Supporting Veterans in Stem Careers Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. LAMB. Mr. Speaker, I rise to support veterans in STEM careers.

First, I would like to thank the gentleman from Florida, Dr. Dunn, for his leadership in helping connect veterans to these good jobs.

Veterans are working today. Most Americans are working today. The unemployment rate is low. And yet everywhere I go, I meet businesspeople who tell me that they can't find the right workers for the right jobs at the right time. If we could fix this, we would stop being held back by the shortage of workforce that we face, and, most importantly, our families would not be held back by lower paychecks.

But these new jobs in cybersecurity, in medical technology, in advanced manufacturing, they are hard jobs and they require training.

We need to make the training available to people where they live at a cost that they can actually afford. We have no time to waste.

Our businesses are competing on a global stage against countries that will use the full machinery of their governments to make sure their workforces are ready. We need to meet their efforts with an even greater one.

Luckily, we already have a workforce that will go anywhere and do anything. When it comes to hard work, these folks are fearless. That is the veteran population here in the United States.

Marine officers are trained that if we are given an order to move that mountain over there, no sooner is the order completed than we are leading 100 marines down the road with shovels.

I still have great faith in the ability of 100 marines with shovels, but what we really need today are hundreds of thousands of veterans who can 3D print those shovels, put them in the hands of robots, program them to go down the road, and defend the entire network from foreign intrusion.

These are the jobs of today and tomorrow. These are the jobs that will support our families. Most importantly, these are the jobs that will grow the new middle class.

We want to make sure veterans get these jobs. To do that, we are going to use this bill to turn to the National Science Foundation. The National Science Foundation was born in the aftermath of World War II to make sure that we led the world in science and math, and the most important advancements. We knew that if we did that, we could make our country safe, healthy, and strong.

If we are going to continue that mission in the new generation, we will need veterans to lead the way.

We do have a global competition on our hands, Mr. Speaker, and I know we can win it if we have the veterans with us. This bill will help them, and I urge all my colleagues to come together to pass it.

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