President Donald Trump has signed a pair of bills into law aimed at recruiting more women for the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
Trump said at an Oval Office ceremony that it’s unfair that only 1 in 4 women with a degree in one of these areas works in the field.
One measure authorizes the NASA administrator to encourage young women to study STEM fields and pursue careers that will help advance science and space exploration. It also requires NASA to report to Congress on its plans for achieving the goals spelled out in the legislation.
The second measure authorizes the National Science Foundation to encourage its entrepreneurial programs to recruit and support women to extend their focus beyond the laboratory and into the commercial world.
Trump also signed an executive order mandating the review of a rule aimed at protecting small streams and wetlands from development and pollution.
Trump says at a White House signing ceremony that the rule is one of the “worst examples of federal regulation” and that “it has truly run amok.”
He also says the rule has been “a disaster.”
The order instructs the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to review the Obama-era rule that redefined which bodies of water are protected under the Clean Water Act.
Trump had railed against the rule during his campaign and Republicans have been fighting it since its inception, slamming it as an example of federal overreach.
Democrats have argued it safeguards drinking water for millions.
The headline on this story has been corrected from an earlier version.
