Building Blocks of STEM Act Passes House

The House of Representatives voted  to unanimously pass H.R. 3397 Building Blocks of STEM Act.  The bill, sponsored by Representative Jacky Rosen (NV-3), instructs the National Science Foundation, when awarding grants under the Discovery Research PreK-12 program, to consider age distribution in order to more equitably allocate funding for research studies with a focus on early childhood. H.R. 3397 includes Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Barbara Comstock’s (VA-10) provisions that award grants to encourage young girls’ participation in computer science and update the NSF Noyce Teacher Scholarship program to include informatics.  The bill was passed under suspension, and the next action will be for it to be sent to the Senate for evaluation and voting en route to eventually becoming a law, if signed by the President.