Innovation Corps Act of 2017
This bill requires the Department of Commerce to establish a competitive program to make grants to institutions of higher education to establish or enhance education programs that retrain workers displaced from their jobs by automation to provide such workers with skills needed for jobs in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields.
Commerce shall establish an Innovation Corps whereby recent college graduates may volunteer, in an education program for which an institution of higher education receives (or is eligible to receive) such a grant, to help retrain displaced workers.
The Higher Education Act of 1965 is amended to: (1) allow federal student loan deferment for graduate volunteers who serve in the corps, and (2) require Commerce to repay up to $100,000 of such a student loan for a borrower who completes two years of corps service.