{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://royce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398581", "Royce-Supported Bill to Remove Orientals from Federal Regulations Unanimously Passes the House", "2017-11-29", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "CA", "Edward Royce", "R000487", "royce.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2013\u00a0This week, the House unanimously passed H.R. 995, the 21st Century Respect Act, legislation cosponsored by Rep. Royce which\u00a0requires the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of the Interior to replace the term \u201cOriental\u201d with \u201cAsian American or Pacific Islander\u201d from all regulations.\u00a0 \u201cNobody, let alone the federal government, should use a hurtful term like \u2018Orientals\u2019 when referencing Americans of Asian descent,\u201d said Rep. Royce. Americans of all backgrounds deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. Congress is responsible for updating our laws and regulations with the times. This should also be true for the terminology.\u00a0I\u2019m pleased to see my House colleagues unanimously support taking action to ensure that our laws and regulations will no longer refer\u00a0to Asian Americans in such an offensive way.\u201d\r\n  \r\n\r\nBackground: Rep. Royce has taken a lead role in removing offensive terminology from federal laws and regulations during the 114th and 115th sessions of Congress.\u00a0 In May of 2016, former President Obama signed legislation\u00a0first authored\u00a0by Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Royce to strike the term \u201cOriental\u201d from preexisting federal law and replace it with \u201cAsian American.\u201d That legislation,\u00a0H.R. 4238, also removes the terms \u201cNegroes,\u201d \u201cIndians,\u201d and \u201cEskimos\u201d from federal law. In December of 2015, Rep. Royce and Rep. Grace Meng successfully amended H.R. 8, the\u00a0North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act of 2015, to strike the term \u201cOriental\u201d from\u00a0Title 42 of the United States Code and replace it with \u201cAsian American.\u201d The\u00a0amendment\u00a0also removes the terms \u201cNegroes,\u201d \u201cIndians,\u201d and \u201cEskimos\u201d from the same law.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://royce.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=398581"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9135038126260042, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}