Sponsor
Bill Foster
Representative · D-IL
Representative · D-IL
The bill would expand equitable, hands-on STEM training, workforce development, and local prototyping capacity through a coordinated national fab-lab network, while requiring new federal and local funding, creating operational and compliance burdens, and raising safety, IP, and governance risks that must be managed.
Students and young adults across districts gain broader access to hands-on STEM and digital fabrication training through local fab labs, improving job readiness and technical skills.
Low-income and underserved communities are prioritized for funding (at least one fab lab per Congressional district), expanding equitable access to tools, training, and local opportunity.
Workers and job-seekers benefit from expanded workforce-development and technical training tied to local fabrication facilities, improving employability in advanced manufacturing and tech sectors.
Taxpayers could face new federal and ongoing costs to establish, subsidize, and operate a nationwide fab-lab network and its coordinating body.
Expanded access to fabrication tools raises safety, misuse, intellectual-property, and export-control risks that could create security and public-safety liabilities if not tightly managed.
Local schools, libraries, and partner institutions may face operational burdens—staffing, training, facility upkeep—and potential costs to host and run fab labs without guaranteed dedicated funding.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Creates a nonprofit to build and coordinate a national network of local fab labs, set standards, train leaders, and prioritize one lab per Congressional district.
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 called the National Fab Lab Network to build, coordinate, and grow a nationwide network of local digital fabrication “fab labs” to expand public access to design-to-production tools, promote STEM skills, support workforce development, and foster invention and small business creation. The corporation will maintain a national registry, set standards for interoperability and sustainable operation, provide training and technical assistance, and seek to establish at least one fab lab in each Congressional district with priority for underserved communities. Defines fab labs as community-oriented facilities with digital fabrication capabilities and a commitment to education, entrepreneurship, and social impact. The board (7–15 members) must reflect geographic, Tribal, educational, library, nonprofit, commercial, and demographic diversity; initial board appointments are made by congressional leaders. The entity is a nonfederal, tax-exempt corporation organized under D.C. nonprofit law as applied and subject to the Act’s requirements.