Defense Primer: Emerging Technologies

"Both U.S. national strategy documents and Congress’s own bipartisan Future of Defense Task Force Report have identified a number of emerging technologiesthat could have a disruptive impact on U.S. national security in the years to come. These technologiesinclude

 artificial intelligence,
 lethal autonomous weapons,
 hypersonic weapons,
 directed-energy weapons,
 biotechnology, and
 quantum technology.

As these technologies continue to mature, they could hold significant implications for congressional oversight, U.S. defense authorizations and appropriations, military concepts of operations, and the future of war.."
Defense and technologies 

Science and Technology Issues in the 117th Congress

"The federal government supports scientific and technological advancement directly by funding and performing research and development, and indirectly by creating and maintaining policies that encourage private sector efforts. Additionally, the federal government regulates many aspects of S&T activities. This report briefly outlines a key set of science and technology policy issues that may come before the 117thCongress.

Many of these issues carry over from previous Congresses, and represent areas of continuing Member interest.Examples include policies on taxation, trade, intellectual property, commercialization of basic scientific research and other overarching issues that affect scientific and technological progress. Other issues may represent new or rapidly evolving areas affected by the threats of pandemic diseases, climate change, and malicious cyber activities, among others. Examples covered in this report include infectious disease modeling and forecasting, digital contact tracing and digital exposure notification, hydrogen pipelines, and expansion of emerging information and communications technologies such as 5G.

These and other S&T-related issues that may come before the 117thCongress are grouped into 10 categories.
 Overarching S&T Policy Issues,
 Agriculture,
 Biotechnology and Biomedical Research and Development,
 Climate Change and Water,
 Defense,
 Energy,
 Homeland Security,
 Information Technology,
 Physical and Material Sciences, and
 Space.

Each of these categories includes concise analysis of multiple policy issues. The material presented in this report should be viewed as illustrative rather than comprehensive. Each section identifies CRS reports, when available, and the appropriate CRS experts to contact for further information and analysis.."
 Science and Technology 

Library of Congress:Strong Leadership Needed to Address Serious Information Technology Management Weaknesses

" The Library of Congress has established policies and procedures for managing its information technology (IT) resources, but significant weaknesses across several areas have hindered their effectiveness: Strategic planning: The Library does not have an IT strategic plan that is aligned with the overall agency strategic plan and establishes goals, measures, and strategies. This leaves the Library without a clear direction for its use of IT..."
Library of Congress

Women's History Month: March 2013

"STEM Careers and CDC Women Making a Difference
Every March, America recognizes women and their contributions to history. This year's theme is "Women Inspiring Innovation through Imagination: Celebrating Women in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)."
CDC celebrates Women's History Month 2013 by recognizing the contributions of female employees who work in STEM careers.
CDC women represent diverse STEM fields, including microbiology, chemistry, behavioral science, toxicology, epidemiology, biology, medicine, and mechanical engineering. The challenges they meet are just as broad, from identifying sources of outbreaks and tracking disease trends, to evaluating effectiveness of programs and identifying strategies to protect workers, to improving our understanding of disease and educating the public and professionals about the latest strategies to stay healthy. As varied as their work is, though, they all share a common goal: to help people live safer and healthier lives..."

Womens History

Immigration of Foreign Nationals with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Degrees

"Although the United States remains the leading host country for international students in science,
technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields, the global competition for talent has
intensified. A record number of STEM graduates—both U.S. residents and foreign nationals—are
entering the U.S. labor market, and there is a renewed focus on creating additional immigration
pathways for foreign professional workers in STEM fields. Current law sets an annual worldwide
level of 140,000 employment-based admissions, which includes the spouses and children in
addition to the principal (i.e., qualifying) aliens. “STEM visa” is shorthand for an expedited
immigration avenue that enables foreign nationals with graduate degrees in STEM fields to adjust
to legal permanent resident (LPR) status without waiting in the queue of numerically limited LPR
visas. The fundamental policy question is should the United States create additional pathways for
STEM graduates to remain in the United States permanently?.."

OnGuardOnline

"If you run a small business, you may rely on technology to expand your reach and stay competitive, even if you don’t have a full-time IT staff. OnGuardOnline.gov wants you to have the information you need to protect your data, your networks, and your IT systems.

Our small business page highlights how-to videos and tutorials about protecting information, creating cybersecurity plans, and learning about cyber threats. The page also features training materials for employees, free email updates, and other cybersecurity resources for small businesses..."

ESA: Education Supports Racial and Ethnic Equality in STEM
"Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary Rebecca Blank unveiled findings from the Economics and Statistics Administration’s (ESA) third and final report on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) jobs and education today at a Brookings Institution forum on advancing STEM education in the United States..."
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Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation
"Today Commerce's Economic and Statistics Administration released the second in a series of reports on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This report, entitled Women in STEM: A Gender Gap to Innovation (PDF), looked at women and STEM. The results offer an opportunity and an imperative for women and America. The results showed that women are vastly underrepresented in STEM jobs and among STEM degree holders despite making up nearly half of the U.S. workforce and half of the college-educated workforce. That leaves an untapped opportunity to expand STEM employment in the United States, even as there is wide agreement that the nation must do more to improve its competitiveness..."
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The U.S. Science and Technology Workforce
"In the 21st century, global competition and rapid advances in science and technology will
challenge the scientific and technical proficiency of the U.S. workforce. Policymakers often
discuss policy actions that could enhance the nation’s science and technology (S&T) workforce—
deemed by some as essential to both meet U.S. workforce demands as well as to generate the new
ideas that lead to improved and new industries that create jobs.

The America COMPETES Act (P.L. 110-69) addresses concerns regarding the S&T workforce
and STEM education, and the 111th Congress is debating funding for the programs authorized
within it. Policymaker discussions tend to focus on three issues: demographic trends and the
future S&T talent pool, the current S&T workforce and changing workforce needs, and the
influence of foreign S&T students and workers on the U.S. S&T workforce. Many perspectives
exist, however, on the supply and demand of scientists and engineers. Some question the
fundamental premise that any action is necessary at all regarding U.S. competitiveness. They
question whether or not the S&T workforce and STEM education are problems at all..."