Reducing Credit Hour Requirement for Edith Nourse Rogers Stem Scholarship
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 2196, a bill to reduce the credit hour requirement for the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship program.
H.R. 2196 is a technical correction to the Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship, which was codified into law with the passage of the Harry W. Colmery Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2017, also known as the Forever GI Bill.
This STEM scholarship program, named after the former chairwoman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Edith Nourse Rogers, provides veterans who are enrolled in STEM programs with additional support if their GI benefits are exhausted before they complete an undergraduate degree.
Unfortunately, this much needed scholarship program is crippled by the qualification criteria, which necessitates that veterans must be enrolled in STEM programs that require more than 128 semester credit hours to graduate.
According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, these criteria only allow veterans enrolled in three programs at higher learning institutions to participate in this great scholarship program.
Now, this was not the intent of the Congress. H.R. 2196 would correct this oversight by reducing the required semester credit hours of a degree program from 128 to 120, to allow more programs at a wider array of institutions of higher learning to qualify for the program.
Now, veterans across the country are enrolling in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math based degree programs at rapid rates, and we should continue to encourage veterans to pursue STEM programs and employment in STEM fields.
By continuing to invest in our veterans, we are investing in the American economy and our great Nation.
Mr. Speaker, I want to thank Representative Barr, Representative Levin, and Ranking Member Roe for their hard work on this excellent bill. I would especially like to thank Chairman Levin and the rest of the Economic Opportunity Subcommittee for their bipartisan work to get this bill to the floor in a timely fashion.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source