; findings (a) Short title This Act may be cited as the STEM Opportunities Act of 2017 . (b) Findings Congress finds the following: (1) Many reports over the past decade have found that it is critical to our Nation’s economic leadership and global competitiveness that we educate and train more scientists and engineers. (2) Research shows that women and minorities who are interested in STEM careers are disproportionately lost at nearly every educational transition. (3) The National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics at the National Science Foundation collects, compiles, and publishes data on the demographics of STEM degrees and STEM jobs in the United States. (4) Women now earn nearly 37 percent of all STEM bachelor’s degrees, but major variations persist among fields. In 2015, women earned only 19 percent of all bachelor’s degrees awarded in engineering and 18 percent in computer sciences. Based on Bureau of Labor Statistics data, jobs in computing occupations are expected to account for nearly 2/3 of the projected annual growth of newly created STEM job openings from 2014 to 2024. (5) In 2015, underrepresented minority groups comprised 39 percent of the college-age population of the United States, but only 17 percent of students earning bachelor’s degrees in STEM fields. The Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that, while freshmen from underrepresented minority groups express an interest in pursuing a STEM undergraduate degree at the same rate as all other freshmen, only 22.1 percent of Latino students, 18.4 percent of African-American students, and 18.8 percent of Native American students studying in STEM fields complete their degree within 5 years, compared to approximately 33 percent and 42 percent 5-year completion rate for White and Asian students, respectively. (6) In some STEM fields, including the computer sciences, women persist at about the same rate through doctorate degrees. In other fields, including the physical sciences and