Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. LOWENTHAL. I'd like to thank Chairman Young and also Ranking Member Visclosky for providing me the time to speak today.

Mr. Chairman, providing STEM education to America's youth is critical to the global competitiveness of our Nation. This will rely, however, on a solid pipeline of STEM-degree graduates.

I stand here today to offer my revenue-neutral STARBASE amendment No. 99 to H.R. 2397, the Department of Defense Appropriations, to increase funding to the STARBASE youth program by $5 million.

STARBASE is currently active in 79 congressional districts throughout the country and engages local fifth-grade elementary students by exposing them to STEM subjects through an inquiry-based curriculum. The program is carried out by the military services because the Department of Defense has identified a shortage of young adults graduating from these difficult and hard sciences.

The STARBASE academies work with school districts to engage students through ``hands-on, mind-on,'' experiential activities. They study engineering, nanotechnology, navigation and mapping. These are all critical fields that will keep our country competitive.

My no-cost, revenue-neutral amendment makes a significant step towards providing and engaging America's youth with the tools they need to pursue careers in STEM, a field where jobs are available and there is a significant lack of trained workers.

A recent Brookings Institution study said that as of 2011, there are now 26 million U.S. jobs--or approximately 20 percent of all jobs in the country--that require a high level of knowledge in any one of the STEM fields. I urge my colleagues to support this revenue-neutral amendment to H.R. 2396. Our students and our workforce need this.

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