New Collar Jobs Act of 2025
HB2447, titled the New Collar Jobs Act of 2025, is a workforce-development and cybersecurity bill designed to expand training, education, and employment pathways in the cybersecurity field. It creates a new federal tax credit for employers that pay for employee cybersecurity education, covering 50% of qualified expenses up to $5,000 per employee, and ties the credit to recognized cybersecurity degrees, certificates, and NICE/NIST workforce roles. The bill also amends higher-education law to create a student loan repayment benefit for certain cybersecurity workers who serve in economically distressed areas, allowing cancellation of up to $25,000 after 36 consecutive monthly payments and qualifying employment.
The bill further seeks to strengthen the cybersecurity talent pipeline through the CyberCorps Scholarship-for-Service program and the NSF Advanced Technological Education program. It expresses congressional intent to at least double CyberCorps scholarships beginning in fiscal year 2026 and to increase funding for NSF’s information technology and cybersecurity education division to at least 110% of fiscal year 2024 levels. It also expands eligibility to include cybersecurity course instructors and allows teaching-related service to count toward scholarship obligations.
In addition, HB2447 creates a federal procurement incentive for businesses that invest in cybersecurity education. Executive agencies would give a five percent score increase in competitive contract evaluations for qualified offerors that have claimed the new employee cybersecurity education credit within the prior three years, for contracts over $5 million. The bill therefore links tax policy, student debt relief, education funding, and contracting preferences to cybersecurity workforce development.
The bill would amend the Internal Revenue Code, the Higher Education Act of 1965, the Cybersecurity Enhancement Act of 2014, and related federal procurement rules. Its practical effect would be to encourage employers to subsidize cybersecurity training, support workers in underserved areas, and expand federal support for cybersecurity education and scholarship programs. It also uses existing NICE/NIST cybersecurity workforce definitions to define eligible jobs and training, which may shape how agencies and employers administer the new incentives.
There is no recorded committee debate or vote history in the provided materials, so no direct legislative sentiment is available from hearings or floor action. Based on the bill text alone, the measure appears broadly pro-workforce and pro-cybersecurity, with an emphasis on job growth and education. Potential points of contention are likely to include the cost of the tax credit and scholarship expansions, the use of federal procurement preferences, and whether the bill’s incentives are sufficiently targeted to economically distressed areas and cybersecurity occupations.
HB2447 would amend federal tax, education, and procurement law by adding a new business tax credit for employee cybersecurity education, creating a targeted federal student loan cancellation benefit for cybersecurity workers in economically distressed areas, and modifying the CyberCorps Scholarship-for-Service program to broaden eligible service and increase participation. It would also express congressional support for increased NSF cybersecurity education funding and create a contracting preference for firms that invest in cybersecurity training. The bill primarily affects employers, cybersecurity employees, student loan borrowers, NSF scholarship recipients, and federal contractors.
No committee transcripts or votes were provided, so there is no documented public sentiment from legislative debate or roll call history. The bill’s findings and structure suggest a positive, workforce-expansion framing focused on cybersecurity talent shortages, manufacturing modernization, and job growth. Overall, the measure appears to be presented as a bipartisan-style economic and education initiative rather than a controversial regulatory bill, though its fiscal and procurement provisions could draw scrutiny.
The main likely points of contention are fiscal and administrative. Critics may question the revenue cost of the new tax credit, the loan cancellation benefit, and the proposed increases in NSF-related funding, as well as whether the procurement score bonus effectively rewards firms that already have resources to invest in training. There may also be debate over the fairness and scope of the economically distressed area requirement, the reliance on NICE/NIST workforce definitions, and whether federal contracting preferences should be tied to prior tax-credit claims. Supporters would likely emphasize workforce development, cybersecurity resilience, and job creation, while skeptics may focus on budget impact and implementation complexity.