Congress Pushes For More Tech Education, R&D ProgramsCongress Pushes For More Tech Education, R&D Programs

Looks like Congress is close to passing legislation to boost funding of educational programs for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) studies, as well as research and development initiatives.

Earlier this week, joint-committee leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate reached an agreement on a version of the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science, or the Competes Act (H.R. 2272). The bill could go up for a vote in the House and Senate before the August recess begins this weekend.

The bill authorizes funding of $43.3 billion from 2008 to 2010 for STEM research and education programs at the federal level, including scholarship and grant programs for students and teachers, as well as R&D money for small and midsize businesses.

Among its provisions, the Competes Act authorizes $2.65 billion in funding from 2008 to 2010 to the National Institute of Standards and Technology for labs and other programs.

In addition, the compromise bill would authorize NIST to create the Technology Innovation Program, or TIP, which would provide funding for small and medium-sized tech firms, as well as universities, involved with "high-risk, high-reward, pre-competitive technology developments."

TIP would replace the existing Advanced Technology Program and "bridge the funding gap between the research lab and marketplace," according to an overview statement of the bill released by Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Science and Technology.

The bill also calls for doubling over seven years funding to $22 billion for the National Science Foundation, with an emphasis on funding scholarships, support programs, and teacher programs for the study of STEM in grades K-12, as well as at the college level.

The bill includes provisions for broadening several programs of outreach and mentoring for women and minorities. The legislation includes a request for a National Academy of Sciences report "to identify barriers to and opportunities for increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in STEM fields, and an emphasis on inclusion of students and teachers from high needs," according to Gordon's overview statement.

"This bill emphasizes that innovation in the U.S. requires solid research and development funding and STEM education programs," said Mark Bohannon, general counsel and senior VP for public policy at trade organization the Software & Information Industry Association. "Without those elements, the U.S. won't be able to compete" as effectively globally, he said. In an interview, Jack Krumholtz, Microsoft's managing director of federal government affairs, said that for tech companies like Microsoft, this legislation is "an important piece of the workforce puzzle" because it addresses the challenge of "seeding" the pipeline of U.S. tech talent for the future. "There's a need to incent more people, especially women and minorities to go into the STEM fields," he said.

The Competes Act addresses the "long-term" challenges of building the pipeline for tech talent, although changes in immigration policies, including increasing the cap on H-1B visas, would help U.S. tech employers tackle "the short term skills gap," he said.