[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 8]
[Senate]
[Page 10444]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




ENHANCING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, AND MATHEMATICS ACT OF 2008

  Mr. OBAMA. Mr. President, last year, I was proud to cosponsor America 
COMPETES, legislation which addressed many issues essential to 
maintaining America's competitive leadership in an increasing 
competitive and technological global marketplace. I was heartened by 
the bipartisan support for that effort. Today, I rise to urge my 
colleagues to join me and my friend from Indiana, Mr. Lugar, in 
extending that effort, by supporting legislation to enhance education 
efforts in science, technology, engineering and mathematics--the fields 
known as STEM.
  Strengthening STEM education is important not only to foster the 
innovation needed to ensure our nation's future prosperity, but also so 
that every citizen can benefit from our democracy's ever-increasing 
pace of technological and scientific advance. Federal agencies 
currently administer more than a hundred different STEM education 
programs, with over $3,000,000,000 spent annually. Yet there is little 
coherence among these efforts. There is a clear need for increased 
coordination of STEM education among states, and between the efforts of 
federal agencies and of state and local educators.
  The intent of our legislation, the Enhancing Science, Technology, 
Engineering, and Technology Act of 2008, is to bring coherence and 
coordination to these efforts, for the benefit of students, science, 
and society. The legislation establishes a STEM Education Committee 
within the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy to 
coordinate the initiatives of the many Federal agencies engaged in STEM 
education, and to avoid unnecessary duplication among these efforts. It 
consolidates existing STEM education initiatives within the Department 
of Education under the direction of an Office of STEM Education. It 
authorizes grant funding for States which choose to work together to 
develop rigorous common STEM education standards with more meaningful 
and effective ways of measuring student learning. And it facilitates 
sharing of information about effective educational practices and 
innovations so that they become widely available to STEM teachers and 
educators. Throughout this legislation, there is emphasis on developing 
strategies to increase the participation of Americans from 
underrepresented populations in our national science and engineering 
enterprise, bringing new perspectives for the benefit of all.
  All of these efforts together will strengthen our efforts to help 
students learn, and teachers teach, not just to train the scientists 
and engineers of the future, but to empower all students to become more 
fluent in science and technology, and more capable in math.
  I am pleased that Mr. Lugar has joined in this effort, as have Mr. 
Sanders and Mr. Brown. In the House, Mr. Honda has introduced companion 
legislation, joined by a bipartisan group totaling 40. I urge my 
colleagues to join us in this effort.

                          ____________________