FY22 Budget Outlook: STEM Education

The House and Senate have advanced bills that propose steady or increased funding for most major STEM education programs across the federal government in fiscal year 2022, meeting or exceeding many of the Biden administration’s requested increases. Appropriators also generally support the administration’s proposed diversity and inclusion initiatives across science agencies, which focus on diversifying both their own workforces and the broader STEM community.

The appropriations bills are accompanied by explanatory reports from the House and Senate Appropriations Committees that contain policy direction for selected education programs. These reports are collected in FYI’s Federal Science Budget Tracker and highlights are summarized below.

Department of Education

Among the Department of Education’s diversity efforts, the House proposes to nearly double the $13 million budget for the Minority Science and Engineering Improvement program, which aims to increase the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields and improve STEM education capacity at minority-serving institutions (MSIs). The administration requested a $5 million increase and the Senate’s proposal would nearly match that amount. The House also proposes to nearly double funding for a program that supports STEM master’s degree programs at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), matching the requested increase from $11 million to $21 million, while the Senate proposes $20 million.

Through its Education Innovation and Research program, the department supports efforts to scale up evidence-based education reforms and in recent years it has targeted a portion of the funds to STEM initiatives. The House proposes to increase that amount from $67 million to $82 million and states the funds should be used to “expand opportunities for underrepresented students such as minorities, girls, and youth from families living at or below the poverty line.” The Senate does not specify an amount but states generally that it supports STEM remaining a priority of the program.

For Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, the House proposes to increase overall funding by 12% to $1.5 billion, slightly exceeding the request, while the Senate proposes a 5% increase. Within that amount, the House matches the request for $100 million in new funds for “competitive awards for middle and high school CTE innovation projects aimed at advancing equity, building the evidence base for what works in CTE, especially for underserved students, and scaling those effective practices,” while the Senate only allocates up to $15 million for that purpose.

The department also supports a variety of formula-based grant programs that support both STEM and non-STEM education activities. The House and Senate both propose to increase funding for Student Support and Academic Enrichment Grants from $1.22 billion to just over $1.3 billion, exceeding the request for flat funding, and the House states it expects a portion of the funds would go toward reducing “computer science enrollment and achievement gaps.” The House also proposes a $100 million increase for the $1.26 billion budget of the 21st Century Community Learning Centers program and a $150 million increase for the $2.14 billion budget of the Supporting Effective Instruction State Grants program, while the Senate proposes increases of around $50 million for each.

After a decade-long hiatus, House and Senate appropriators have permitted lawmakers to request earmarks for specific projects in their home districts or states, and many of the Department of Education earmarks this year are focused on STEM projects. The Appropriations Committee reports contain full lists of House-backed projects and Senate-backed projects .

National Science Foundation

The Senate proposes roughly level funding of $1.1 billion for the National Science Foundation’s Education and Human Resources Directorate, while the House bill nearly matches the agency’s request for a 16% increase to $1.3 billion.

Both specify large budget increases for programs supporting HBCUs, Tribal Colleges and Universities, and Hispanic Serving Institutions. They also meet NSF’s request to more than double the budget of its $20 million INCLUDES program, which aims to scale up successful strategies for increasing the participation of underrepresented groups in STEM fields.

The Senate report explicitly endorses NSF’s request to increase the budget for its flagship Graduate Research Fellowship Program by 12% to $319 million. NSF has stated the increase would permit the program to increase its annual number of fellowship awards from 2,000 to 2,500.

Outside the regular appropriations process, the latest version of Democrats’ Build Back Better Act includes $668 million over five years for NSF to “fund or extend new and existing research awards, traineeships, scholarships, and fellowships,” as well as $25 million over seven years specifically for “activities and research to ensure broad demographic participation in the activities of the foundation.”

NASA

The House and Senate match the administration’s request to increase funding for NASA’s Office of STEM Engagement from $127 million to $147 million. Within that, both propose increasing the budget of the Minority University Research Education Program by $10 million to $48 million, and Senate appropriators encourage it to support efforts that “integrate Indigenous practices in science through educational programs for K–12 students and college students and the general public.” The Senate bill would also increase the Space Grant program budget by $6 million to $57 million, while the House proposes an increase to $60 million.

The Senate explicitly matches the administration’s request to increase the Science Mission Directorate’s STEM outreach budget by $10 million to $56 million. NASA stated in its budget request that the additional funding would support efforts to “combat social inequities” through “competitive selections, and augmented collaborations for rural, Indigenous, and other underserved areas; citizen science projects; and plans to use lessons-learned from past celestial and other milestone events to engage underserved communities.”

Department of Defense

The Department of Defense supports a variety of STEM education and outreach activities through the National Defense Education Program, including the SMART scholarships-for-service program. DOD requested to increase funding for SMART scholarships from $77 million to $89 million, to raise the annual number of awards from about 300 to 400, while seeking an overall NDEP budget of $112 million, which is $25 million less than its current level. The House proposes $116 million for NDEP, with $2 million of the increase over the request allocated to SMART scholarships, while the Senate proposes $147 million for the program, specifying that $20 million above the request go to STEM activities generally.

The House proposes to increase funding for a program that supports research and education activities at HBCUs and other MSIs from $81 million to $85 million. Congress has funded the program well above the requested levels in recent years, and DOD used a portion of the funds to create new research centers focused on aerospace engineering, artificial intelligence, quantum sensing, advanced communications, biotechnology, and materials science. The Senate proposes to fund the program at $41 million, which is $10 million above the request and would roll it back to near the amount it received in fiscal year 2018.

Other agencies

DOE. For the Department of Energy Office of Science , both the House and Senate express support for the administration’s proposed office-wide RENEW (Reaching a New Energy Sciences Workforce) initiative, which aims to increase participation and retention of underrepresented groups in the office’s research activities. The administration has proposed an initial budget of $30 million for the initiative, drawn from across the office’s program budgets. The House and Senate do not specify a total budget for the RENEW initiative, but they both match the administration’s request to provide $5 million for the initiative through the Workforce Development for Teachers and Scientists account. Overall, the account would increase from $29 million to $35 million under both proposals, with the remaining $1 million of the increase split between programs supporting research fellowships, internships, and visiting faculty.

NOAA. The House matches the agency’s request to increase funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Education by $8 million to $41 million, while the Senate proposes $39 million. Both proposals allocate $2 million of the increase to a program that supports MSIs. House appropriators also encourage NOAA to “prioritize improving Americans’ understanding of climate change, including providing formal and informal learning opportunities to individuals of all ages, including individuals of diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, emphasizing actionable information to help people understand and promote the implementation of new technologies, programs, and incentives related to climate change, climate adaptation and mitigation, and climate resilience.”

NIST. The Senate matches the administration’s request to increase funding at the National Institute of Standards and Technology for workforce diversity initiatives from $12 million to $17 million. The requested stated that, of the increase, $3 million is to create an educational partnership program with MSIs and $2 million is to create a program that would recruit postdoctoral researchers from underserved backgrounds to work in NIST laboratories. The House endorses allocating the $3 million for the MSI partnership program and does not comment on the postdoctoral program.

USGS. Senate appropriators endorse the administration’s request for a $7 million increase in the current $1.6 million budget of the Scientific Integrity and Diversity and Support for Enterprise Science program at the U.S. Geological Survey . The agency stated it intends to use a portion of the funds to encourage students at MSIs and community colleges to pursue advanced degrees in the natural sciences.