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117th Congress Approves Gigantic Spending Bill—and SWE Priorities—as One of its Last Acts

Photo of the Capitol building in Washington D.C.
[social_warfare]

In the final days of the 117th Congress, lawmakers approved a $1.7 trillion spending bill that will fund the federal government for what remains of fiscal year (FY) 2023. The 1700-page bill will spend $1.7 trillion–including $800 billion in non-defense funding and $858 billion in defense funding.

A number of the Society of Women Engineers’ policy priorities were included in the bill. Not only were there increases in various Department of Education programs SWE supports, including the Title IV, Part A, the Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grant program, which saw a $100 million increase, the Title II, Supporting Effective Instruction Grants investments in teacher professional development, which are particularly important for K-12 teachers in STEM classrooms, saw a $20 million increase, and investments in career and technical education increased by $50 million. In addition, the bill includes investments that support cultivating a diverse and well-prepared educator workforce—efforts that are much needed in the face of nationwide teacher shortages. The bill also includes $3.5 billion for various higher education programs, including just over $1 billion for minority-serving institutions, and $52 million for Tribal Colleges and Universities.

The research enterprise was pleased that the bill made some major investments at a number of research agencies, in the wake of the enactment of the CHIPS and Science Act last year. The bill aims to fulfill the promise in the CHIPS and Science Act to put the National Science Foundation (NSF) on a path for a 5-year budget doubling, to $18 billion. Lawmakers also told the Foundation to try to make its award process more equitable. Specifically, they told the agency it needed to remove any “bias” in the process it now uses to review proposals and award grants. Congress asked for a briefing this summer on “the option of adopting institution-blind, investigator-blind, and dual-anonymous process for merit review of proposals, with a focus on the fairness of the process faced by all applicants.” Lawmakers also asked NSF to address the “power dynamic” between senior investigators and their students that can lead to harassment or worse. Early-career scientists need “safe spaces to voice their concerns without fear of repercussions,” the legislators note. The bill will provide NASA with $25.4 billion, a rise of 6% over FY 2022 levels. Basic research supported by DOE’s Office of Science, the federal government’s largest funder of the physical sciences, receives an 8.4% budget boost to $8.1 billion.

Another of SWE’s policy priorities made it in to the bill at the last minute. The Pregnant Workers Fairness Act was included the final package. The bipartisan legislation, introduced more than a decade ago, closes a loophole in the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act by requiring employers to make temporary, reasonable accommodations—like a stool or a water bottle—so that pregnant women can continue to work safely. Seventy five percent of pregnant women and new mothers are in the workplace and need access to reasonable accommodations.

As the 118th Congress gets started, SWE will have the opportunity to work with new leaders on various Congressional committees and advocate for a number of priorities that still need to be enacted. The STEM Restart Act will be at the top of that list when SWE members return to in-person Capitol Hill Days this year.

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