[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 21 (Monday, February 5, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E253-E254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 MATH AND SCIENCE INCENTIVE ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. FRANK R. WOLF

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, February 5, 2007

  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, today I introduced with Congressmen Ehlers 
the Math and Science Incentive Act of 2005. This legislation would 
pay--over the life of the loan up to $10,000--the interest on the 
undergraduate student loans of math, science or engineering majors who 
agree to work 5 years in their respective fields. The idea for this 
legislation came from the book Winning the Future, by my friend and our 
former colleague Newt Gingrich. America's dominance in science and 
innovation is slipping, but this legislation can help combat this 
trend.
  We are facing today a critical shortage of science and engineering 
students in the United States. Unfortunately, there is little public 
awareness of this trend or its implications for jobs, industry or 
national security in America's future. We need to make sure we have 
people who can fill these science and engineering positions. In an era 
in which students are graduating college with record levels of debt, I 
am hopeful that this incentive will be a significant motivator in 
attracting or retaining math, science and engineering students.
  How do we know that our Nation is slipping in the areas of math, 
science, engineering and technology? Americans, for decades, led the 
world in patents. But we can no longer claim that lead. The percentage 
of U.S. patents has been steadily declining as foreigners, especially 
Asians, have become more active and in some fields have seized the 
innovation lead. The United States share of its own industrial patents 
now stands at only 52 percent. Foreign advances in basic science now 
often rival or even exceed America's. Published research by Americans 
is lagging.
  Physical Review, a series of top physics journals, last year tracked 
a reversal in which American scientific papers, in two decades, dropped 
from the most published to minority status. In 2003--the most recent 
year statistics are available--the total number of American papers 
published was just 29 percent, down from 61 percent in 1983.
  Another measuring stick: Nobel prizes. From the 1960s through the 
1990s, American scientists dominated. Now the rest of the world has 
caught up. Our scientists win now about half of the Nobel prizes, the 
rest go to Britain, Japan, Russia, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland and New 
Zealand. According to the National Science Foundation, the United 
States has a smaller share of the worldwide total of science and 
engineering doctoral degrees awarded than both Asia and Europe.
  This is a real problem. In 2000, Asian universities accounted for 
almost 1.2 million of the world's science and engineering degrees. 
European universities--including Russia and eastern Europe accounted 
for 850,000.

  North American universities accounted for only about 500,000. Since 
1980, science and engineering positions in the U.S. have grown at five 
times the rate of positions in the civilian workforce as a whole.
  The Math and Science Incentive Act augments the recently approved 
National Science and Mathematics Access to Retain Talent grants--
National SMART grants. National SMART grants provide grants of up to 
$4,000 to Pell Grant-eligible students in their third and fourth 
academic year of undergraduate education at a 4-year, degree-granting 
institution of higher education. The student must be pursuing a major 
in the physical, life, or computer sciences, math, technology, or 
engineering or a foreign language. The student must also have a grade-
point average of at least 3.0.
  SMART grants are an important tool for attracting and retaining 
lower-income students in

[[Page E254]]

the critical areas of math, science and engineering. The Math and 
Science Incentive Act will build on the SMART grants by providing a 
direct incentive to middle class students who may not meet Pell grant 
eligibility. We critically need to attract and retain the best and 
brightest to study these challenging fields and this loan forgiveness 
may just make the difference for some.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in cosponsoring this legislation to 
help America continue to be the innovation leader of the world.

                          ____________________