[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 125 (Thursday, September 23, 1999)]
[House]
[Pages H8624-H8625]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TECHNOLOGY IN OUR SOCIETY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 1999, the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. SMITH of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to discuss the 
issue of technology in our society and how it effects us. We have all 
heard a lot about it. There are a lot of stories about technology 
companies booming and how it is changing our lives in everything from 
the information we get to the entertainment that we choose. But one has 
to wonder sometimes, as my colleagues know, just exactly how much does 
high tech effect all of us. We certainly read about the people who are 
making millions on it in Silicon Valley or elsewhere throughout our 
country, but how does it effect the rest of us? And that is a question 
I want to answer tonight because the other part of it is there is a lot 
of policies that we are advancing here in Congress aimed at helping the 
high tech industry, and in advancing those policies a lot of people 
wonder, as my colleagues know, why should we push something that is 
simply targeted out of narrow industry. Should we not look at the 
broader good of the country?
  The argument I want to make tonight is that we are looking at the 
broader good of the country when we talk about advancing policies to 
help the high tech industry, and in fact technology and its growth and 
the economic opportunity that it creates is one of the most important 
things for all of us in this country as we face the future.
  As a Democrat and, more specifically, as a member of the new 
democratic coalition, creating opportunity for me is supposed to be 
what this place, Congress and government, is all about. I grew up in a 
blue collar family on the south end of Seattle down by the airport and 
was very pleased to grow up in a society that gave me the opportunity 
to do a little hard work to achieve whatever I wanted in life. No one 
in my family had ever gone to college before. I went to college, went 
on to law school and basically created the life for myself that I 
wanted. I did not do it alone; I did it because of the society that we 
have created here, to make sure that that sort of opportunity is 
available to as many people as possible.
  As we look towards the 21st century, one of the key issues in making 
sure that that opportunity continues to be available to everybody is 
technology. As my colleagues know, there is no such thing anymore as a 
low tech area of this country. Technology effects all of us regardless 
of what our business or what our interests are, and it can have a 
positive effect. The unemployment rate, the economic growth that we 
enjoy right now at 30-year low for the unemployment rate, 30-year high 
for the economic growth is driven in large part by technology, and 
again that benefits all of us.
  It also benefits us as consumers. We are finally creeping towards a 
situation where consumers will have that level of information that is 
really required for a free market to work. No longer, for instance, do 
you have to go down to the local car dealership and hope that you are 
better at arguing than the car dealer who you are going to deal with to 
get the best price on a car. You can look it up on the Internet, get 
the price, get an offer, go down and get your car. You can find the 
lowest price without having to go through that negotiating session, Mr. 
Speaker, and the same is true for products across the board. That 
empowers consumers and enables every single family out there to stretch 
their budget farther.
  More importantly, I think, is the information that is available, the 
education that is available to all of us through the use of technology 
over the Internet. As my colleagues know, you do not necessarily have 
to go off and get a four-year degree somewhere anymore to learn a skill 
that is going to enable you to be employable or maybe improve your 
current job situation. That information, Mr. Speaker, is out there for 
all of us.
  So the big point I want to try to make tonight is that when we talk 
about technology policy, when we talk about, as my colleagues know, 
making the telecommunications infrastructure available to everybody, 
increasing exportation of computers and encryption softwear, investing 
in research and development, we are not just talking about, gosh, as my 
colleagues know, there happens to be a company in my district that 
would benefit from this so let us go ahead and help them out so we can 
employ a few people maybe in central Texas or in northern 
Massachusetts. What we are talking about is policies that are going to 
benefit our economy across the board.
  That is why we in this body should be supportive of this agenda, this 
agenda that is moving towards trying to make sure that America 
continues to be the leader in these high tech areas that are going to 
be so critical to our economic future, Mr. Speaker. Are those policies 
that we have been advancing include certainly education at the top end 
of that, investments in making sure that we educate our work force and 
educate our children and implement the lifelong learning plans that we 
know are going to be necessary, are critical to reaping the benefits?
  It is also critical that we build the telecommunications 
infrastructure necessary to make sure that this high tech economy can 
flow. In the 19th century building railroads was critical to economic 
development. In the 20th century building highways was. In the 21st 
century building a telecommunications infrastructure is going to be 
critical to our economic health. We need to advance the policies that 
make that happen.

[[Page H8625]]

  Now there is a lot of debate back here about winners and losers, 
various telecommunications companies maneuvering for advantages or to 
disadvantage opponents, but for all of us in this body the Number 1 
goal ought to be to build the infrastructure, set up the policies that 
make it happen, and I guess the biggest thing about high tech for me is 
that, as I mentioned, being a Democrat, a new Democrat, is about 
creating opportunity. But that opportunity does not always come through 
a government program. In fact, the best place that opportunity is 
created is in a strong economy where the government does not have to 
get involved, and that is what technology does for us. By enabling 
businesses to grow in the fast-growing sector of technology we create 
jobs, we create economic growth that benefits all of us across the 
board.

  And I would like to, I guess, conclude by making it specific to my 
district. As my colleagues know, a lot of people know that I am from 
the Seattle area, and there is assumption that the only reason I care 
about technology is because, well, Microsoft just happens to be from 
that area. They happen to actually be from an area quite different from 
my district. I represent the district south of Seattle, a blue-collar 
suburb, mostly Boeing workers, some at Weyerhauser, a blue-collar area 
that is about as far away from Microsoft, at least psychologically, as 
Boston is from it geographically. It is a different area. It is folks 
who do not necessarily work directly in that tax sector. But I know 
that those people, the people that I grew up with and now represent, 
are the ones who are going to most benefit from policies that help 
America maintain its leadership role in technology. Because the folks 
at Microsoft, the folks in silicon valley, they have got it, okay? They 
have got it, and then some. We do not really need to worry about taking 
care of them. We need to make sure that our economy continues to expand 
in a way to include people like the people I represent, and these 
policies that will help technology grow will do just that. They will 
create more and better jobs and a stronger economy so that opportunity 
gets spread, and it is not locked into just a few folks.
  I really hope that in this country we can understand that this talk 
about the digital divide really misses the point. There has always been 
divisions between people who have knowledge and people who do not. What 
technology gives us the opportunity for is to shrink that divide, not 
increase it. All you have to have these days to get access to the same 
information that everybody else in the world has is a relatively cheap 
PC, which is down to like almost $500, and a telephone, dial-up service 
access to the Internet. Technology can be the great equalizer if we 
build that telecommunications infrastructure that I was talking about. 
It can create opportunity, not just for the richest of the rich, but 
most importantly for the poorest of the poor.
  That is why we need to be smart about these policies and advance 
them. We also need to be smart and realize that in advancing any 
industry, but certainly in the technology industry, we need access to 
overseas markets.

                              {time}  1900

  Ninety-six percent of the people in the world live some place other 
than the U.S. That means if we are going to sell stuff we are going to 
need access to those other markets. We currently consume 20 percent of 
what the world produces and that is great, but that means the rest of 
the world is where our markets are available. We need to get access to 
those things.
  I really believe that we have the opportunity to succeed and provide 
opportunity for the people we represent in this country as we never 
have before. We are already doing that. I think we can do even better, 
but we have got to be smart about embracing the policies and recognize 
that technology is not just about what is going on between Microsoft 
and AOL or NetScape or anybody. What it is about is creating 
opportunity for everybody in this country and showing that we can use 
technology to be that great equalizer, to help lift folks up out of 
poverty or wherever they want to go to realize these opportunities.
  So when people hear us down here talking about these policies about 
research and development, telecommunications, patent reform, 
encryption, exports, whatever, understand that it is not just about 
talking about some specific company. It is talking about the new 
economy and the direction that our economy is headed; in fact, in many 
ways is already at. We need to be there, keep up and make sure that we 
advance the policies that will make sure that that opportunity spreads 
to all of us, not just to a select few.
  I am committed to doing that. The new Democratic coalition that I am 
proud to be a part of is doing that, and we understand the importance 
that technology companies and technology policy will play in that. I 
urge every American to recognize that as well and work hard to advance 
these policies so we can continue to create the type of opportunity 
that we have been creating in recent years.

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