Federal money for STEM labs and internet in rural Native American schools
S. 5317 — INSPIRES Act · Filed by Brian Schatz (D-HI) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The INSPIRES Act gives states $25 million per year for rural schools. It helps schools serving Native American students build or fix STEM classrooms and labs. Schools also get money for high-speed internet. States and local schools must add their own money to match the federal grants.
Who it affects
Rural schools and schools serving Native American students get the grants. States and local school districts must provide matching money. At least 10% of STEM money must go to schools serving Native Americans.
One thing to notice
The bill does not say how to check if schools use the new buildings as promised.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- STEM — Science, technology, engineering, and math classes and labs.
- high-speed internet — Fast internet connection for schools and classrooms.
- federal grants — Money the government gives to states and schools that does not need to be paid back.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (22,051 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,707 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
As of — page rendered 2026-09-23.
“Federal money for STEM labs and internet in rural Native American schools” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5317/simple Report an error