STEM Ph.D.s and Security

Eakinomics: STEM Ph.D.s and Security

Every now and then an idea has its moment. For years, policy analysts have urged policymakers to “staple a green card to every Ph.D.” Now – at a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine and rising cyberattacks have increased concerns over high-tech threats to U.S. national security (especially cybersecurity) – the House-passed America COMPETES Act has a provision that could provide the Department of Defense (DoD) with enough highly skilled science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers to meet hiring demand for the next three years.

The details are in the latest from Whitney Appel and me. Here are the broad strokes.

The America Creating Opportunities for Manufacturing, Preeminence in Technology, and Economic Strength Act of 2022, also referred to as the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (COMPETES) is a sprawling piece of legislation, much of it about as appealing as being a Cleveland Browns fan. But there are a few gems. Among its provisions is a direct pathway to permanent residency, and later citizenship, for certain foreign nationals with a doctoral degree in STEM fields – the proverbial green card stapled to the degree.

Looking at the data, DoD hired 25,414 civilian STEM employees between 2020–2021. If that hiring rate persists, DoD could theoretically fulfill its STEM employment needs with highly skilled workers for the next three years based on COMPETES changes alone. Similarly, over the past two years, DoD saw the departure of 21,546 people with STEM credentials, a loss that could be made up fully by the COMPETES provision.

As we noted in the paper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee underscored the need for enhancing U.S. cybersecurity capabilities, saying, “[W]e must increase our ability to compete in cyberspace and ensure all elements of informational power are integrated into operations, activities, and efforts to deter our adversaries and protect the U.S. homeland. This requires investment in partners and technology, building and maturing cyber operations and readiness, reducing risk to weapon systems and critical infrastructure, strengthening cybersecurity, and improving network resiliency.”

The COMPETES Act provision won’t solve all these problems, but Congress has a real opportunity to start addressing this challenge.