Building Indigenous STEM Professionals Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 2037 To amend the STEM education program for American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students under the Higher Education Act of 1965. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 27, 2019 Ms. MURKOWSKI (for herself and Mr. SCHATZ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Edu- cation, Labor, and Pensions A BILL To amend the STEM education program for American In- dian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students under the Higher Education Act of 1965. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Building Indigenous 4 STEM Professionals Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2037.IS S2037 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 2037 IS SEC. 2. IMPROVING SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, ENGINEERING, 1 AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION WITH A 2 FOCUS ON AMERICAN INDIAN, ALASKA NA- 3 TIVE, AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN STUDENTS. 4 Section 819 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 5 U.S.C. 1161j) is amended— 6 (1) in the section heading, by striking ‘‘ALAS- 7 KA NATIVE AND NATIVE HAWAIIAN’’ and insert- 8 ing ‘‘AMERICAN INDIAN, ALASKA NATIVE, AND 9 NATIVE HAWAIIAN’’; 10 (2) in subsection (a)(2), by striking ‘‘Alaska 11 Natives and Native Hawaiians’’ and inserting 12 ‘‘American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Ha- 13 waiians to enable them to succeed in these fields’’; 14 (3) in subsection (b)— 15 (A) by redesignating paragraphs (1), (2), 16 (3), and (4), as paragraphs (2), (4), (5), and 17 (6), respectively; 18 (B) by inserting before paragraph (2), as 19 redesignated by subparagraph (A), the fol- 20 lowing: 21 ‘‘(1) NATIVE AMERICAN.—The term ‘Native 22 American’ includes Alaska Natives, American Indi- 23 ans, and Native Hawaiians.’’; 24 (C) by inserting after paragraph (2), as re- 25 designated by subparagraph (A), the following: 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2037.IS S2037 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 2037 IS ‘‘(3) AMERICAN INDIAN.—The term ‘American 1 Indian’ has the meaning given the term ‘Indian’ in 2 section 202 of the Indian Land Consolidation Act 3 (25 U.S.C. 2201).’’; 4 (4) in subsection (c)— 5 (A) by inserting ‘‘create or’’ after ‘‘to en- 6 able the eligible partnership to’’; 7 (B) by inserting ‘‘Native American’’ after 8 ‘‘the development of’’; and 9 (C) by striking ‘‘, including existing pro- 10 grams for Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian 11 students’’; 12 (5) in subsection (d)— 13 (A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘Alaska 14 Native or Native Hawaiian students’’ and in- 15 serting ‘‘programs that serve Native American 16 students’’; 17 (B) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘Alaska 18 Native and Native Hawaiian students’’ and in- 19 serting ‘‘programs that serve Native American 20 students’’; and 21 (C) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘Alaska 22 Native or Native Hawaiian students’’ and in- 23 serting ‘‘Native American students’’; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S2037.IS S2037 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 2037 IS (6) in subsection (f), by striking ‘‘30 percent or 1 more of the program participants are Alaska Native 2 or Native Hawaiian’’ and inserting ‘‘70 percent or 3 more of the program participants are Native Amer- 4 ican’’; and 5 (7) in subsection (i), by striking ‘‘2009’’ and in- 6 serting ‘‘2020’’. 7 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:14 Jul 03, 2019 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S2037.IS S2037 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS