capitol hill
Educational technology leaders have expressed mixed reactions to the education spending bill for fiscal 2018 that was approved Thursday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill would provide an additional $50 million for the Student Support and Academic Enrichment (SSAE) grant program under Title IV, Part A, of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), the section that supports STEM learning and technology in education.
The House passed a bipartisan driverless car bill on Wednesday, advancing what could become the first set of federal laws for the emerging industry. The “Self Drive Act” was unanimously approved by the House Energy and Commerce Committee in July, before Congress left for August recess, and passed the full House on a voice vote.
A gender gap persists in science, technology, engineering and math, a problem that researchers say could begin to be understood and then solved through research. U.S. Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., has introduced two pieces of legislation to address the issue. The Building Blocks of STEM and Code Like a Girl acts both seek to fund research into early childhood STEM education.
U.S. Rep. Mac Thornberry, a Texas Republican who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, which oversees defense spending, agrees the military needs to better keep abreast of the innovation happening in the commercial sector. But he's not yet convinced DIUx is the long-term solution and might overlap with other advanced technology offices.
In Sens. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Maggie Hassan’s (D-N.H.) Advancing Innovation and Reinvigorating Widespread Access to Viable Electromagnetic Spectrum (AIRWAVES) bill, they propose opening up spectrum space for commercial licensed and unlicensed use with the hope that doing so will drive down wireless costs and increase its accessibility.
A driverless car bill is quickly moving through the House, as Congress races to pass the first federal legislation to address the emerging technology. The Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved a legislative package Thursday that would bar states from setting certain driverless car rules and allow manufacturers to deploy up to 100,000 self-driving vehicles per year without meeting existing auto safety standards.
Three House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a multi-layered bill aimed at boosting the cybersecurity workforce. The "New Collar Jobs Act," released by Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.), Matt Cartwright (Pa.) and Ann McLane Kuster (N.H.), would establish incentivized tax breaks for employers offering cybersecurity training, increase funding for a cyber scholarship program and establish a student debt relief program for cybersecurity job takers.
The National Security Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation violated specific civil liberty protections during the Obama years by improperly searching and disseminating raw intelligence on Americans or failing to promptly delete unauthorized intercepts, according to newly declassified memos that provide some of the richest detail to date on the spy agencies’ ability to obey their own rules.
Among rural Americans, 39 percent lack access to high speed internet compared to only 4 percent of urban Americans who lack access, said Rep. Rod Blum, R-Iowa, at a hearing Thursday on Capitol Hill. He said more needs to be done to get rural Americans service on par with urban Americans.
Experiential, work-based career and technical education programs are receiving attention from policymakers and leaders in the scientific community as an emerging vehicle for STEM education, including through the Perkins reauthorization bill, a new National Science Board initiative on the skilled technical workforce, and ongoing programs at federal science agencies.