[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 73 (Friday, May 4, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E951-E952]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




         NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 2007

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                          HON. JOSEPH CROWLEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 2, 2007

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1867) to 
     authorize appropriations for fiscal years 2008, 2009, 2010 
     for the National Science Foundation, and for other purposes:

  Mr. CROWLEY. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to support the McNerney-
Giffords amendment. This amendment establishes a new competitive grants 
program specifically for Hispanic-serving Institutions at the National 
Science Foundation.
  I would like to thank Representative McNerney and Representative 
Giffords for their leadership in offering this amendment, which will 
increase opportunities for so many undergraduate students. This 
amendment will focus attention on the need to involve more Hispanic 
students in the science field by creating a specific program for 
Hispanic-serving Institutions to receive infrastructure development 
funding.

[[Page E952]]

  I would also like to thank Chairman Gordon, Subcommittee Chairman 
Baird, and the staff at the Science and Technology Committee for their 
assistance in drafting this amendment, and for their commitment to 
increasing participation of minorities in the science and technology 
fields.
  Hispanic-serving Institutions serve the majority of the nearly two 
million Hispanic students enrolled in college today, and many of these 
institutions offer associate, undergraduate, and graduate programs and 
degrees in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 
fields. The Hispanic-Serving Institutions Undergraduate Program created 
by this amendment will allow these colleges and universities to access 
the funding they need to enhance their educational programs.
  In my district alone, about 10,000 students attend Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions offering degrees in these science fields. Students at 
institutions throughout Queens and the Bronx, including Lehman College, 
Bronx Community College, Hostos Community College, LaGuardia Community 
College, Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology, and the College 
of Mount Saint Vincent, like those all across the country, will benefit 
from increased access to funding to improve these degree programs.
  This amendment corrects a long-standing inequality at the National 
Science Foundation. Unlike their counterparts of Historically Black 
Colleges and Universities and Tribal Colleges and Universities, 
Hispanic-serving Institutions have not benefited from a specific 
program to provide them with grants for research, curriculum, and 
infrastructure development.
  Without access to targeted capacity-building grants, Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions have difficulty increasing the ranks of Hispanics in the 
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields, where they 
have been historically underrepresented. Studies show that Hispanics 
earn less than 3 percent of doctorates in these areas, compared to more 
than 50 percent by non-Hispanic whites.
  This amendment also goes to the heart of the Innovation Agenda 
spearheaded by Speaker Pelosi and the new Democratic Coalition in the 
House to increase our nation's competitiveness and create more math and 
science graduates.
  To maintain our global competitiveness, we need to increase our pool 
of scientists, mathematicians, and engineers. We can do this by 
ensuring that Hispanics, the youngest and fastest-growing ethnic 
population group in the nation, are prepared with the knowledge and 
skills that will contribute to our nation's future economic strength, 
security and global leadership.
  This grants program will educate and train a new generation of 
experts in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics areas. 
By engaging Hispanic-Serving Institutions in this process, we can reach 
out to and involve more of the Hispanic educational community.
  The National Science Foundation, through its undergraduate and 
graduate programs, can assist Hispanic-Serving Institutions in 
developing programs to prepare current and future generations of 
Hispanics and other minority professionals in the sciences.
  In the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002, 
Congress authorized the Foundation to establish a Minority Serving 
Institutions Undergraduate Program, which was envisioned as being 
parallel to the existing Historically Black Colleges and Universities 
Undergraduate Program and the Tribal Colleges Program, and would 
include Hispanic-Serving Institutions, Native Hawaiian institutions, 
Native Alaskan institutions, and all other institutions serving ``a 
substantial number of minority students''. Unfortunately, the National 
Science Foundation did not implement the provision.
  This amendment explicitly establishes a Hispanic-Serving Institutions 
Undergraduate Program. The language would capture the components of the 
successful HBCU-Undergraduate Program, allowing Hispanic-Serving 
Institutions to achieve this same level of success. The result of the 
amendment is that now the National Science Foundation will be able to 
offer three similar programs for three different types of minority-
serving institutions, allowing Hispanic Serving Institutions to respond 
to a proposal solicitation tailored for them alone.
  I applaud the establishment of a Hispanic-Serving Institutions 
Undergraduate Program to achieve the goal of increased minority 
participation in the sciences, and I urge passage of this excellent 
amendment by Representatives McNerney and Giffords.

                          ____________________