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The 117th U.S. Congress, sworn in this month, includes 19 lawmakers with engineering educations or backgrounds, says the National Society of Professional Engineers. They represent the coasts and the heartland, and disciplines such as industrial, civil and biochemical.
Why does it matter?
The new Congress will take up issues from infrastructure to cybersecurity to the digital economy. Understanding complex technical details underlying legislation is essential. Engineers also bring a unique capacity for problem solving and a willingness to follow the data, qualities that make for strong leaders.
Want to see NSPE’s full list of engineers on the Hill? Read on.
117th Congress Engineers
– Melissa Mathews, The Engineering 100
1 comment
As a Life Senior member of IEEE, I agree it’s good to have engineers on the Hill. Reasons other than those mentioned in this blog include ability of engineers to invent and innovate by thinking independently outside the box and focusing on what is important for the benefit of society. Thus they can provide, if allowed by chairs, a needed counterweight and balancing act in caucus and committee work of Congress that facilitates crafting of wise legislation, partly by better basing bills on the facts to foster bipartisan unity in votes despite ideological differences in Congress.