Sponsors (2)
This bill makes a substantial federal investment to expand and prioritize AI/quantum education and workforce pathways—especially for underserved communities—while increasing federal spending, regulatory and administrative burdens, and risks of uneven implementation, privacy gaps, and benefits skewed to better‑resourced institutions.
Millions of students, jobseekers, tech workers, and researchers gain expanded, federally funded AI and emerging-technology education and training across K–12, community colleges, vocational programs, undergraduate and graduate levels (new programs, prize challenges, fellowships, and training targets including a goal to train 1,000,000 workers by 2030).
Underserved populations — including rural communities, Tribal students, HBCUs/MSIs, and EPSCoR‑eligible institutions — are explicitly prioritized for awards, scholarships, and capacity-building, improving geographic and demographic equity in AI and STEM pathways.
Substantial financial support for students and trainees: multi‑year undergraduate scholarships, graduate fellowships, and paid fellowships that cover tuition, fees, and stipends expand the pipeline into AI, quantum, advanced manufacturing, and related fields.
Taxpayers face increased federal spending and budgetary uncertainty: many new scholarships, fellowships, prizes, awards, centers, and programs require appropriations and could raise federal outlays or require offsets.
Programs, prize competitions, and awards risk favoring well‑resourced universities, private partners, or companies, disadvantaging smaller nonprofits, rural institutions, and community providers and widening existing disparities in who benefits.
New administrative, reporting, and compliance burdens (donor vetting, security requirements, periodic reviews, and program reporting) will increase costs and staff time for NSF, recipient institutions, and state/local partners.
Based on analysis of 36 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes NSF, Commerce, and USDA programs to expand AI and emerging‑technology education, scholarships, fellowships, outreach, centers, and workforce frameworks with equity and gift/foreign‑tie safeguards.
Introduced March 2, 2026 by Jerry Moran · Last progress March 2, 2026
Creates a set of federal programs to expand K–12 and higher‑education teaching, learning, and workforce development in artificial intelligence and related emerging technologies. It funds competitive research on AI teaching models, scholarships and fellowships for undergraduate and graduate students, professional development for educators, outreach campaigns, agriculture‑focused AI grants, regional community‑college centers of AI excellence, and workforce frameworks at NIST — all with eligibility and priority rules favoring rural, low‑income, Tribal, and minority‑serving institutions. Includes program design rules and safeguards: guidance for K–12 AI use developed with education and science agencies, prize “grand challenges” (including a goal to train 1,000,000 U.S. workers by 2030), gift‑acceptance and public‑private partnership standards that screen foreign ties, prohibition on funding recipients found to have violated Title VI discrimination rules since 2020, and a funding contingency so activities take effect only if Congress provides money.