Reps Leger Fernández and Lieu Re-Introduce 21st Century Federal Writers’ Act

This press release from Representative Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) was published on 2026-06-30 and titled "Reps Leger Fernández and Lieu Re-Introduce 21st Century Federal Writers’ Act".

Reps Leger Fernández and Lieu Re-Introduce 21st Century Federal Writers’ Act

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM) and Congressman Ted W. Lieu (D-Los Angeles County) introduced the 21st Century Federal Writers’ Project Act, legislation to create a new grant program administered by the National Endowment for the Arts that will empower America's writers and journalists to capture and document the American experience. As the nation approaches the 250th anniversary of its founding, this legislation establishes a coordinated national effort to chronicle the full breadth of American life across all 56 states and territories. Modeled on the Federal Writers' Project (1935-1943), the 21st Century Federal Writers' Project Act will support writers in documenting the histories, communities, customs, and everyday experiences that define the country today. The bill also creates a nationally administered and searchable repository to preserve these books and other media, ensuring that the stories gathered during the semiquincentennial era remain accessible to future generations of Americans. “Reporters, writers, and poets have always opened our eyes to the realities of the world around us. As the Trump administration tries to rewrite and sanitize the complex history of America itself, their work is more important than ever. With this legislation, our writers will be able to apply for federal funds to continue documenting American life as it looks like now,” said Congresswoman Leger Fernández . “Representative Ted Lieu and I are reintroducing the 21st Century Federal Writers' Project to revive the 1935 program that gave us an inside look at how diverse the American experience is across the country. This project gives our storytellers the opportunity to shape how American history will remember the 21st century.” “From the beaches of Los Angeles to the mountains of West Virginia, from the dairy farms of Wisconsin to the fishing vessels of Alaska, the American experience has a wide array of history, culture, customs, and communities. As we honor the 250th anniversary of the United States, let us celebrate what defines this great country – its people,” said Congressman Lieu . “The 21st Century Federal Writers’ Project Act will not only support writers and journalists – many of whom have lost their jobs in recent years – it will memorialize what it means to be American. The stories of today should not go untold.” Here’s what endorsing organizations have to say about the bill: "This is a brilliant idea. The new Federal Writers' Project will help us learn who we are, at a moment when such knowledge could not be more crucial. It recognizes that coming to know our country better through stories, told lovingly and specifically, by talented writers, is a wonderful way to repair our current partisan divide,” said George Saunders, MacArthur-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo . "As a college student from Teheran studying in Oklahoma, I first fell under the spell of the original Federal Writers Project and its guides to all the American states. Many of the great authors nurtured by the Writers' Project, from Zora Neale Hurston to Saul Bellow to Ralph Ellison, still console and inspire me to this day. I have seen firsthand what happens when a nation's people stop listening to each other and become strangers. Please, I implore you to pass the 21st-Century Federal Writers' Project Act, and help a new generation of American writers to spare my adopted country a similar fate,” said Azar Nafisi, author of Reading Lolita in Tehran . “It's not every idea that wins support from both The Nation magazine and President Trump's NEA, but the 21st-Century Federal Writers' Project Act is just such an idea. Modeled on the Depression's original, beloved Writers' Project, the new initiative will hire talented, inquisitive, human writers to create print and multimedia guides to all 56 states and territories – ultimately helping reintroduce a divided America to itself,” said David Kipen, NEA Director of Literature under presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama . "The 21st-Century Federal Writers' Project is urgently needed. It is an exercise in national cultural diplomacy that will build bridges from group to group and region to region. Our country is in a state of transformation on all levels, and this national portrait now will give future generations a detailed, state-by-state look at who we are,” said Colleen Jaurretche, UCLA Department of English and co-founder and director of the Libros Schmibros Lending Library . “For nearly a century, the legacy of the Federal Writers' Project has demonstrated the power of writers to document history, strengthen civic understanding, and preserve the voices of everyday Americans. As communities across the country lose local news outlets and writers struggle to sustain their careers, the need for a modern version of that effort has never been greater. The Authors Guild strongly supports locating this program within the National Endowment for the Arts, whose longsta