On Friday, the House Committee on Veterans Affairs passed Representative Abe Hamadeh's (R-AZ) Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship Opportunity Act, which he celebrated in a statement.
As we covered in March, Rep. Hamadeh's bill, which he introduced with Representative Nikki Budzinski (D-IL), expands veterans' access to the Edith Nourse Rogers scholarship, which helps eligible veterans pursue science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) degrees through the Post-9/11 GI Bill via $30,000 (up to 9 months of additional benefits) for training in such fields.
The STEM Scholarship Opportunity Act, specifically, lifts the requirement that veterans be within 6 months of exhausting their benefits before they can apply.
"I want to thank Congresswoman Budzinski for joining me in offering this bipartisan bill to assist veterans," Rep. Hamadeh said in his statement, adding, "As I have said before, in light of the fact that 3,500 veterans have used the scholarship to continue pursuing their degrees in STEM fields in just the last three years, the need to modify the requirements was obvious."
The Arizona Congressman further emphasized, "Given the need for more STEM professionals in our workforce, I believe there is no reason to require applicants to exhaust their Post 9-11/GI Bill benefits before they can apply."
As a result, he concluded, "House Republicans are 100% dedicated to eliminating unnecessary red tape and arbitrary rules that make no sense."
The Edith Nourse Rogers STEM Scholarship Opportunity Act passed out of committee a day after the House Veterans Affairs Committee passed the Health Professionals Scholarship Program (HPSP) Improvement Act, another bill introduced by Hamadeh and Budzinski, which can be read about in the link provided in the opening paragraph.
The key difference between the two pieces of legislation is that the HPSP Improvement Act requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to ensure HPSP recipients receive full-time employment contracts at the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) no less than 90 days after completing their studies, while also requiring a hiring report to be sent to the House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committees to identify the most essential jobs and the needs of VA facilities.
