I 
118TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 9205 
To establish the National Fab Lab Network, a nonprofit organization con-
sisting of a national network of local digital fabrication facilities providing 
universal access to advanced manufacturing tools for workforce develop-
ment, STEM education, developing inventions, creating businesses, pro-
ducing personalized products, mitigating risks, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 30, 2024 
Mr. FOSTER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Com-
mittee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on 
Science, Space, and Technology, for a period to be subsequently deter-
mined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions 
as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To establish the National Fab Lab Network, a nonprofit 
organization consisting of a national network of local 
digital fabrication facilities providing universal access to 
advanced manufacturing tools for workforce development, 
STEM education, developing inventions, creating busi-
nesses, producing personalized products, mitigating risks, 
and for other purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
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SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Fab Lab Net-
work Act of 2024’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) Scientific discoveries and technical innova-
tions are critical to the economic and national secu-
rity of the United States. 
(2) Maintaining the leadership of the United 
States in science, technology, engineering, and math-
ematics will require a diverse population with the 
skills, interest, and access to tools required to ad-
vance these fields. 
(3) Just as earlier digital revolutions in commu-
nications and computation provided individuals with 
the internet and personal computers, a digital revo-
lution in fabrication will allow anyone to make al-
most anything, anywhere. 
(4) These creations include elements of a typ-
ical household basket of goods (furnishings, apparel, 
food production equipment, shelter, transportation, 
education and communication, recreation, and other 
goods and services), personal technology, means for 
personal expression, the production of digital fab-
rication machinery, community design, and manufac-
turing capability. 
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(5) The Center for Bits and Atoms of the Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology (CBA) has con-
tributed significantly to the advancement of these 
goals through its work in creating and advancing 
digital fabrication facilities, or ‘‘fab labs’’ in the 
United States and abroad. 
(6) Such digital fabrication facilities may in-
clude MakerSpaces, Hackerspaces, and other cre-
ative spaces that use digital fabrication as a plat-
form for education, innovation, entrepreneurship, 
personal expression, public access, and social impact. 
(7) Such digital fabrication facilities provide a 
model for a new kind of national laboratory that op-
erates as a network, linking local facilities for ad-
vanced manufacturing, providing universal access, 
cultivating new literacies, and empowering commu-
nities. 
(8) The nonprofit Fab Foundation was estab-
lished to support the growth of the international net-
work of digital fabrication facilities, to amplify the 
educational, entrepreneurial, and social impacts of 
digital fabrication facilities, and to support the de-
velopment of regional capacity building organizations 
to broaden impact as well as address local, regional, 
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and global challenges through the use of digital fab-
rication technologies. 
(9) A coordinated array of national public-pri-
vate partnerships will be the most effective way to 
accelerate the provision of universal access to this 
infrastructure for workforce development, science, 
technology, engineering, and mathematics education, 
developing inventions, creating businesses, producing 
personalized products, and mitigating risks. 
SEC. 3. NATIONAL FAB LAB NETWORK. 
(a) DEFINITION.—In this Act, the term ‘‘fab lab’’ 
means a facility that— 
(1) contains the range of capabilities required 
to create form and function from digital designs, in-
cluding— 
(A) computer-controlled machines for addi-
tive and subtractive fabrication processes; 
(B) tools and components for manufac-
turing and programming electronic circuits; 
(C) materials and methods for short-run 
production; and 
(D) workflows for three-dimensional design 
and digitization; and 
(2) is committed to supporting education, inno-
vation, entrepreneurship, personal expression, self- 
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