Lamar Smith: “Science, technology, engineering and math are critical to America's future prosperity. Women are unfortunately…”

“Science, technology, engineering and math are critical to America's future prosperity. Women are unfortunately underrepresented in STEM careers. Despite representing nearly half of the college-educated and total U.S. workforce, women account for less than 25 percent of America's STEM workforce. Supporting women's involvement in the fields of aerospace and space exploration should be an important part of NASA's mission. Current NASA programs such as NASA GIRLS and NASA BOYS are important and give young students the opportunity to interact and learn from real NASA engineers, scientists, and technologists. They provide virtual mentoring that use commercially available video chat programs to pair NASA innovators with young students across the country. H.R. 321 builds upon this success. It leverages NASA's talent pool of current and retired astronauts, and early career female scientists, engineers, and innovators to inform and inspire young women to pursue their dreams in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. One day, these young people will push the boundaries of space. Space can be a catalyst for inspiring young girls to enter the STEM fields. By doing our part to support their engagement in space with this legislation, we are investing in the futures of our daughters, nieces, and grandchildren. I again want to thank the bill sponsor, Research and Technology Subcommittee Chairwoman Comstock for her leadership on this topic.…”