Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions S. 479

S. 479. A bill to amend title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide grants for homeland security scholarships; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.

Mr. EDWARDS. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce the Protect America Scholarships Act of 2003. The Act will draw talented young people into professions that are vital to America's security and that are critically short of expertise. It offers college students a simple deal: If you'll serve for five years, we'll pay for your college.

The reason for this law is simple. Our country continues to have tremendous homeland security needs. We have thousands of important jobs that we aren't filling because we don't have the qualified people. And we have thousands of young people who are looking to serve their country, and who are also looking for ways to pay for college.

So this bill puts together the needs of our country and the idealism of our young people. It says that young people who commit to meeting priority homeland security needs will get money for college in return.

Let me give three examples of professions where this bill can make a real difference.

First, our public health system suffers from a shortage of trained professionals who can contribute to the fight against terrorism. Too few medical professionals are trained to diagnose and treat diseases caused by biological agents. Public health laboratories don't have the capacity to test all the specimens suspected of being biological agents. Local governments need as many as 15,000 new public health preparedness employees. And despite the central role of nurses in responding should terrorists attack with chemical or biological weapons, there are more than 126,000 unfilled nursing positions today. There are special roles in all of these professions that trained young people could fill in important ways.

Second, the federal government faces a critical shortage of policymakers and intelligence analysts with expertise in foreign languages and cultures. The General Accounting Office has reported that the FBI's efforts to combat terrorism have been impeded by a lack of qualified translators. Thousands of hours of audiotapes and pages of written material have not been reviewed or translated. Similarly, the U.S. Department of State reports that lack of language fluency has weakened its fight against international terrorism and drug trafficking.

A third area where we need more people is fighting cyberterrorism. We now live in a world where a terrorist can do as much damage with a keyboard and a modem as with a gun or a bomb. By exploiting computer vulnerabilities, terrorists might be able to shut down power for entire cities for extended periods; disrupt our phones; poison our water; erase financial records; paralyze our police, firefighters, and ambulances; and stop all traffic on the Internet.
Yet our workforce specializing in cybersecurity remains inadequate. The federal government has especially serious shortages. These vulnerabilities leave our Federal agencies exposed to hackers, system shutdowns, and
cyberterrorists.

By offering up to $10,000 in college tuition, the Protect America Scholarships Act will harness the patriotism and determination of a new generation of Americans to urgent national priorities. The federal government and a growing number of states, including North Carolina, use similar programs to recruit teachers successfully. The recent Hart-Rudman report identified student loan debt burdens as a particular obstacle to attracting young adults into public service.

The safety of the American people depends on the millions of people working to protect them. Today's bill will help recruit more talented Americans to professions needed to defend our nation. I hope it will earn the support of my colleagues.

I request unanimous consent that the text of the bill be printed in the RECORD.