[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 92 (Friday, May 26, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E735-E736]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     STEM OPPORTUNITIES ACT OF 2017

                                  _____
                                 

                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 26, 2017

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to be 
introducing the STEM Opportunities Act of 2017. A very similar bill 
passed the House as part of the America Competes Act of 2010, but 
unfortunately didn't make it into the enacted law. As a result, every 
Congress since then, I have worked hard to keep the legislation updated 
and to convince my colleagues of the urgency of the challenges this 
bill addresses. Today I am reintroducing this bill with 20 cosponsors. 
And my colleague Senator Hirono is introducing a Senate companion bill. 
The goal of our legislation is to develop and implement evidence-based 
policies to promote the progress of women and minorities in science, 
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies and research 
careers.
  The need for full engagement in STEM by women and underrepresented 
minorities goes beyond enabling individuals to fulfill their dreams of 
becoming a scientist. Our economic future relies on what we do now to 
nurture the STEM talent that will be necessary to meet the demands of 
an increasingly technological and knowledge-based economy. The Bureau 
of Labor Statistics reports that STEM employment is the fastest growing 
sector, with computer science and engineering jobs among the fastest 
growing STEM occupations.
  If things continue as they are now, however, I fear we will be ill 
equipped to fill these jobs. We are seventeen years into the 21st 
century and the demographics of the STEM workforce do not reflect the 
diversity of the nation. In 2015, women earned only 19 percent of 
bachelor's degrees in engineering and 18 percent in computer science. 
Black and Hispanic students are similarly underrepresented in these 
fields at the undergraduate level, and the problem is even more 
pronounced in STEM faculty. Women hold only 23 percent of all tenured 
and tenure-track positions, while Black and Hispanic faculty combined 
hold a dismal 6.4 percent of these positions. We need to leverage all 
of our human capital if we are to achieve the necessary capacity to 
innovate and to discover.
  The STEM Opportunities Act is focused on addressing the leaky 
pipeline for those who have already chosen a STEM path. First, so that 
we better understand the nature and scope of the challenges, the STEM 
Opportunities Act requires more comprehensive demographic data 
collection on the recipients of federal research awards and on STEM 
faculty at U.S. universities. These data would be available to 
researchers to study the participation and trajectories of women and 
underrepresented minorities in STEM so that policy makers can design 
more effective policies and practices to reduce barriers.
  Next, this bill requires the development of consistent federal 
policies, such as no-cost award extensions, for recipients of federal 
research awards who have caregiving responsibilities, including care 
for a newborn or newly adopted child and care for an immediate family 
member who is sick. The bill also requires consistent federal guidance 
to grant reviewers and program officers on best practices to minimize 
the effects of implicit bias in the review of federal research grants. 
It requires NSF to provide guidance to universities and OSTP to provide 
guidance to Federal laboratories to aid them in identifying any 
cultural and institutional barriers limiting the recruitment, 
retention, and achievement of women and minorities in academic and 
government STEM research careers and developing and implementing 
current best practices for reducing such barriers. Finally, the 
legislation authorizes NSF to award grants to universities to implement 
or expand research-based practices targeted specifically at increasing 
the recruitment and retention of minority students and faculty.
  Mr. Speaker, in developing this legislation, we solicited extensive 
input from governmental and non-governmental stakeholders to ensure 
that the guidance and requirements reflect today's needs and 
opportunities without unduly burdening our research universities. The 
result is a bill that attempts to systematically address the full suite 
of issues facing both female and minority STEM researchers, from work-
life balance policies, to campus climate, to better data collection, to 
recruitment and retention practices. This bill proposes concrete and 
evidence-based solutions to the indisputable reality that our nation 
continues to fall well short of engaging our entire talent pool in STEM 
careers. That disparity in our STEM workforce

[[Page E736]]

will continue to have real and increasing consequences to our social, 
economic, and national security if we do not begin to implement 
scalable solutions soon.
  I want to thank Senator Hirono for joining me in introducing a Senate 
companion bill, and all of the Members of the House and Senate who have 
already cosponsored this legislation. I urge the rest of my colleagues 
to join us and to help us move this legislation forward into law.

                          ____________________