Academic Competition Resolution of 2013

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 77) establishing an academic competition in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics among students in Congressional districts.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on the House resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in very strong support of House Resolution 77 to establish an academic competition that promotes innovation among students from across the country in the science, technology, engineering, and math--or the ``STEM'' fields, as they are called.

This program will be modeled after the Congressional Art Competition. This Congressional Academic Competition will be a nationwide STEM innovation competition for participating students in every congressional district. Each year, students will submit STEM projects or programs to their Representatives for consideration. Representatives, Members of Congress, will then select the winning submissions that will be recognized in Washington, D.C., each year. The initial focus of this competition will be software applications. Submissions will likely include smart phone apps, management software programs, and social media technologies.

STEM positions are among the fastest growing occupations. Unfortunately, organizations are having a difficult time filling these positions with qualified and diverse candidates. At least half the growth in the U.S. gross domestic product over the last 50 years has been due to science and engineering. Yet the United States, unfortunately, is losing its competitive edge in those fields. According to a 2010 National Academies report, the United States ranked 27th among developed countries in the proportion of college students earning bachelor's degrees in science or engineering.

As I mentioned, it is our intent to model this program after the Artistic Discovery Competition. I would say, Mr. Speaker, since my arrival here in Congress, I've just marveled at the incredible abilities, the talents, the creativity of young artists from my district, and I have certainly been honored to display the winning submission here in the Capitol building.

I truly believe that the Artistic Discovery has worked to inspire those artists to hone their skills and advance their creativity. This STEM competition, this program that we are talking about today, could do so much more of the same and perhaps help us discover the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates. This would not only help our young people to thrive, but it would also advance our entire economy.

A study by the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology found that, over the next decade, ``economic forecasts point to a need for producing approximately 1 million more college graduates in STEM fields than expected.''

We are nowhere near meeting that goal, and this competition would be a

no-cost way to further interest in the field. Additionally, fewer than one-third of the eighth graders in the United States show proficiency in science and mathematics. Actually, only nine States allow computer science courses to count toward high school graduation requirements. I know we can do better than that.

We can help America's schools to do more to prepare our children in the STEM fields. We can help to stimulate the workforce by helping America's young people to not only be prepared but to ably fill the STEM jobs in our economy as they are created. It is vital to our economy and to our future that America remain competitive in this growing field. We can encourage and embrace STEM innovation through this bipartisan academic competition.

In an ever-competitive global economy, I know that America's young people can be the world's greatest source of innovation and creativity. We can improve our Nation's economy and help provide countless of our children great opportunities in the future by encouraging their imaginations and by honoring their hard work. If there are STEM jobs available, we must make every effort to ensure that American young people fill these positions.

This competition will help students see the value of STEM fields and engage them with the topics throughout their lives. We also need to help students who are interested in science and engineering maintain that interest so that they can become scientists and engineers. Encouraging greater innovation and participation in STEM fields will help our students and, again, help our Nation to succeed in the future. We know all too well how difficult our economy has been in recent years, but even in this tough economy a lot of these tech industries have flourished. It's important to empower our young people with the necessary tools to succeed when it comes time for them to enter the labor force.

The action that we take today could help empower the next generation because this competition will offer the opportunity for students to expand their horizons and to potentially find interest or maintain their interest in one of our economy's fastest growing occupations. We can improve our students' academic achievements in education in hopes of preparing them for these opportunities in their futures.

As former U.S. Secretary of Education Bill Bennett has said:

As a Nation, we simply must get this message to schools,

businesses, corporations, State departments of education,

Governors, and beyond. STEM education is an urgent need for

our Nation. We cannot continue to graduate students ill-

prepared for our Nation's economic necessities--or their own.

Mr. Speaker, we believe that this proposed academic competition will inspire and encourage young innovators and better equip our youth to compete in today's global economy.

Far too often, I would note, this House seems to be unable to come to agreement on ways to solve America's challenges, and I know on this issue we all agree. It's a bipartisan effort. We all love our children. We all want them to succeed. We want them to reach their full potential, and we certainly want to honor their hard work as they reach toward a brighter future. So I would urge all of my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, to join me in supporting this small step toward that brighter future.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to yield 1 minute to the distinguished majority leader, the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Cantor), who has been a principal force and advocate for this particular piece of legislation in the STEM.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hanna), who is also the distinguished cochair of the STEM Education Caucus.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Goodlatte), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, as well as the Internet Caucus, and a cosponsor of this resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers at this time, but I would reserve the balance of my time if my ranking member would like to close, to make his final statement.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I, first of all, would like to associate myself with the remarks about Rosa Parks that my ranking member just made. You think about one person with that act of courage literally changing a Nation, and it's a remarkable thing. And we were very proud in Michigan that she came to be a resident of Michigan in her final years, where she served, as you can imagine, so extraordinarily well and so inspiring to so many people. It's certainly entirely appropriate that a statue to her takes a place in Statuary Hall amongst Presidents and other national leaders. And so we're all looking forward to it tomorrow, to that unveiling of her statue.

But getting back to the House resolution that we have today, Mr. Speaker, I would just say, in closing, that certainly if America wants to remain competitive, we have to encourage and embrace innovation in the STEM fields. And as all of the various speakers have mentioned today, this program, I'm very excited about it. I have to tell you, in full transparency, 5 years ago I didn't even know what an app was. Now it's part of the nomenclature. You've got an app store and there's apps for all kinds of things. And these kids, when you get a chance to go into these high schools and talk to them, have ideas for apps doing all kinds of things.

And so I think that we're going to try to design this program to be technology neutral, whether it's a smartphone or a Web site or a laptop or any kind of software, and then sort of leave it open, because the technology is just changing so rapid fire as well.

We've thought about, for instance, in my district I've talked to my staff about how we would have a panel of judges that are very savvy on all of these things. You could use computer science teachers to be part of the judging panel, people from industry, academics, what have you.

And then, I think, hopefully as some of the students come forward, whether they win or not, that we would have some sort of a mentoring program, as well, where folks from the industry, from the academics and the sciences in the STEM programs in the fields could talk to these students about opportunities, job possibilities, et cetera.

So I do think that this resolution that we're passing today, again, in a bipartisan way, is very important and does have the ability to really impact in a very positive way.

With that, I have no further requests for time, so I would urge my colleagues to support the legislation. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I rise in support of House Resolution 77. And I commend the chair of the committee and the ranking member for bringing this to the floor, and I hope that all of our colleagues will participate in this competition for students in STEM subjects to create these apps and to further, hopefully, their careers in STEM.

But I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, I am also deeply worried that our hopes to increase the number of students who will participate in STEM education and become part of the STEM careers that are available to them that this Nation so desperately needs could all be for naught, this resolution and all of our efforts, if on Friday we are not able to set aside the sequester and make a balanced proposal to reduce the deficit and to provide for the ongoing needs of this Nation.

Right now, if we do nothing between now and Friday, there will be a $740 million cut to title I, impacting over 1 million students, low- income students, and 9,000 teachers and staff jobs. Those are the people that we want to encourage to go into STEM. Those are the very same students that have a 1 in 7 chance of having a qualified teacher

teach them mathematics or science in their schools. So the very population that you're trying to encourage will have less of a chance because of sequestration.

Over $600 million cuts for students with disabilities, eliminating some 7,800 teacher and staff jobs with respect to those students.

For those students who are trying to acquire the English language so they can participate in STEM careers and STEM academics, nearly 210,000 children and 450 teachers would be eliminated by the sequestration. And the same goes with community learning centers, where it's an opportunity to expose these students, after school and in additional time, to these careers, to these opportunities, to the applications and to the Web sites that are available to them that they can't use during class time.

But, finally, there is even a more direct harm that will be done by sequestration, and that is that the National Science Foundation would issue nearly 1,000 fewer research grants and awards, impacting an estimated 12,000 scientists and students and curtailing critical scientific research. That's the scientific research that builds this Nation.

And for that reason, I ask unanimous consent that the House now take up H.R. 699, a balanced approach introduced by Mr. Van Hollen, to replace the sequestration and save jobs and avoid these cuts in education that are so desperately needed.

Mr. Speaker, I have a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. Speaker, does that mean that we will not be taking up sequestration between now and Friday so that we can get rid of the sequestration with a balanced plan?

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I would like to thank Chairman Miller and her staff for working in a bipartisan fashion on this legislation.

As the chairman mentioned, we created this competition so Members can help promote STEM education in a way that has a direct impact on their constituents. It is this very type of learning that will be essential to continue revitalizing our Nation's economy. The time and energy we invest now in advancing STEM education will only strengthen our Nation's economic posture in the future. This competition is one small way to do that.

I look forward to continuing to work with the chairman as we develop regulations for this program and implement this competition.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, it is my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentlelady from California, Anna Eshoo.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Andrews).

(Mr. ANDREWS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. George Miller).

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Yes, I'd just like to also deviate, for a moment or two, on our issue here. Tomorrow we will be honoring Rosa Parks with a statue. And as our Chairman Miller can start to understand, being the chairman of the committee, we won't get an opportunity to say anything, but it is our committee that had this happen.

I would like to thank Mr. Lungren, the former chairman and ranking member of our committee. Because of that we will be honoring Rosa Parks in Statuary Hall tomorrow, which we would not, again, have a chance to say that.

I would like to thank, also, Jesse Jackson. Without his efforts every single day, every week, pushing to have that statue done, we would not be in that Hall tomorrow honoring her. So I need to give credit where credit belongs, and I appreciate the moment to be able to say that.

Again, I wish to thank the chair for her cooperation on this bill. I look forward to working with her as we implement the program's regulations.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank Chairwoman Miller for bringing this legislation forward and for the hard work of both herself and Congressman Brady on this issue, and I rise in support of the Academic Competition Resolution of 2013.

This resolution establishes an academic competition in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, STEM, which shall be held each year among students in each congressional district, and allows the Committee on House Administration to prescribe the regulations that will govern this competition.

This resolution will allow the Congressional Internet Caucus the ability to create the first Congressional App Challenge. Modeled after the Congressional Art Competition, the Congressional App Challenge promotes STEM learning and innovation by recognizing and incentivizing America's young programming talent.

In the 17 years since the formation of the Congressional Internet Caucus, technology policy issues ranging from cybersecurity and intellectual property have gained more prominence with each passing Congress. This challenge allows Members to experience the technology, innovation, and entrepreneurship that take place on a daily basis in their own districts. This firsthand knowledge will be able to serve as a resource to Members as they consider legislation dealing with technology issues.

This competition will motivate our young people to further pursue programming and other technology-related educational opportunities. It will also enable them to showcase their programming skills on a national stage while at the same time promoting the value of STEM education and careers.

I want to thank the chair of the Committee on House Administration, Congresswoman Miller, and Ranking Member Brady for bringing this resolution to the floor, and I look forward to working with them to craft regulations that will make the congressional app contest a huge success to both Members and our constituents. I also look forward to working with my Congressional Internet Caucus cochair, the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), in bringing this competition to fruition.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 77, the Academic Competition Resolution of 2013. For years, the annual art competition sponsored by the U.S. House of Representatives recognizes imaginative high school students from every congressional district in the United States. Like the congressional art competition, H. Res. 77 establishes an academic competition in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to be held each year among students in each congressional district across the country.

It is just and appropriate for the United States House of Representatives to incentivize STEM education by highlighting outstanding youth across our country who are excelling in these disciplines. The highest growth sectors, such as information technology, require a workforce proficient in STEM. Producing students with the STEM skills needed to fill the jobs of the future is necessary to maintaining

our nation's innovation capacity and creating new high-skill, high- paying jobs at home. As Ranking Member of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, I know that to strengthen our nation's technological workforce and infrastructure we must encourage and incentivize STEM education.

Mr. Speaker, as we rise in support of H. Res. 77 to encourage STEM education and American innovation, with the fiscal cliff looming I would be remiss if I did not warn against cutting our critical federal R&D investments. As we struggle with our own deficits, we too can make the strategic choice to continue to invest in our future--both in our human capital and physical infrastructure--or we can make the strategic choice to permanently cede our leadership, to fail our current generation of young people, and to put our economy in a state of stagnation for years to come. It is when our economy is hurting the most that we should be redoubling our efforts to innovate our way into a brighter future of new jobs, new technologies, and untold societal benefits.