STEM RESTART Act Creates $50M Grant Program to Fund Paid 'Returnships' for Mid-Career Workers

The STEM RESTART Act (officially the STEM Restoring Employment Skills through Targeted Assistance, Re-entry, and Training Act) is setting up a new competitive grant program designed to pull skilled, mid-career workers—especially those who are currently unemployed or underemployed—back into the high-demand world of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This isn't just about training; it’s about creating high-quality, paid positions called “returnships” within small and medium-sized companies. The bill authorizes $50 million annually from Fiscal Year 2026 through 2030 to make this happen, amending the existing Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to add this new Section 172.

The Returnship: Not Your College Internship

If you’ve been out of the game for a while—maybe you took time off for family, were laid off, or your industry shifted—this bill is aiming to bridge that gap. The key provision here is the "returnship." Unlike a typical, often unpaid, internship, this program mandates that these positions must be above entry-level, offer above-entry-level pay, and include benefits and a clear path to a full-time job. We’re talking about a minimum 10-week commitment where participants receive salary, stipends, and benefits comparable to what current full-time employees with similar experience are getting. For the worker, this means a structured, paid opportunity to update skills and get a foot back in the door without having to start over at the bottom.

Incentivizing Small and Medium Business

Who gets the money? The grants are targeting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which the bill defines as companies with between 49 and 10,000 employees. Small companies (49-499 employees) can get between $100,000 and $1 million annually, while medium-sized companies (499-10,000 employees) or consortiums can receive between $500,000 and $5 million. This structure is a huge incentive for SMEs—the engine of job growth—to invest in training. Instead of only relying on poaching talent, they get federal funding to essentially build their own pipeline of experienced workers who just need a skills refresh.

For a small software development firm, for example, a $500,000 grant could cover the costs of training and paying several highly skilled, experienced developers for a few months, allowing the firm to evaluate them before committing to a permanent hire. Crucially, the bill prioritizes applications that focus on workers from rural areas, aiming to spread high-demand job opportunities beyond major metro hubs.

The Fine Print: What Companies Must Promise

To get this money, companies have to jump through a few hoops. They must show the Secretary of Labor exactly how the program will meet their STEM worker demand and lead to full-time employment for the returnship participants. They also have to coordinate with their State workforce board. The bill also includes a critical safeguard: applicants must confirm they will use the grant to increase their full-time employee count without displacing current staff. This is a necessary check to ensure companies don't just swap out existing workers for subsidized returnship participants, but it relies heavily on the Secretary of Labor’s oversight to prevent potential abuses.

Grant money can cover the cost of the returnship itself (salary, benefits, equipment) and pay for the existing employees who mentor the participants. However, there’s a cap: only up to 20% of the total grant can be used to compensate those mentors. This provision ensures the bulk of the funding goes directly to the program and the participants, rather than just subsidizing existing management time.

Finally, transparency is built in. Grant recipients must submit annual reports detailing participant numbers, broken down by demographics (sex, race, and ethnicity), and report how many participants successfully transitioned into full-time jobs. This means we'll get concrete data on whether this program is actually working and who it is helping the most.