§7381c–3 Expanding opportunities for highly skilled science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals

Summary

The Secretary must grow and diversify the pool of highly skilled STEM workers who do work that supports the Department’s mission. The Secretary must also recruit more people and work with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic-serving institutions, Tribal colleges, minority-serving institutions, institutions in eligible jurisdictions, emerging research institutions, community colleges, and scientific societies. Within 180 days after August 9, 2022, the Secretary must send Congress a 10-year education plan to fund and expand programs at the National Laboratories and Department user facilities. The plan must expand opportunities for underrepresented people (high school, undergraduate, and graduate students; recent graduates; teachers; and faculty) and may include paid internships, fellowships, short-term jobs, training, visiting programs, sabbaticals, and research support. The plan must describe how programs will be advertised and how recruitment will reach the institutions named above. The Secretary must also build programs to strengthen research at emerging and minority-serving institutions, enable partnerships with research-intensive schools, and invite research proposals and training directly from those institutions. A university-led Traineeship Program must be created to give research experience and workforce training to underrepresented undergraduates and graduate students in areas important to the Office of Science. The Secretary must set performance measures, gather more data, and report progress to the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee and the House Education and Labor Committee and to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee no later than 2 years after August 9, 2022, and every 2 years after that. Defined terms (one line each): community college — public school that mainly awards associate degrees or a Tribal college; dislocated worker — defined in 29 U.S.C. 3102; Hispanic-serving institution — defined in 20 U.S.C. 1101a(a); Historically Black College or University — defined in 20 U.S.C. 1061; institution in an eligible jurisdiction — an institution located in an eligible jurisdiction as defined in 42 U.S.C. 13503(b)(3)(A); minority-serving institution — includes the entities listed in 20 U.S.C. 1067q(a)(1)–(7); STEM — subjects listed in section 2 of the STEM Education Act of 2015 (42 U.S.C. 6621 note); Tribal College or University — defined in 20 U.S.C. 1059c(b).