Sponsor
Bill Foster
Representative · D-IL
Representative · D-IL
The bill expands equitable, local access to hands-on STEM, workforce development, and small-business fabrication resources nationwide, at the cost of new public and local operating expenses and increased safety, IP, and governance risks that will require careful funding, oversight, and safeguards.
Students, young adults, and workers across the country gain widespread access to hands-on STEM and digital-fabrication training through a national network of fab labs, improving job readiness and employability.
Entrepreneurs and small manufacturers get local access to prototyping and low-volume production resources, lowering startup and product-development costs and supporting local innovation and small-business growth.
Low-income and underserved communities receive prioritized funding and a mandate (at least one fab lab per Congressional district), expanding equitable access to equipment, training, and economic opportunity.
Taxpayers — including local governments and potentially low-income communities — could bear new and ongoing costs to establish and operate a nationwide fab-lab network (federal outlays, local matches, membership or operating fees).
Wider access to digital fabrication tools increases risks of misuse, safety incidents, intellectual-property infringement, or export-control violations unless robust technical, legal, and operational safeguards are enforced.
Local hosts (schools, libraries, universities) may face significant operational, staffing, and administrative burdens to run fab facilities and comply with national standards and reporting requirements, straining limited resources.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a national nonprofit to establish, register, standardize, and support local fab labs and to pursue at least one fab lab per Congressional district, prioritizing underserved communities.
Official title: 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 businesses, producing personalized products, mitigating risks, and for other purposes.
Introduced June 25, 2026 by Bill Foster · Last progress June 25, 2026
Creates a private nonprofit corporation, the National Fab Lab Network, to build and operate a nationwide network of local digital fabrication "fab labs" that provide design-to-physical production tools, training, and support for education, workforce development, entrepreneurship, and community use. The corporation will maintain a national registry, set standards and protocols, provide technical assistance and training, and pursue establishing at least one fab lab in each Congressional district with priority for underserved communities. The Board of the corporation must reflect geographic, tribal, educational, library, nonprofit, commercial, and demographic diversity, include the Fab Foundation, and be initially appointed by congressional leaders; the organization will operate as a non-federal, tax-exempt nonprofit subject to applicable D.C. nonprofit law where consistent with the Act.