Description:
H.R. 3397 would require the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award grants to higher education institutions and nonprofit organizations to study factors that contribute to participation in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education by young girls, and develop and evaluate methods to increase young girls’ participation in computer science. The bill also would modify the eligibility and selection criteria of NSF’s Discovery Research PreK-12 and Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship programs.
According to NSF, three existing programs—Education and Human Resources Core Research, Discovery Research PreK-12, and Computer Science for All: Research Practitioner Partnerships—currently award grants that are similar to those that would be authorized under H.R. 3397. In recent years, NSF has spent around $155 million annually on those programs. Considering information from NSF, CBO expects that the agency could meet the bill’s requirements by continuing to operate those existing programs. CBO estimates that any additional administrative costs incurred under H.R. 3397 would be insignificant; any such spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated funds.
Enacting H.R. 3397 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-as-you-go procedures do not apply.
CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 3397 would not increase net direct spending or on-budget deficits in any of the four consecutive 10-year periods beginning in 2028.
H.R. 3397 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act.
