WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, Representative Mike Garcia (CA-25) offered an amendment to H.R. 144, the Supporting Early-Career Researchers Act, during a Science, Space, and Technology Full Committee markup. The amendment would support post-doctoral students pursuing Science, Technology, and Math (STEM) degrees during the COVID-19 pandemic. This amendment would also enhance our national security by ensuring America does not fall behind rivals like China who are making huge investments in their STEM workforce. 

Click here for the full text of Rep. Garcia's amendment.

Remarks as Prepared for Delivery:

Thank you, Chairwoman Johnson and thank you Ranking Member Lucas.

My amendment serves to remind all of us that our national security is increasingly reliant on advanced technologies that require a new level of scientific and engineering expertise. Technologies like artificial intelligence, quantum computing, robotics, directed energy and hypersonic weapons, and cybersecurity are reliant on highly trained scientists and are increasingly critical to our national security in this country.

Rivals such as China are making huge investments in their STEM workforce pipeline in order to become the undisputed leader in science, technology, and innovation.

Already, China awards more bachelor’s degrees than the United States, the European Union, and Japan combined. While the United States maintains an advantage in graduates with doctoral degrees, China is quickly approaching our lead.

It is essential that we support our post-doctoral students during these unusual times if the United States wants to maintain our advantage.

Post-doctoral students and early-career researchers are the backbone of our advanced technology research enterprise.

Losing an entire generation of these highly trained men and women due to COVID-19 would hurt our capacity for innovative advancements in technology and science and would send a signal to China that the United States is not committed to training the workforce necessary to continue our military and technological dominance  - the exact opposite of what we should be doing.

Providing a path forward for those pursuing a STEM degree will help our nation grow and improve, even during these trying times.

To maintain military, technological, and scientific superiority, we must ensure that all efforts and avenues are being made available to the next generation of ground-breaking researchers so that we do not fall drastically behind our foreign rivals. Countries, such as China, are threatening to outpace the United States in the fields of science and technology.

Now, more than ever, Congress must support the STEM workforce that drives advancement in technologies critical to our national defense. I urge the committee to adopt my amendment.

Thank you, I yield the balance of my time.