Congresswoman Johnson Offered Remarks to Leaders in the STEM Community

Washington, DC- (Wednesday, April 25, 2012) — Yesterday, Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson, Ranking Member on the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, and the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc. (NACME) held a press conference to introduce the "Broadening Participation in STEM Education Act.”

Congresswoman Johnson offered the following remarks:  “I would like to give a special thanks to Dr. Irving McPhail, President and CEO of NACME, for his vision and extraordinary leadership on these issues. Just past my 70^th birthday, I became the first African American and first female Ranking Member on the House committee on Science, Space and Technology.

For 20 years, I have worked to ensure that diversity provisions in legislation that come before the Science committee are as strong as possible.   I want to reiterate my commitment to broadening participation in STEM for all, which has been one of my top priorities as a Member of Congress.

I want to thank the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, the American Society for Engineering Education, the American Association for University Women and the Society of Women Engineers, who have endorsed this legislation and hopefully we can get it moving.”

The “Broadening Participation in STEM Education Act” would authorize the Director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) to award grants to increase the number of students from underrepresented minority groups receiving degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The bill would also expand the number of faculty members from underrepresented minority groups at colleges and universities.

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U.S. Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson is the highest-ranking Texan on the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure and a senior member of the Science Committee. She represents the 30th Congressional District of Texas, which, includes Downtown Dallas, Fair Park, Oak Lawn, Turtle Creek,Old East Dallas, Pleasant Grove, & South Oak Cliff; all of Balch Springs, DeSoto, Hutchins, Lancaster & Wilmer and parts of Cedar Hill, Duncanville, Ferris, Glenn Heights and Ovilla.