{"id":21128,"date":"2025-05-22T17:34:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T17:34:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shpe.org\/?post_type=news-posts&p=21128"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:00:55","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:00:55","slug":"shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress","status":"publish","type":"news-posts","link":"https:\/\/shpe.org\/news-posts\/shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"SHPE Issues First Legislative Endorsement in 119th Congress\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

RESEARCHER Act: Addressing Financial Insecurity Among Graduate & Postdoctoral Researchers<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On May 7, Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), introduced the bipartisan RESEARCHER (Relieving Economic Strain to Enhance American Resilience & Competitiveness in Higher Education & Research) Act, designed to address critical financial barriers impacting graduate and postdoctoral researchers and significantly shaping the future of the U.S. scientific workforce. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This legislation seeks to tackle non-academic barriers such as food and housing insecurity, child or family care costs, and student loan debt, to better understand how these stressors derail the chances of researchers from achieving promising careers while preventing the country\u2019s ability of cultivating a resilient and competitive STEM workforce.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At SHPE, we are familiar with the negative effects of such barriers experienced by our membership. On an annual basis, SHPE assesses membership needs allowing us to improve our programming and events. In our 2024 Needs Assessment, 60% of SHPE graduate students and postdoctoral members reported difficulty balancing academic and personal responsibilities, and 48% cited experiencing financial constraints. For many, these challenges are often juggled with caregiving duties, as 9.3% identify as parents or caregivers.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even more alarming, our 2024 SHPE-LDC U.S. Latinos in Engineering and Tech Report<\/a> identified that 41% of our graduate members reported facing food insecurity “often” or “sometimes,” and 28.1% experienced food or housing insecurity. While financial constraints can take many forms, it is evident that graduate students struggle to meet the most basic living needs as they pursue their academic goals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Building off on our 2023-2024 Needs Assessment, our data also tracked the high aspirations of our undergraduate members for advanced education. We found that more than half (54%) of our student members want to earn a master’s or doctoral degree, and over 41% of our graduate members intend to pursue a doctorate. However, despite this strong desire and indication to pursue advanced degrees, only 3.6% of doctoral degrees in engineering, out of the 4.9% master\u2019s degree awarded, were awarded to those that identify as Hispanic<\/a>.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Notably, this gap between ambition and attainment suggests that many highly capable and motivated students face persistent barriers, limiting their potential to earn advanced degrees. As STEM employment occupations are projected to reach 11.8 million in 2033<\/a>,  the urgency to fill these roles is clear and we must continue investigating the barriers that many individuals experience in this critical segment of the workforce to ensure they reach their fullest potential and that our nation retains them in high-growth and high-impact STEM sectors.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RESEARCHER Act is a vital first step toward improving the landscape of financial stressors for up-and-coming researchers and innovators. As a nation, we cannot afford to lose critical STEM talent to preventable challenges such as housing and food insecurity or unaffordable childcare. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At SHPE, we are committed to supporting our members in their pursuit of academic and professional excellence. Supporting the next generation of researchers isn\u2019t just the right thing to do, it\u2019s essential to fostering and retaining the future of American innovation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read out Letter of Support click HERE<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To read the RESEARCHER Act one-pager click HERE<\/strong><\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider donating to our ALL-IN Relief Fund<\/strong><\/a>: Launched in 2020 to support our member needs during the national pandemic. As we have transitioned through post-pandemic, we know that many of our members still have needs for day-to-day living that are not covered through other funding opportunities. Through the generous support of donors, we are able to continue offering aid to our members. To learn more, click ALL-IN SHPE Relief Fund<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21131,"template":"","pending-review":[],"ceo-news":[],"source":[86],"class_list":["post-21128","news-posts","type-news-posts","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","source-shpe-on-the-hill"],"yoast_head":"\nSHPE Issues First Legislative Endorsement in 119th Congress\u00a0 - SHPE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shpe.org\/news-posts\/shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"SHPE Issues First Legislative Endorsement in 119th Congress\u00a0 - SHPE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"RESEARCHER Act: Addressing Financial Insecurity Among Graduate & Postdoctoral Researchers\u00a0 On May 7, Senators Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Alex Padilla (D-CA), introduced the bipartisan RESEARCHER (Relieving Economic Strain to Enhance American Resilience & Competitiveness in Higher Education & Research) Act, designed to address critical financial barriers impacting graduate and postdoctoral researchers and significantly shaping the […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shpe.org\/news-posts\/shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"SHPE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/shpenational\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-22T18:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/shpe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/news-fromthehill.jpg.webp\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1135\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"460\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/webp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@SHPE\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shpe.org\/news-posts\/shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shpe.org\/news-posts\/shpe-issues-first-legislative-endorsement-in-119th-congress\/\",\"name\":\"SHPE Issues First Legislative Endorsement in 119th Congress\u00a0 - 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