[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book I)]
[April 26, 2004]
[Pages 667-679]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the American Association of Community Colleges Convention in 
Minneapolis, Minnesota
April 26, 2004

    Thanks for the warm welcome. Jessie, thanks for letting me come by and share some 
thoughts. You picked a great place to have a convention. What a great 
city Minneapolis is.
    I--Jessie's right. I spend a lot 
of time at the community colleges around the country because I see the 
community college system in America as such a hopeful place, a place 
where people can gain the skills necessary to become employable, a place 
where people can gain the skills necessary to realize dreams. The 
community college system is accessible, and it's affordable, and it's 
flexible. It's a major asset of our country, and I want to thank those 
of you who are here who are leaders in the community college system 
around the country. I want to thank you for your dedication. I want to 
thank you for your spirit. I want to thank you for your vision, and I'm 
here to say thanks on behalf of all of America.

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    Not only do I want to talk about the role of community colleges in 
our society today, but I want to talk about the role of community 
colleges in the out-years as we promote a new generation of American 
innovation. I'm going to talk about the need for us to develop an energy 
policy that is based upon new technologies, new hopes, that will enable 
us to become less reliant upon foreign sources of energy and, at the 
same time, continue to improve our environment. I want to talk about the 
use of information technology to improve medicine and to make sure we 
keep the patients at the heart of the health care system. And I want to 
talk about affordable broadband technology so that America can stay on 
the leading edge of technological change.
    First, Jess, thanks for leading 
this august group. He's Tejano. Nothing better to be in the presence of 
a Tejano. Jess told me coming in here that--I asked him where he was 
raised. He said, ``Southern California.'' He said he didn't speak 
English when he came to America at age five. His dad had big dreams for 
him, and here he is, years later, introducing the President of the 
United States in perfect English. It speaks to the great hope of 
America, doesn't it? It speaks to our great society that says to Jess' 
dad, ``You can realize your dream here. You can raise your son. Your son 
can be educated and rise to an important position in making sure America 
is an educated society.'' Jess, I appreciate your determination, but I 
really appreciate the determination of your good father to see that you 
have a chance to succeed in the greatest Nation on the face of the 
Earth.
    I want to thank George Boggs, the 
president and CEO of the American Association of Community Colleges, for 
hosting us. I know you're going to honor my friend Rich 
Carmona, who is the U.S. Surgeon General. 
Rich is a graduate of the community college system. He's an interesting 
guy. He's doing a heck of a good job for us. I'm proud that he has 
agreed to serve our Nation, and I'm proud of the fact that you're 
honoring him. You've made a really wise choice. And whoever the judges 
are to decide that Rich was the right person, congratulations on such 
good judgment. [Laughter]
    I want to thank the Governor, who has 
joined us today. The Governor is a backer of the community college 
system here in Minnesota. Governor Pawlenty is doing a great job for the 
people of this State, and I'm proud you're here, Governor. Thank you for 
coming.
    I also want to thank Norm Coleman, the 
United States Senator. He flew down with me today on Air Force One. I'm 
not suggesting he was looking for a comfortable ride--[laughter]--but he 
got one. [Laughter] He's a good fellow who's serving the State of 
Minnesota well, as are Jim Ramstad and Mark 
Kennedy, Members of the United States 
Congress. I really appreciate you all taking your time to come and honor 
the crowd here today with your presence.
    I want to thank the speaker of the house, 
the majority leader of the statehouse here in 
Minnesota for coming. I want to thank all the State and local officials 
who are here. It's awfully nice for you to come out and spend a little 
quality time with your President. [Laughter]
    I want to congratulate the 2004 New Century Scholars who are with us 
today. Thanks for aiming high. Thanks for working hard. Thanks for 
setting standards. And congratulations on achieving one goal in what I 
hope is a productive and happy life.
    I also met a woman--lady today named Melissa DuBose. She is a high school student. She showed up at the 
airport, and she's there because I love to herald soldiers in the army 
of compassion. I love to point out to people these heroic stories of 
citizens who are trying to make the community and world a better place.
    You know, oftentimes we talk about the strength of America, and one 
of our strengths is our military. I intend to keep it strong. Another 
strength is the fact that

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we're a wealthy nation, and that's good. That's important. But the true 
strength of the country is the hearts and souls of our citizens. That's 
the real strength of America. Our real strength is because we're a 
compassionate nation where people have heard a universal call to love a 
neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourself.
    Melissa DuBose is such a person. She 
travels to Honduras to help people in orphanages. What a lovely spirit 
that is, isn't it, a high school student here in Minnesota spreading 
love and compassion for those who need it in Honduras. Melissa is just 
one example of many in this community who help feed the hungry, find 
shelter for the homeless, mentor a child, or helping to change our 
country and our world one soul at a time. I don't know where Melissa is. 
Where are you, Melissa? There you are. Why don't you stand up. Thanks 
for coming, and God bless your work.
    We have the strongest economy of any major industrialized nation in 
the world. And that is--it's an amazing statement, when you think about 
what this economy and our country has been through. And the reason I 
bring that up is because I know how important the entrepreneurial spirit 
is. I know how important education is to the future of this country, and 
I believe it was the spirit of America and our education system, in 
part, that helped us overcome the challenges we face.
    We faced a recession. And those are tough times, obviously. They're 
tough times for workers looking for work. They're a tough time for 
small-business owners who are worried about whether or not there will be 
capital available to expand. It was a very difficult period.
    There will be an argument as about why the recession was shallow. Of 
course, I believe it was shallow because people had more money in their 
pocket to spend, which made the recession one of the most shallow in 
American history.
    And then, as we were recovering from that recession and a stock 
market decline, the enemy hit us, and that obviously affected us. Our 
economy lost nearly one million jobs in just 3 months after the attacks. 
Remember, the stock market shut down, airplanes weren't flying. It was a 
very difficult period. It was also difficult for our psychology because 
it was the first time we realized that we were a battlefield.
    For years, when we grew up--at least us baby boomers grew up--we 
thought that oceans would protect us from harm's way. And then we 
learned a solemn lesson on that day. We learned the lesson that there is 
an enemy which hates us because of what we stand for. Because we love 
freedom, because we value freedom, because we work for free societies, 
there's an enemy which is willing to inflict harm. The enemy also is the 
kind of enemy we've really never faced before because they're willing to 
kill innocent women and children and men of all religions in order to 
affect our psychology.
    So September the 11th was a tough hurdle to overcome. We will 
overcome it because we're a strong, resolute nation, and we will 
overcome it by staying on the offensive and bringing these killers to 
justice before they harm America again.
    And as we were recovering from that, we faced corporate scandal. I 
don't know if you remember the period--I clearly do--that we were 
beginning to recover, and CEOs in corporate America didn't tell the 
truth, which shook the confidence of this country. In other words, these 
people weren't responsible citizens. They didn't tell the truth to 
shareholders. They didn't tell the truth to employees, and it hurt. We 
passed tough laws. We said, ``There will be a consequence if you're not 
a responsible CEO in corporate America.'' We made it clear that we're 
not going to tolerate dishonesty in the boardrooms of America, and the 
people in America are now beginning to see justice being done.
    But we've overcome that hurdle. And then, as you know, I made a 
decision to protect the country against further harm.

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One of the lessons of September the 11th is, is that when we see 
threats, we must deal with them before they fully materialize. That's 
one of the lessons that our country must never forget about September 
the 11th. We can't hope a problem goes away anymore. We must deal with 
it.
    See, my most important job is to protect the country. That's my most 
solemn duty, to make sure as best as we possibly can that the harm done 
to our citizens doesn't happen again. I saw a threat in Iraq. The 
Congress looked at the same intelligence and saw a threat. The United 
Nations Security Council looked at the same intelligence, and they said, 
``There's a threat.''
    So I went in front of the U.N. and said, ``Why don't we do something 
about it now? The man has ignored you for 10 
years. For the sake of world peace, why don't we do something about 
it?'' People felt that way, of course, because he had used weapons of 
mass destruction on his own people. They remembered that. They 
remembered he invaded his neighborhood. They remembered he paid 
suiciders to go kill Jewish people. They knew that he had relations with 
terrorists. We all saw a threat, and he hid. He said, ``No, I'm not 
going to listen to the demands of the free world.'' So faced with 
trusting a madman and hoping for the best or working to make sure 
America's more secure, I will always make the decision to keep America 
secure.
    And that's what we're doing today. We're acting to make sure the 
country is secure, and it's hard work. Our military is performing 
brilliantly. We must defeat enemy there so we don't have to face them 
here. But we're working for something bigger than just security, short-
term security. We're working for free society in Iraq. You see, a free 
society is a peaceful society. A free society in the midst of a region 
of the world where there's hatred and intolerance will be a historic 
moment for change for the better.
    I shared a story the other day during a press conference where I 
talked about a dinner I had with Prime Minister Koizumi of Japan, and we're eating Kobe beef. I don't know 
whether it's grown here in Minnesota or not--real good. And it dawned on 
me in the course of our conversation that had we not gotten the peace 
right after World War II that I don't think I--it's possible I wouldn't 
have been sitting with the Prime Minister of Japan talking about how to 
make the Korean Peninsula more peaceful. See, we're talking about North 
Korea. We're talking about the dangers of the North Korean dictator having a nuclear weapon, what it would mean for 
world peace. And then it dawned on me in the course of the conversation 
that one of these days, an American President will sit down with a duly 
elected leader in Iraq--from Iraq, to talk about how to bring peace to 
that troubled part of the world.
    These are historic times. It's a historic opportunity to spread 
peace and freedom. I believe that freedom is not America's gift to the 
world; freedom is the almighty God's gift to each man and woman in this 
world, and free societies will be peaceful societies.
    The reason I brought that up is I want to put it in perspective, put 
these statistics in perspective. The economy is strong, and it's getting 
stronger. We've overcome a lot. I happen to believe it's because of 
progrowth economic issues, but I also know it's because the 
entrepreneurial spirit is strong, the small-business sector of America 
is strong, and there's great opportunities in this country. Retail sales 
are strong. Interest rates are low. Homeownership is at the highest rate 
ever, which is a fantastic statistic, when you think about it.
    I mean, ours is a society in which we encourage people to own 
something. When you own something, you have a vital stake in the future 
of the country. We want more people owning their own home. The minority 
homeownership gap, while it still exists, is getting better. We want 
everybody to own a home, not just a few, not just those who live in 
suburban America. We want

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homeownership to be a vital part of the future of our country.
    Durable good orders are up. Industrial production in the first 
quarter rose at the fastest pace in nearly 4 years. In other words, 
things are getting better. There's renewed confidence. When people 
invest in equipment, it makes--it means it's more likely somebody is 
going to find work, and that's what's happening. There are new jobs 
available.
    But the problem we face in the short term in America is some workers 
do not have the skills necessary to fill the new jobs. There are jobs 
being created during this period of economic transition. And yet, there 
are willing workers who don't have the skill set necessary to fill those 
jobs. And I think you'll find in different communities around the 
country, there are people looking for nurses or teaching or different 
technology fields of technology.
    And you know who knows this best? The community college system 
understands it best. You know, the people closest to the situation in 
each community are those who can best devise a strategy to meet the 
growing demand for workers and the need to make sure the workers have 
the appropriate skill sets.
    I was in Forsyth County Community College in North Carolina, where 
former textile workers are now getting the skills to work in 
biotechnology. There's these people, worked in one industry; the 
industry became noncompetitive; and the Government stepped in and 
helped. As you know, there's ample programs for worker displacement 
monies to help pay for community college.
    But the most important thing that happened was that the community 
college administrators went to the local employers and said, ``What do 
you need? If you're looking for workers, what do you need?'' And they 
changed curriculum to meet the needs of the employers in that community, 
and people are now getting the skills necessary to work.
    The River Community College in Florida is opening a new center next 
May to provide cutting-edge training in robotics, in lasers, and 
phototonic technology. In other words, there's a demand for these kind 
of workers, and what the community college system does is it provides a 
fantastic opportunity for job training, for new educational 
opportunities. In Illinois and Ohio, community colleges have joined 
efforts to train workers to fill high-tech jobs in the manufacturing 
sector.
    So the first thing I want to say is, thanks for what you're doing to 
make America a more hopeful place. Thanks for providing an opportunity 
for somebody who says, ``The job I used to work in is beginning to be 
transitioned out as our economy changes,'' and ``Help me get the skill 
sets necessary to be employable.''
    I'll never forget meeting a lady in the Mesa Community College. And 
she was a graphic design artist, and she wanted to gain skills necessary 
to get--make more money. She understood that with education, you become 
a more productive worker. She also said--understood that productivity 
increases means higher pay. And so she went to the community college. 
She got an associate's degree. She got out. She got employed by a high-
tech company. And she made more in her first year in her new job than 
she had made in her last year as a graphic artist.
    See, not only does the community college system help somebody get 
employed, they help somebody to become a more productive worker. And 
there's a lot of talk about productivity in our society. Productivity 
provides interesting and important challenges. First of all, the more 
productive your workforce is, the faster your economy has to grow. See, 
if you've got--if a worker can produce more goods and services per hour 
than in the past, in order to add new workers, the economy has to grow 
faster than productivity. And it's a challenge.
    And that's why we can't become isolated from the rest of the world. 
We've got to

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reject economic isolationism. That's why we've got to have good legal 
policy. That's how we've got to make sure that the small-business sector 
is vibrant. That's why we've got to make sure the entrepreneurial spirit 
is strong.
    But it also is the reason why the community colleges are important 
for the future. Because if productivity is necessary for employment, it 
is the community college which helps the citizen become more productive. 
But it's also the community college which helps a citizen make more 
money. Productivity increases lift the standard of living for citizens 
in our country. After all, since 2001, the after-tax income of Americans 
has climbed by 10 percent--over 10 percent. Part of it has to do--is our 
workforce is more productive and the people of the community college 
system are making a vital contribution.
    Now, as we encourage innovation and change--and I'm going to talk 
about three ways to do so--but as we do so, as we make sure America can 
compete in the world by fostering new technologies, it is always 
important to remember the vital role education plays in our society. I 
mean, technologies change, but the vital role of education never 
changes.
    And it starts with making sure that when somebody goes to a 
community college, they can actually read and write and add and 
subtract, which is why we've got to get it right in the early grades in 
America. The No Child Left Behind Act is a vital, important piece of 
legislation, and I'll tell you why. For the first time, in return for 
Federal money, we have asked this fundamental question: Can you read and 
write and add and subtract? Are you teaching our children the basics? 
We've increased Federal spending by 49 percent for public schools since 
I got sworn in. And what's changed is, we're now saying, ``Show us 
whether or not a child can read, and show us early.''
    Now, if you believe every child can read, then you're willing to ask 
the question, ``Show us if they can read.'' If you believe they can't, 
then you're willing to accept a system that just quits on kids early and 
shuffles them through. And guess who gets hurt--parents who may not 
speak English as a first language, inner-city black kids. It's easy to 
walk into a classroom full of kids--``difficult to educate,'' they call 
them--and say, ``Let's don't measure. Let's just move them through and 
hope we get it right.''
    See, I think that's backwards. I think our society has got to 
challenge what I call the soft bigotry of low expectations. I think 
we've got to raise the bar for every single child. And the best way to 
determine whether or not we are succeeding is to insist that States 
measure, to show us whether or not a child is literate.
    I've heard every excuse in the book about not measuring. ``Oh, you 
can't teach the test.'' You can teach a child to read, and they can pass 
a literacy test. ``Oh, you know, we're testing too much.'' How do you 
know whether or not a child is moving through the system and can't read 
if you're not willing to say, ``Let's be accountable''?
    Now, I think accountability is the cornerstone for making sure that 
we have a literate society. In the No Child Left Behind Act, there's 
money available to help students early, before it's too late. We have 
got to stop this business about social promotion. We've got to be able 
to say, ``Here's a problem. Let's solve it early. Let's make sure 
there's additional money to focus on the kids so we don't have a 
pipeline full of illiterate children.'' No, the No Child Left Behind Act 
is raising the bar and raising the standards, because I believe and I 
know you believe every child has the potential to learn.
    Now, you've got to recognize there are some kids who have been 
shuffled through, and that's why we need intensive intervention in 
middle schools and high schools. And so I'm working with Congress to 
pass the Striving Reader and Math Initiative program, and that's a fancy 
word for saying

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we're going to intervene quickly with struggling middle-class--middle 
grade and high school students. Listen, you can't, in a community 
college system, expect to be able to do your job if you spend a lot of 
time on remedial reading programs. We've got to get it right early, and 
we will get it right early.
    And at the same time, in order to make sure that we've got the skill 
sets necessary for what is a changing world and a changing economy, we 
need to focus on math and science in our public schools. And we've got a 
shortage of teachers in the public schools, and so we've laid out a 
program to encourage scientists and engineers from the private sector to 
teach in the public school.
    We've got to reform the Perkins Act, which is a vocational training 
program, which didn't emphasize the skills necessary to fill the jobs of 
the 21st century; it emphasized one aspect of job training. But there 
needs to be math and science as a part of the Perkins Act of the 
vocational training, so that the citizens who are coming out of high 
school can be worked with to make them available for the jobs of the 
21st century.
    The Pell grant program is a vital part of making sure that people 
have the skill set necessary for the jobs of the 21st century. My budget 
increases the number of students receiving Pell grants. We've increased 
the number by a million since I took office. Four hundred thousand of 
those, 40 percent of those, are for the community college system here in 
America. Pell grants are a vital aspect of making sure that we meet our 
fundamental obligations to provide people the skills necessary for the 
jobs that will be available. I proposed an extra $1,000 per year in 
enhanced Pell grant scholarships for students who take a rigorous high 
school curriculum. In other words, there ought to be incentives for 
people to do better. We ought to be raising that bar, not lowering the 
bar.
    We ought to be increasing standards. We ought to be expecting the 
best of every student in America. I proposed a Presidential Math and 
Science Scholarship Fund to give scholarships in those fields to low-
income students. In other words, what I'm telling you is, is that in 
order for us to be a society which is able to compete, in elementary 
school and in high school, we must raise the standards.
    As well we must support our community college systems. The community 
college systems provide great opportunity for people to go from high 
school to community college to a higher education. That's important. The 
community college system also provides great opportunity for people who 
never went to college, who have worked, to go back and get a degree in 
order to help make themselves more productive.
    And so, as Jessie mentioned, I 
proposed to Congress a $250-million program to help community colleges 
form partnerships with local businesses. This is a practical way to help 
people find work. It's a practical way to make sure the skill set 
matches the jobs of the 21st century. I think this will help train 
100,000 more people a year. It's a way to keep America on the leading 
edge of change. You can't change as a society if you don't have a 
workforce that is capable of working in the new jobs of the 21st 
century. That's what I'm telling you, and the community college system 
provides the capacity for us to have the skill sets necessary in our 
workers.
    I know many of you have been involved with the Workforce Investment 
Act. It needs to be changed. Listen to this statistic. We spend $4 
billion a year on the Workforce Investment Act and pay--that money paid 
for about--training for about 200,000 adults. It doesn't seem like we're 
getting--something may be wrong there. [Laughter] We can do a better job 
with the money we're spending.
    So I laid out a reform package, that we've got to give States more 
flexibility. You see, flexibility means you're more able

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to match--you hear me say that; I'm going to keep saying it until we get 
it right here in America, until you match the willing worker with the 
skill sets necessary to be employed. That's what flexibility means. If 
you're inflexible in your system, it means you miss opportunity; it 
means you're not able to design a curriculum that meets the needs of the 
local community. It means that opportunity goes by. There needs to be a 
strict cap on overhead costs. If you're spending $4 billion and 200,000 
are trained, some of it is not going for the worker. It may be going to 
pay administrative costs. And there needs to be a strict cap.
    We need to make sure there are clear results. You've heard me talk 
about results in the public school system. I think people need to be 
measured. I think we need to say, ``What are the results?'' If it's 
200,000 for $4 billion, the results aren't good.
    Right now, there are so many goals, there are no goals. If you're 
involved with the Workforce Investment Act, you know what I'm talking 
about. There's all kind of measurement standards. The primary 
measurement standard is: Are you using taxpayers' dollars in a good way 
to train people for jobs. That ought to be the standard. See, that's 
where our focus is.
    America leads the world because of our system of private enterprise 
and a system that encourages innovation, and it's important that we keep 
it that way. See, I think the proper role for Government is not to try 
to create wealth but to create an environment in which the 
entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. That's what I love about the country, 
the entrepreneurial spirit.
    I'm sure you've met in your communities small-business owners who 
had the big dream, started out with an idea in a garage, and now, are 
employing people. That's what we ought to encourage, and the proper role 
of Government is to foster that kind of environment. You've heard me 
talk about ways to do so, make sure that we're--we reject economic 
isolation and make sure tax policy encourages innovation and growth, and 
to make sure the legal system is fair--listen, frivolous lawsuits make 
it awfully difficult for people to expand their businesses and people to 
find work--make sure the health care system is vibrant and patient-
oriented. I'll talk about that in a minute.
    The Government can help as well, though, by providing research 
scholars. I mean, one of the things we've got to recognize is that if we 
want to be competitive in the future, that we've got to encourage 
research and development so that the next wave of technology is 
America's wave of technology. In other words, if we want the people to 
be working here at home, this country's got to stay the leader in 
innovation and change, and the Government can help.
    I proposed raising Federal spending on research and development to 
$132 billion since I--from--it's a 44-percent increase since I came in 
office. Look, that's a big number, but what I'm telling you is, is that 
the Government can be a vital part of providing the research that will 
allow for America to stay on the leading edge of technology.
    I think we ought to encourage private sector companies to do the 
same, to invest in research. And therefore, I believe the tax credits 
that are critical for encouraging of research ought to be a permanent 
part of Tax Code. They're set to expire. Congress ought to make tax cuts 
permanent.
    But what I'm telling you is, there is a vital role for our country 
to make sure that we put investment in place that will make it easier 
for the country to compete in a worldwide economy and, therefore, make 
it more likely our citizens will find work so long as they have the 
skill set necessary to match the jobs.
    Now, I also want to talk about three other goals of ways to make 
sure that we're the innovative society of the world. First, you know, we 
need a different energy strategy than the one we have today, a strategy

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that uses technology and innovation to diversify our supplies, to make 
us less dependent on foreign sources of energy, and to improve the 
environment.
    The debate in America on energy policy has been almost zero-sum, 
when you think about it. It's like, they say that we must protect the 
environment and therefore have less energy, or they say that pollution 
is the price of progress. See, I disagree with either of those extremes. 
I think that we can use our technology and innovation to get beyond the 
false choices of the past and that we can have an energy policy that 
is--meets our national objectives, which, by the way, is an innovative 
society. You can't be an innovative society if you're stuck on foreign 
sources of oil. You may be short term, but long term, I don't see how we 
can be the world leader if we're constantly dependent on foreign sources 
of oil.
    So research and development is necessary to change the energy policy 
of the country. And you say, ``What do you mean?'' Well, I believe it's 
possible to grow our way out of some dependence on foreign sources of 
energy. I mean, I can't wait to see the day when Minnesota farmers are 
out there harvesting corn that becomes an integral mix of the energy 
supply of the country. So we've got research and development to 
encourage biomass and effective ethanol--the use of ethanol as a part of 
the new supplies of the American economy.
    I think we have to have safe nuclear energy. I think we ought to be 
continuing to research and spend research dollars to make sure that 
we're able to properly harness nuclear energy without harming the 
environment. I think it's possible we do so.
    I also know that we've got a plentiful supply of coal in our 
country, and that's why it's important for us to continue to explore 
clean coal technologies, so we can use the energy supply here at home in 
a way that is--achieves, in a national objective, diversifying away from 
foreign sources of energy and protecting our environment. Technology and 
research will enable us to do so.
    I want to talk about one other aspect of promising technologies, and 
that is the hydrogen fuel cell, which captures energy from chemical 
reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. See, it captures energy from a 
chemical reaction between hydrogen and oxygen. That's positive because 
the exhaust of that engine is water. It's--and I'm confident we can 
achieve this technological breakthrough to the point where I've asked 
Congress to spend $1.2 billion, which they have, in research into 
developing clean hydrogen powered cars.
    We are making progress on hydrogen fuel cells, and that's positive. 
Private companies, including automakers--see, automakers are beginning 
to see what the future is going to be like. They're beginning to see the 
need for diversification away from the current energy policy. They've 
already spent a billion dollars of their own money to develop hydrogen 
fuel powered cars and the infrastructure necessary to deliver hydrogen 
fuel.
    See, one of the challenges is not only developing a car that works 
but imagine the infrastructure changes necessary to fuel cars 10 years 
from now. One of the things consumers like is they like to go to their 
neighborhood gas station. When you hear talk about development of 
infrastructures like go to your neighborhood hydrogen station--and 
that's going to be a difficult hurdle in order to make sure that we've 
changed behavior here in America, but it's a hurdle that we've got to 
overcome. It's a necessary hurdle.
    Today the Department of Energy has selected recipients for $350 
million of research grants. In other words, the administration is now 
acting upon the Congress' appropriations. They're funding research into 
practical hydrogen fuel storage--so not only how you distribute it, how 
do you store hydrogen. They're encouraging the construction of hydrogen 
refueling stations

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around the country. We're beginning to change behavior. And they're 
helping scientists develop hydrogen fuel cells that can be used in heavy 
trucks and farm equipment and other industrialized vehicles.
    See, when we get it right here, when we get the hydrogen car up and 
running, not only will it make America a better place, we'll become the 
innovator of the world. That's what we want to be. We want to be the 
leader in the world. We want to be the country that leads the world in 
innovation and technological change.
    Another way we can do so is to make sure the health care system 
leads the world in innovation and quality and safety, always 
remembering, however, that the patient needs to be at the center of 
every medical decision. That's an important part of the--[applause].
    Many of you have seen the advances of--close hand of medical 
research. Just think of some of the advances that are coming. We're 
using a gene chip technology to help for cancer treatments. The world is 
changing dramatically in the field of medicine in many exciting ways. 
We're using brain imaging to discover the physical causes of mental 
illness. We're using tissue engineering to restore damaged or diseased 
tissues. And these are all incredible changes, and America is on the 
leading edge of change in medicines. And we need to keep us that way.
    But one of the things that hasn't changed very much is the way 
doctors and hospitals do business. The 21st-century health care system 
is using a 19th-century paperwork system. Doctors use paper files to 
keep tracks of their patients. Pharmacists have to figure out the 
handwriting of a doctor. [Laughter] Vital medical information is 
scattered in many places. X-rays get misplaced. Problems with drug 
interaction are not systematically checked. See, these old methods of 
keeping records are real threats to patients and their safety and are 
incredibly costly. Modern technology hasn't caught up with a major 
aspect of health care, and we've got to change that. We've got to change 
it.
    Catch the story of a fellow name Bob Brown 
from Kalamazoo, Michigan. Maybe this will help people better understand 
why we need to change. Bob's daughter Elizabeth developed a rare form of leukemia. She had a 
complicated case, and she had to see a lot of doctors. All told, 
Elizabeth--that's the daughter's name--regularly visited three hospitals 
and saw more than 50 specialists. Here's what Bob said about the 
paperwork that he had to deal with: ``Every time we saw a specialist, we 
answered the same questions.'' He got fed up, and he started getting 
copies of every note that a doctor added to Elizabeth's medical file. 
Eventually, he filled up two big binders with her medical records, which 
he carried everywhere he went so she didn't face delays or mistakes when 
she saw a new specialist. He says that fortunately, carrying those files 
around helped in his case. It helped get Elizabeth the treatment she 
needed in a faster way.
    The problem is, is that he shouldn't be having 
to carry around the binders. The system is antiquated. It is old. They 
should have personal electronic medical files available that accurately 
and securely keep a patient's medical history and, in Elizabeth's case, her treatments. In other words, medicine 
ought to be using modern technologies in order to better share 
information, in order to reduce medical errors, in order to reduce cost 
to our health care system by billions of dollars. To protect patients 
and improve care and reduce cost, we need a system where everyone has 
their own personal electronic medical record that they control and they 
can give a doctor when they need to.
    And so you say, ``How do we do this?'' Well, first you set a goal: 
Within 10 years, every American must have a personal electronic medical 
record. That's a good goal for the country to achieve. The Federal 
Government has got to take the lead in order to make this happen by 
developing

[[Page 677]]

what's called technical standards. In other words, there needs to be 
standards. As you know, docs talk, like, different languages in 
different offices, and there needs to be--in order to have uniformity, 
there needs to be standards available, and it's a good role for the 
Federal Government. That will allow medical records such as x-rays and 
lab tests to be stored and sent electronically.
    So step one is to set the standards. And we've done good work, and 
we'll try to finish the standards by the end of this year. I say 
``we''--it's the Department of Health and Human Services that are 
involved with this important project. We've set out money to encourage 
demonstration projects that will show to health care providers the need 
to use electronics to make their records system more modern.
    As well there's the senior department that we've announced today at 
the Department of Health and Human Services to coordinate these efforts 
with hospitals and medical groups. In other words, a proper role for the 
Government is to take the lead in this case, and after all, we should. 
We spend enormous amounts of money in the health care field. I mean, 
we're a large provider--spender for health care, Medicare, Medicaid, 
veterans' benefits, employee benefits. And so the Federal Government 
must create the incentives for health care providers involved with the 
Federal Government to use medical records and, in doing so, will go a 
long way toward introducing IT, information technology, into a part of 
medicine that desperately needs it.
    As we do so, I want to repeat what I said earlier. Patients will 
have control over their privacy. I fully understand there's a issue of 
privacy, and the people who ought to determine the extent of privacy, 
their privacy, of course, is the patient, the consumer.
    The third goal is to make sure that we have access to the 
information that is transforming our economy through broadband 
technology. I'm talking about broadband technology in every part of our 
country. I was the Governor of Texas for a while. I remember talking 
about access to information, and there was always a group of people 
saying, ``That's fine. Big cities get it, but rural people don't.'' I'm 
talking about broadband technology to every corner of our country by the 
year 2007 with competition shortly thereafter.
    Educators understand the great value of broadband technology. I 
mean, the--I'm not surprised that people involved in the community 
college system, when you mention broadband technology, nod their heads. 
It's the flow of information and the flow of knowledge which will help 
transform America and keep us on the leading edge of change. And we've 
got to make sure that flow is strong and modern and vibrant. And by the 
way, we've got to make sure that there's competition for your demand. We 
need more than just one provider available for not only community 
colleges but also for consumers. In our society, the more providers 
there are, the better the quality will be and the better the pricing 
mechanism will be.
    Central Piedmont Community College in Charlotte is using broadband 
to conduct classes for students all across their State. You know, one of 
the interesting opportunities for the community college system is to 
provide education opportunities for people who work out of their home, 
for example. And the expansion of broadband technology will mean 
education literally will head into the living rooms of students. That 
will even make the system more flexible and more available and more 
affordable.
    Same with health care. Again, if you're from a State where there's a 
lot of rural people, there's nothing better than to be able to transfer 
information quickly from a rural doc to a hospital for analysis in order 
to save lives. It's happening all around our country. The ability to 
send an

[[Page 678]]

x-ray image in 7 seconds and have a response back in 10 minutes with a 
preliminary analysis oftentimes will save lives. But you hear us talk 
about making sure health care is accessible and affordable. One way to 
do so is to hook up communities and homes to broadband. It's going to be 
a really good way for us to make sure the health care system works 
better and the education system works better. And it also is going to be 
an important way to make sure that we're an innovative society.
    Now, the use of broadband has tripled since 2000 from 7 million 
subscriber lines to 24 million. That's good, but that's way short of the 
goal for 2007. And so--by the way, we rank 10th amongst the 
industrialized world in broadband technology and its availability. 
That's not good enough for America. Tenth is 10 spots too low, as far as 
I'm concerned.
    Broadband technology must be affordable. In order to make sure it 
gets spread to all corners of the country, it must be affordable. We 
must not tax broadband access. If you want broadband access throughout 
the society, Congress must ban taxes on access.
    Secondly, a proper role for the Government is to clear regulatory 
hurdles so those who are going to make investments do so. Broadband is 
going to spread because it's going to make sense for private sector 
companies to spread it so long as the regulatory burden is reduced--in 
other words, so long as policy at the Government level encourages people 
to invest, not discourages investment.
    And so here are some smart things to do: One, increase access to 
Federal land for fiber-optic cables and transmission towers. That makes 
sense. As you're trying to get broadband spread throughout the country, 
make sure it's easy to build across Federal lands. One sure way to hold 
things up is that the Federal lands say, ``You can't build on us.'' So 
how is some guy in remote Wyoming going to get any broadband technology? 
Regulatory policy has got to be wise and smart as we encourage the 
spread of this important technology. There needs to be technical 
standards to make possible new broadband technologies, such as the use 
of high-speed communication directly over powerlines. Powerlines were 
for electricity; powerlines can be used for broadband technology. So the 
technical standards need to be changed to encourage that.
    And we need to open up more federally controlled wireless spectrum 
to auction in free public use, to make wireless broadband more 
accessible, reliable, and affordable. Listen, one of the technologies 
that's coming is wireless. And if you're living out in--I should--I was 
going to say Crawford, Texas, but it's not--maybe not nearly as remote. 
[Laughter] How about Terlingua, Texas? There's not a lot of wires out 
there. But wireless technology is going to change all that so long as 
Government policy makes sense.
    And we're going to continue to support the Federal Communications 
Commission, Michael Powell--Chairman Michael Powell, under his leadership, his decision to eliminate burdensome 
regulations on new broadband networks availability to homes. In other 
words, clearing out the underbrush of regulation, and we'll get the 
spread of broadband technology, and America will be better for it.
    I've come today to talk about practical ways to make sure we lead 
the world when it comes to innovation and change. And by leading the 
world when it comes to innovation and change, we'll make America a 
hopeful place for those who want to work and those who want to dream and 
those who want to start their own business.
    And the community college system is an integral part of that 
strategy. That's what I'm here to tell you. It's an integral part so 
long as you're willing to listen to the needs of those who are looking 
for workers. It's an integral part so long as you continue to be 
entrepreneurial in the delivery of education. The community college 
system

[[Page 679]]

is a cornerstone of good economic policy. It's a cornerstone of sound 
educational policy. And it's one of the reasons why I'm optimistic that 
America will lead--continue to lead the world when it comes to 
innovation and change. And that will be good for our people. That will 
be good for the revitalization of what I call the American spirit and 
the American dream.
    I want to thank you for what you do. I appreciate your compassion. I 
appreciate your interest in the future of our country. May God continue 
to bless your work, and may God continue to bless our country. Thank you 
very much.

Note: The President spoke at 9:29 a.m. at the Minneapolis Convention 
Center. In his remarks, he referred to Jesus ``Jess'' Carreon, chair of 
the board, and George R. Boggs, president and chief executive officer, 
American Association of Community Colleges; Gov. Tim Pawlenty of 
Minnesota; Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan; and Chairman Kim 
Chong-il of North Korea.