[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 113 (Tuesday, June 29, 2021)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E711-E712]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION FOR THE FUTURE ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                            HON. GWEN MOORE

                              of wisconsin

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 28, 2021

  Ms. MOORE of Wisconsin. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of 
legislation reauthorizing funding for the National Science Foundation, 
HR 2225, the National Science Foundation for the Future Act.
  I thank the Chair and Ranking Member for their leadership and hard 
work to put together this package. I'm proud to be a cosponsor of this 
bill to increase much-needed NSF funding while implementing new and 
creative strategies to improve STEM education and bolster our research 
and engineering infrastructure.
  The NSF is a funder of more than 1800 institutions in the US. Given 
that a quarter of all federal funding is contributed through the 
Foundation, nearly every student in STEM has been in one way or another 
supported by the NSF through grants, fellowships, and research 
opportunities.
  Despite continuing support from Congress, the reality is that the 
majority of grant proposals NSF receives are rejected and valuable 
research projects are never carried out.
  During an era of tough global competition in the science and 
technology sector, it is so important that we find effective ways to 
boost scientific advancements and keep up with a quickly changing 
world.
  This bill would authorize increased funding for the next five years, 
setting our students

[[Page E712]]

and institutions on a sure path to more successful American innovation.
  In addition to these funding increases, my Science, Space, and 
Technology colleagues and I have identified important areas of interest 
that are addressed through new NSF programs and policies to better 
support our research efforts. Among others, this legislation finds 
creative ways to boost STEM education from PreK-12 education all the 
way through graduate school.
  I am glad that this bill includes an amendment I introduced in 
committee to give emerging minority-serving institutions access to NSF 
funding through a merit-based process, to help them build their 
research capacity and help expose diverse student populations to STEM 
careers.
  Though our STEM workforce is some of the most well-equipped in the 
world, our institutions continue to report drastically low numbers in 
workplace diversity.
  Only one in 10 STEM workers are underrepresented people of color, a 
statistic that does not come close to the racial makeup of the United 
States.
  These racial imbalances will not just go away with time. We must put 
forward serious and concrete solutions to ensure students of color have 
the same opportunities as their fellow peers to pursue their ambitions.
  By directly funding these MSls, which includes HBCUs, tribal 
colleges, Hispanic-serving institutions, and even some community 
colleges, we can expand their research capabilities and offer people of 
color more opportunities for a career in science and engineering.
  Other efforts that I authored which are included in this package 
include helping ensure NSF funding is helping support critical and 
groundbreaking water research that can help address local and global 
water challenges, an effort I authored to help ensure that community 
colleges, which often serve diverse communities, can also better engage 
with the NSF, and finally, an effort, with Rep. Young Kim, to address 
K-8 STEM education in our secondary schools. The earlier we can hook 
kids in STEM, the better.
  This is a good bill and I urge my colleagues to support it

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