Sponsors (6)
The bill increases federal support and access to Robert Noyce awards—making it easier for under-resourced institutions to fund and grow the STEM teacher pipeline—at the cost of higher federal spending and potential increases in federal reliance and reduced administrative flexibility for some programs.
Teachers, teacher-preparation programs, and students in under-resourced districts can access Noyce awards more easily because removing the statutory cost-sharing requirement lets more awards be fully funded, expanding the STEM teacher pipeline.
Teacher-education programs and institutions face lower financial barriers to applying because grants no longer require matching funds, allowing institutions with limited budgets to participate.
NSF administrators and applicant institutions will have less administrative ambiguity and lower compliance burden because the bill clarifies and narrows the waiver language and scope.
Taxpayers and the federal budget may face higher costs because eliminating recipient cost-sharing increases NSF-funded outlays for the program.
Schools, universities, and state/local governments could become more dependent on federal support, potentially reducing local or private investment in teacher-preparation programs.
If the waiver language is narrowed too tightly, NSF and related programs could lose flexibility that other programs previously relied on, unintentionally constraining future program administration.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Removes the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program's cost-sharing requirement and updates related statutory cross-references for consistency.
Removes the statutory cost-sharing (matching) requirement for the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program and makes small, conforming edits to related statutory text so cross-references and plural/singular wording align with the change. The result is that institutions and grantees no longer must provide the previously required nonfederal share for Noyce awards, and related statute language is updated for consistency.
Official title: To amend the National Science Foundation Authorization Act of 2002 and the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act to repeal cost-sharing with respect to the Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, and for other purposes.
Introduced December 2, 2025 by Josh Riley · Last progress December 2, 2025