Congressional Democrats today [April 5, 2001] put forth an E-Strategy, a detailed series of proposals to spur innovation, productivity, economic growth, and job creation.
This agenda makes 10 recommendations
in four key areas:
I. Accelerating digital opportunity
II. Boosting research and development
III. Enhancing education, training and skills
IV. Transforming to an Information Age
1. Make broadband Internet available to every American by the end of the decade.
Making broadband access available to every American must be a high priority and an essential part of our effort to close the digital divide. To spur deployment, this agenda includes tax incentives and expanded federal financing assistance through the Rural Utilities Service. It includes full funding of the rural loan guarantee program to provide high-speed Internet service and local video to rural areas, and facilitates telecommuting to help people employ these technologies to work from home.
2. Help all regions take full advantage of information technology to prosper.
No region or group of Americans can afford to be on the wrong side of the digital divide. This agenda includes full funding for the E-rate program, which President Bush has threatened to dismantle, in order to finish the job of wiring every school and library to the Internet. It also calls for fully funding programs like the Technology Opportunities Program to help develop information infrastructures and services. Our agenda calls for the Economic Development Administration to support more technology-based development initiatives. It also supports the highly successful Community Technology Centers programs through which businesses work with government to provide disadvantaged students access to computers. And our agenda creates a Technology Corps through the Corporation for National Service to bring technology experts skills into underserved communities. President Bush has threatened to block-grant the CTC program and cut funding for the Corporation for National Service.
3. Keep costs of information technology low and within everyone's reach.
Our agenda seeks to foster competition in order to keep rates low and accelerate the deployment of new technologies. It calls for implementation of existing federal requirements already enacted to keep rates affordable for all Americans in rural, tribal, inner-city and suburban areas. Finally, it promotes deployment of the next generation of wireless services to make the web available to everyone, whether they are mobile or living out of the reach of wires.
4. Increase federal support for basic research and development.
Government-sponsored research fosters technological innovation and economic growth. This plan proposes to double civilian R&D funding, reverse the slide in Department of Defense R&D spending, make the R&D tax credit permanent, and explore its expansion. By contrast, the Bush budget proposes to slash R&D funding below its already historically low levels.
5. Support science and technology programs and strong intellectual property protection.
This agenda gives full funding to the Advanced Technology Program, and doubles funding for the National Science Foundation. It would also ensure necessary funding for the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office while strengthening intellectual property protection to encourage further innovation.
6. Improve math and science education for our children and ensure their computer literacy by sixth grade.
This plan would require states to set science educational standards and to align their assessments to these standards, and it calls for making every child in America computer-literate by the sixth grade. It would improve teaching in math and science, and help schools and teachers take advantage of information technology.
7. Encourage companies to invest more in training and recruitment, and help workers develop the information technology skills they need.
This plan would enhance support for distance learning and improve copyright laws to encourage it. It would also provide matching grants for incumbent worker training programs, and encourages collaboration with industry to fund graduate study in science and engineering. It would increase funding for high-tech workforce training opportunities and establish programs to provide technical skills training for workers, including those both employed and unemployed, through public-private partnerships. It would also make the Section 127 tax credit permanent and expand it to include graduate education in order to assist employers in providing educational opportunities for their employees.
8. Foster e-business with secure networks and workable solutions to protect personal privacy.
This agenda seeks to promote consumer confidence in e-commerce without stifling technological innovation by protecting consumer privacy, strengthening cybersecurity, and stemming the tide of unsolicited e-mail.
9. Smooth the transition to the Information Age by updating policies on exports, trade, Internet taxation, immigration and small business.
Government must respond swiftly to new developments in technology and business practices. This agenda would reform export controls to reflect new economic realities, and create a tariff-free zone for cross-border e-business. It would establish a technology-neutral policy for Internet taxation. It also would also speed up the Immigration and Naturalization Service's processing of all applications, and create a system of regional e-business assistance centers to help small businesses.
10. Foster e-government to improve efficiency and speed public interactions with government.
Government must become as able a practitioner of electronic business practices as it is a proponent of them. This agenda calls for the creation of a Chief Information Officer for the federal government, and empowering that person with the funds to make digital government work. It would also increase electronic access to Congressional Research Service reports.
Gephardt, Daschle, and PPI's Rob Atkinson Unveil High Tech Agenda