IIB 
117TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 210 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MAY 19, 2021 
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions 
AN ACT 
To coordinate Federal research and development efforts fo-
cused on STEM education and workforce development 
in rural areas, including the development and application 
of new technologies to support and improve rural STEM 
education, 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 ‘‘Rural STEM Edu-
cation Research Act’’. 
SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The supply of STEM workers is not keeping 
pace with the rapidly evolving needs of the public 
and private sector, resulting in a deficit often re-
ferred to as a STEM skills shortage. 
(2) According to the Bureau of Labor Statis-
tics, the United States will need one million addi-
tional STEM professionals than it is on track to 
produce in the coming decade. 
(3) Many STEM occupations offer higher 
wages, more opportunities for advancement, and a 
higher degree of job security than non-STEM jobs. 
(4) The 60,000,000 individuals in the United 
States who live in rural settings are significantly 
under-represented in STEM. 
(5) According to the National Center for Edu-
cation Statistics, nine million students in the United 
States—nearly 20 percent of the total K–12 popu-
lation—attend rural schools, and for reasons rang-
ing from teacher quality to shortages of resources, 
these students often have fewer opportunities for 
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high-quality STEM learning than their peers in the 
Nation’s urban and suburban schools. 
(6) Rural areas represent one of the most 
promising, 
yet 
underutilized, 
opportunities 
for 
STEM education to impact workforce development 
and regional innovation, including agriculture. 
(7) The study of agriculture, food, and natural 
resources involves biology, engineering, physics, 
chemistry, math, geology, computer science, and 
other scientific fields. 
(8) Employment in computer and information 
technology occupations is projected to grow 11 per-
cent from 2019 to 2029. To help meet this demand, 
it is important rural students have the opportunity 
to acquire computing skills through exposure to com-
puter science learning in grades Pre-K through 12 
and in informal learning settings. 
(9) More than 293,000,000 individuals in the 
United States use high-speed broadband to work, 
learn, access healthcare, and operate their busi-
nesses, while 19,000,000 individuals in the United 
States still lack access to high-speed broadband. 
Rural areas are hardest hit, with over 26 percent of 
individuals in rural areas in the United States lack-
ing access to high-speed broadband compared to 1.7 
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percent of individuals in urban areas in the United 
States. 
SEC. 3. NIST ENGAGEMENT WITH RURAL COMMUNITIES. 
(a) MEP OUTREACH.—Section 25 of the National 
Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 U.S.C. 
278k) is amended— 
(1) in subsection (c)— 
(A) in paragraph (6), by striking ‘‘commu-
nity colleges and area career and technical edu-
cation schools’’ and inserting the following: 
‘‘secondary schools (as defined in section 8101 
of the Elementary and Secondary Education 
Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 7801)), community col-
leges, and area career and technical education 
schools, including those in underserved and 
rural communities,’’; and 
(B) in paragraph (7)— 
(i) by striking ‘‘and local colleges’’ 
and inserting the following: ‘‘local high 
schools and local colleges, including those 
in underserved and rural communities,’’; 
and 
(ii) by inserting ‘‘or other applied 
learning opportunities’’ after ‘‘apprentice-
ships’’; and 
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(2) in subsection (d)(3) by striking ‘‘, commu-
nity colleges, and area career and technical edu-
cation schools,’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘and 
local high schools, community colleges, and area ca-
reer and technical education schools, including those 
in underserved and rural communities,’’. 
(b) RURAL CONNECTIVITY PRIZE COMPETITION.— 
(1) PRIZE COMPETITION.—Pursuant to section 
24 of the Stevenson-Wydler Technology Innovation 
Act of 1980 (15 U.S.C. 3719), the Secretary of 
Commerce, acting through the Under Secretary of 
Commerce for Standards and Technology (referred 
to in this subsection as the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall, sub-
ject to appropriations, carry out a program to award 
prizes competitively to stimulate research and devel-
opment of creative technologies in order to deploy 
affordable and reliable broadband connectivity to un-
derserved rural communities. 
(2) PLAN FOR DEPLOYMENT IN RURAL COMMU-
NITIES.—Each proposal submitted pursuant to para-
graph (1) shall include a plan for deployment of the 
technology that is the subject of such proposal in an 
underserved rural community. 
(3) PRIZE AMOUNT.—In carrying out the pro-
gram under paragraph (1), the Secretary may award 
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not more than a total of $5,000,000 to one or more 
winners of the prize competition. 
(4) REPORT.—Not later than 60 days after the 
date on which a prize is awarded under the prize 
competition, the Secretary shall submit to the rel-
evant committees of Congress a report that describes 
the winning proposal of the prize competition. 
(5) CONSULTATION.—In carrying out the pro-
gram under subsection (a), the Secretary may con-
sult with the heads of relevant departments and 
agencies of the Federal Government. 
SEC. 4. NITR-D BROADBAND WORKING GROUP. 
Title I of the High-Performance Computing Act of 
1991 (15 U.S.C. 5511 et seq.) is amended by adding at 
the end the following: 
‘‘SEC. 103. BROADBAND RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 
WORKING GROUP. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Director shall establish a 
broadband research and development working group to ad-
dress national research challenges and opportunities for 
improving broadband access and adoption across the 
United States. 
‘‘(b) ACTIVITIES.—The working group shall identify 
and coordinate key research priorities for addressing 
broadband access and adoption, including— 
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tories, institutions of higher education, or 
in industry; 
(vi) developing training and best prac-
tices for educators who teach multiple 
grade levels within a STEM discipline; 
(vii) designing and implementing pro-
fessional development courses and experi-
ences, including mentoring, for rural edu-
cators described in clause (i) that combine 
face-to-face and online experiences; and 
(viii) any other activity the Director 
determines will accomplish the goals of this 
subsection. 
(B) RURAL
STEM
COLLABORATIVE.—The 
Director may establish a pilot program of re-
gional cohorts in rural areas that will provide 
peer support, mentoring, and hands-on research 
experiences for rural STEM educators of stu-
dents in grades Pre-K through 12, in order to 
build an ecosystem of cooperation among edu-
cators, researchers, academia, and local indus-
try. 
(b) BROADENING PARTICIPATION OF RURAL STU-
DENTS IN STEM.— 
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