The bills H.R. 1289 and S. 1705 are currently before their respective branches of congress.  Known as “The National Fab Lab Network (NFLN)”, the bills seek:

“To provide a Federal charter to the Fab Foundation for the National Fab Lab Network, a national network of local digital fabrication facilities providing community access to advanced manufacturing tools for learning skills, developing inventions, creating businesses, and producing personalized products.”

The NFLN would operate at no cost to taxpayers and would accept funds and facilitate partnerships between the private sector, government agencies and other groups.  The bill in both branches has been referred to committee (where good bills sometimes go to die), but the house bill now has 32 cosponsors with the most recent added about a month ago.  You can “track the bills” by just entering your e-mails at GovTrack.us for H.R. 1289 and S. 1705.  This legislation seems to make sense and it’s free, what’s not to like?  Just a few letters on a obscure bill like this can swing a congressman.  You can find all the information at the following links to call your senator to support S. 1705 our your representative to support H.R. 1705 or write by getting their e-mail here!