the next decade based on a size estimate of 350,000 square feet.

From February:House votes to establish Smithsonian women's history museum on the National Mall

The bill would create a council and a board of trustees to make recommendations to the Smithsonian Board of Regents for the design, planning and construction of the museums, as well as for the location of the buildings on or near the Mall. 

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Congressional Hispanic Caucus Chairman Joaquin Castro, D-Texas, celebrated the bill's passage, saying it is more important than ever to preserve Latino stories as communities of color are devastated by COVID-19.

“Latinos have contributed significantly to the success of the United States while overcoming systemic discrimination – and our stories have largely been erased from U.S. history," he said in a statement. "Now, our stories will have a new home with a Latino Museum on the National Mall." 

Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, D-N.Y., who introduced the bill on a women's history museum in the House, said the museum has been "years in the making."

“I am thrilled that we are finally set to pass this historic legislation,” Maloney said. “How fitting that we pass this bill as we mark the centennial of the 19th Amendment and in the year in which we elected our first woman vice president.”

The decision to create the museums follows decades of reports and commissions.

In 1994, a task force report found that the Smithsonian “displays a pattern of willful neglect” toward Latinos. The Smithsonian established the Smithsonian Latino Center in 1997, and in 2008, Congress authorized a presidentially appointed commission, which recommended the creation of a museum on the Mall.

Maloney's office said she first introduced legislation to establish a women's history museum in 1998, and her bill to create a commission studying the necessity and feasibility of a museum passed in 2014. 

The House passed bills approving the creation of both museums in February, but Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, blocked the legislation this month, claiming "the last thing we need is to further divide an already divided nation."

The newly passed legislation is an early step, and the museums are years away from opening. The Smithsonian's most recent addition, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, opened in September 2016, more than a decade after Congress passed the legislation to create the museum in 2003.

'Hyphenated identity groups':Utah GOP Sen. Mike Lee blocks legislation for Latino and women history Smithsonians

Contributing: Savannah Behrmann

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