Description:
H.R. 3588 would authorize the appropriation of $10 million annually over the 2022-2026 period for the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award grants to nonprofit organizations and institutions of higher education to develop approaches for teaching mathematical modeling in schools, and to report to the Congress on those grants. The bill also would authorize the appropriation of $1 million in 2022 for the NSF to enter into an agreement with the National Academies to study opportunities for and barriers to teaching mathematical modeling in schools. For this estimate, CBO assumes that the legislation will be enacted late in fiscal year 2022 and that the authorized amounts will be appropriated each year. As a result of the late enactment date, CBO expects that spending would begin in 2023. The NSF has awarded grants similar to those authorized under the bill in past years; however, using information from the agency, CBO estimates that no amounts were allocated for that purpose in 2022. Based on historical spending patterns for similar programs, CBO estimates that implementing H.R. 3588 would cost $46 million over the 2022-2027 period and $5 million after 2027. The costs of the legislation, detailed in Table 1, fall within budget function 250 (general science, space, and technology).
