I 
111TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. R. 6003 
To provide for the establishment of the National Fab Lab Network to build 
out a network of community based, networked Fabrication Laboratories 
across the United States to foster a new generation with scientific and 
engineering skills and to provide a workforce capable of producing world 
class individualized and traditional manufactured goods. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 30, 2010 
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 and Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by 
the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall with-
in the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To provide for the establishment of the National Fab Lab 
Network to build out a network of community based, 
networked Fabrication Laboratories across the United 
States to foster a new generation with scientific and 
engineering skills and to provide a workforce capable 
of producing world class individualized and traditional 
manufactured goods. 
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 2010’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The United States is the world leader in sci-
entific research, discovery, and innovation. 
(2) There exists a strong social and economic 
incentive to create the fewest barriers to entry for 
those interested in furthering education, discovery, 
invention, and innovation in the scientific, techno-
logical, engineering, and mathematical fields. 
(3) The United States has a strong strategic in-
terest in promoting a robust, well trained, highly ca-
pable, and geographically diverse manufacturing 
base. 
(4) MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms has con-
tributed significantly to the advancement of these 
goals through its work in creating and advancing 
Fabrication Laboratories (Fab Labs) in the United 
States and abroad. 
(5) A new kind of national infrastructure will 
be required in order to adequately take advantage of 
leading edge digital fabrication technologies to se-
cure the United States’ leading position in scientific 
fields and to promote a robust manufacturing base. 
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(6) A focused, dedicated national effort will be 
required in order to ensure the creation of such an 
infrastructure takes place as quickly and effectively 
as possible. 
SEC. 3. ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL FAB LAB NETWORK. 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—The National Fab Lab Net-
work incorporated by this Act (hereinafter in this section 
referred to as the ‘‘NFLN’’) is hereby authorized and em-
powered to receive either real or personal property and 
to hold the same absolutely or in trust, and to invest, rein-
vest, and manage the same in accordance with the provi-
sions of its constitution and to apply said property and 
the income arising therefrom to the objects of its creation 
and according to the instructions of its donors. 
(b) IN GENERAL.—The National Fab Lab Network 
(NFLN) shall exist as a nonprofit entity whose purpose 
is to facilitate the piece by piece construction of an actual 
network of connected labs. The NFLN itself shall not rep-
resent an overseeing, regulating, or coordinating body of 
this distributed network, but will merely exist to facilitate 
its construction. 
(c) DEFINITIONS.—In this section, the term ‘‘Fab-
rication Laboratory’’ also referred to as a ‘‘Fab Lab’’ 
means a facility containing a variety of manufacturing and 
other fabrication tools operable by means of digital input 
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as well as the software and computers required to design 
for and operate those tools. These labs serve a broad range 
of purposes, but each allow for clear guidelines for how 
members of the local community, local businesses, and 
academic or educational purposes can be pursued with the 
labs’ resources consistent with a charter to be established 
by the NFLN. 
(d) FUNCTIONS.—The functions of the NFLN shall 
be the following: 
(1) To serve as the coordinating body for all ef-
forts to create a coordinated, collaborative network 
of Fab Labs in the United States. 
(2) To serve as the first point of contact for or-
ganizations interested in constructing and operating 
a Fab Lab and to maintain a first-come first-serve 
wait list of those organizations. 
(3) To work out to the satisfaction of NFLN 
staff and board members the ability of interested or-
ganizations to successfully host a Fab Lab. In par-
ticular, the staff and board members of the NFLN 
shall examine the ability of the organization to sup-
ply a physical location for the lab, their financial 
ability to pay for sufficient staff to operate the lab 
and train its users, an ability to engage the local 
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community or other sufficient user base, and an 
awareness of those long term obligations. 
(4) To match those organizations who meet 
with the NFLN’s approval for those criteria speci-
fied in paragraph (3) with available sources of fund-
ing and individuals with personal experience in es-
tablishing and operating Labs in other organizations 
so as to expedite the process of making new Labs 
operational. In general, the NFLN should not bring 
to this stage or continue to engage with those orga-
nizations that do not meet the NFLN’s approval on 
those criteria described in paragraph (3). 
(5) To advertise or perform other outreach ac-
tivities to those organizations that might have inter-
est in or otherwise benefit from creating a Fab Lab, 
and to notify those organizations of the specific pur-
poses the NFLN can perform. 
(e) PURPOSES.—In carrying out its functions, the 
NFLN’s purposes and goals shall be— 
(1) to facilitate the construction of a new type 
of information and digital fabrication infrastructure; 
specifically, in all its actions to facilitate and encour-
age the construction of a decentralized network of 
connected Fab Labs; 
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(2) to promote the goals of greater science, 
technology, engineering, and math education, work-
force development in the areas of manufacturing and 
product design, increased innovation and invention 
in the private sector, as well as scientific and aca-
demic discovery through the use of distributed dig-
ital fabrication tools; and 
(3) to seek to establish at least one Fab Lab 
per every 700,000 individuals in the United States 
in the first ten years of its operation. 
(f) FUNDING.—The NFLN may accept donations 
from private individuals, corporations, government agen-
cies, or other organizations. 
Æ 
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