{"id":6303,"date":"2021-01-02T13:12:34","date_gmt":"2021-01-02T13:12:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/years-in-the-making-us-congress-approves-new-museums-honouring-latinos-and-women\/"},"modified":"2021-01-02T13:12:34","modified_gmt":"2021-01-02T13:12:34","slug":"years-in-the-making-us-congress-approves-new-museums-honouring-latinos-and-women","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uaaglobal.com\/years-in-the-making-us-congress-approves-new-museums-honouring-latinos-and-women\/","title":{"rendered":"Years in the making, US Congress approves new museums honouring Latinos and women"},"content":{"rendered":"
With the approval of the US Senate, a National Museum of the American Latino and a national museum of women\u2019s history have gotten the green light to proceed in Washington, DC. Both of the museums have been in the works for years and will become part of Smithsonian<\/a> museums after Congress included them in a $2.3 trillion year-end spending bill.<\/p>\n Campaigns for the museums aren\u2019t new at all; in 1994, following a report that found the Smithsonian to have displayed \u201ca pattern of willful neglect<\/a>\u201d towards Latinos, the fight for a museum dedicated to Latinos and their contributions to the US began. A 2008 study recommended to Congress that a museum honouring the Latino people of America be constructed. Similarly, the campaign for a women\u2019s museum has been in the works since 2003, although it wasn\u2019t until 2014 that a congressional commission recommended the museum. Congressional approval was needed for both as they will become part of the Smithsonian, which is a government funded series of museums, particularly found in the US\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n In February and then July, the bill for the women\u2019s museum and American Latino museum were passed by the House of Representatives respectively. They then headed to the senate where they were expected to pass without any objection. For that reason, the bill\u2019s sponsors were looking for a unanimous vote, which is a measure taken to expedite the process for bills that are expected to pass with ease. However, that was not the case when one senator rejected the bill<\/a>.<\/p>\n In early December, when the bills first hit the senate floor, Utah Senator Mike Lee blocked the museums\u2019 progress. Citing \u201chyphenated Americanism,\u201d a term coined by Theodore Roosevelt<\/a>, Lee\u2019s rejection of the bills temporarily halted their progress.<\/p>\n