[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 40, Number 26 (Monday, June 28, 2004)]
[Pages 1144-1150]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks at the Department of Commerce

June 24, 2004

    Thanks for the warm welcome. And it's good to be here at the 
Commerce Department. Today I want to talk about how to make sure America 
is the best place to do business in the world. How do we make sure that 
we're always on the leading edge of change? And how do we utilize 
technology to improve the lives of our fellow citizens? That's what 
we're here to talk about.
    Our economy is strong today. People are getting back to work. 
There's an excitement amongst the risktakers, and capital is moving. I'm 
confident it's going to get stronger as the days go on.
    The fundamental question is, what do we need to do to make sure 
we're not only strong today and tomorrow but for the decades to come? 
That's the real challenge that those of us in Government face. One of 
the things that's important for us to always remember, that the proper 
role of Government is not to try to be the generator of wealth. The 
proper role of Government is to create the environment so that the 
entrepreneurial spirit is strong and vibrant and alive and well in 
America. That's the proper role for those of us who have been given the 
high honor of serving the American people.
    If you have an environment in which the entrepreneurial spirit is 
strong, innovation will follow. I equate innovation with 
entrepreneurship. Entrepreneurs are innovative people. They have to 
compete in order to stay in business, and in order to stay in business, 
in order to stay ahead of the competition, you've got to innovate. But 
Government can help. We can encourage innovation in smart ways. We're 
going to talk about some specific measures in which we can encourage and 
help the innovators succeed.
    One thing we've got to do as we think about how to make sure America 
stays on the cutting edge of technology is always remember, good tax 
policy helps innovation. See, if we want to be a nation of innovators, 
we don't want to over-tax industry and commerce and the entrepreneurial 
spirit. It's

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very important for Congress to understand this. It's important for 
Congress to make sure that the tax relief we passed stays in place and 
not raise taxes on the American people.
    Secondly, if we're going to have an innovative society, we've got to 
have good legal policy. Frivolous and junk lawsuits make it awfully hard 
for people to feel comfortable risking capital. It's one thing to have 
good and fair justice, which we all support, but the legal system must 
be balanced and fair. We don't want to run capital away from the United 
States. We don't want to discourage the innovators and those who take 
risk because they're afraid of getting sued by a lawsuit.
    We need tort reform. And Washington, DC, is a good place to start 
with tort reform. We need class-action reform, asbestos reform, and 
medical liability reform now.
    But we've also got to be competent in our trade policy. In order to 
be a nation of innovation, we've got to be willing to keep our markets 
open and insist that others open their markets to us. It's that free 
flow of goods and services and ideas that will make sure America stays 
on the leading edge of technological change.
    So here are some ways that we can work with Congress through good 
legislative policy to make sure the environment is such that people are 
willing to take risk. Fortunately, we've got some Members of Congress 
who understand exactly what I'm talking about. One would be Senator John 
Ensign from Wyoming. I appreciate you coming, Senator. And the other 
would be my friend from the great State of Texas, Lamar Smith. 
Congressman, it's good to see you. Thank you for coming. He's a rancher. 
[Laughter] He's got innovative cows. [Laughter]
    I'm sorry the Secretary is not here. He is a--he knows what I'm 
talking about. He understands the proper relationship of Government and 
risktakers. I understand he's in China. Good. Glad he's working. 
[Laughter]
    I want to thank Ted Kassinger for welcoming us here. I appreciate 
Ann Veneman, Secretary of Agriculture. She's here for a reason, which 
you'll hear about in a second. Plus, she wanted to hear the speech. 
[Laughter] Sam Bodman is the Deputy Secretary of Treasury, is here. You 
might remember him from the Commerce Department. He was the Deputy 
Secretary of Commerce. Sam, I'm sure they gave you a--welcomed you back 
here.
    I announced some measures that will keep our economy on the leading 
edge of innovation. I want to share some of those with you. The reason I 
want to share them with you is I want people to understand we're serious 
about these proposals we have made. We expect and will continue to have 
good cooperation with the Congress on these measures.
    First, long-term growth depends upon energy. You know, we need 
Congress to pass the energy plan I submitted. It's a plan that says loud 
and clear, for the sake of economic security and for the sake of 
national security, we must be less dependent on foreign sources of 
energy. And we can find energy at home in environmentally friendly ways. 
We can do a better job of conservation. We can come up with alternative 
sources of energy. I constantly say to people, ``Gosh, wouldn't it be 
wonderful to be the President and say, `How good is the corn crop, Madam 
Secretary? Oh, it's really good. Well, that means we're going to have 
more ethanol to take the place of' ''--[applause]--I mean, I'd like to 
grow our way out of dependence. Seems to make a lot of sense to be able 
to try to do that. And we're working toward that end.
    As well I talked about a 1.2 billion, 5 dollar--5-year project on 
research into hydrogen fuel cell technology for cars and trucks. I want 
to thank the Members of Congress for working together on that. This is 
the kind of project where Government can spur innovation. It seems like 
a good use of taxpayers' money to encourage this kind of new innovation. 
Imagine what hydrogen fuel cell technology will mean for our dependence 
upon foreign sources of energy. Imagine how--what a positive effect such 
technology will have on our environment. This is a very important 
technology. And I look forward to working with the Congress to make sure 
it's well-funded and members of my administration to move the project 
forward.
    We also talked about an interesting way to make sure health care 
costs are contained. In order to be a competitive environment, in order 
to be a place where people can do

[[Page 1146]]

business here, in order to be a place where small businesses can 
flourish, we need to do a better job of controlling health care costs. 
There are some smart things we can do with association health plans, 
health savings accounts.
    But one of the things we can do is use our technology in a better 
way to promote cost savings and quality of health care by the 
utilization of personal electronic medical records. It seems to make a 
lot of sense, doesn't it, that instead of having people walking around 
with--not necessarily proverbially walking around with--[laughter]--but 
imagine a patient who has been to a hospital a lot of times, and there's 
paperwork for every time the person goes. And if they were to have to 
carry their own files around, it would be kind of a cumbersome task, 
wouldn't it.
    Think about the overhead if you multiplied the task of filling out 
paper to satisfy information requirements at a hospital. Think about the 
overhead nationwide because our health system doesn't use information 
technology properly, and think about how bad a doctor's handwriting--
[laughter]--and there's no wonder sometimes there's medical errors.
    And so, therefore, I laid out a plan to ensure that most Americans 
have got electronic health records within the next 10 years so that our 
system is more cost effective, so we take out needless overhead costs 
and, at the same time, promote better quality medicine in America.
    To achieve the goal of Tommy Thompson's outfit, the Health and Human 
Services has developed a language, a common language, so that health 
care providers can now speak more clearly across the Internet. We've 
developed new standards. We're funding demonstration projects. We're 
using programs such as Medicare and the veterans health--the veterans 
hospitals to promote a better use of information technology to make sure 
that health care is a--adopts the habits of the 21st century.
    Today I want to talk about the need as well to make sure that 
leading technology is available all across the country. Sometimes the 
problem we face here in America is that technology is available in maybe 
just the big cities, and you get out to rural Wyoming or rural Texas, 
and people try to figure out what you're talking about when it comes to 
new technologies. What we're interested in is to make sure broadband 
technology is available in every corner of America by the year 2007--I 
mean, all over the Nation is what we're interested in.
    Broadband, or what they call high-speed Internet, is critical in 
making our high-speed economy even more productive. That's what people 
have got to understand. You see, some people say, ``What do you mean 
when you say `broadband'?'' Well, broadband is the capacity to move 
information a lot quicker and to move more information a lot quicker. As 
a matter of fact, broadband is 4 to 100 times faster than dial-up 
access. So in other words, if you--if you have your--if you're on a--
just a dial-up phone for your computer, imagine information getting to 
you a hundred times quicker. That means more information can move 
quicker.
    And that's important in order to make sure the economy and our 
citizens are more productive. Broadband saves costs throughout the 
economy. In other words, it makes the economy more efficient. Imagine 
how efficient businesses will be when they're that far away from their 
customer. That's what broadband technology will enable us to do.
    Listen, we've been a very productive economy, a very productive 
society. What I'm telling you is we can be more productive for the good 
of our citizens. And the more productive a worker is, the more 
productive a person is, the higher standard of living they will achieve. 
It's essential for our citizens to know, when you hear the economists 
say, ``We're productive,'' or, ``This worker is more productive,'' that 
means better pay, and when you cut their taxes, it means better after-
tax pay.
    And we're seeing the spread of broadband throughout the country. 
Access has gone from 7 million subscriber lines in 2000 to 28 million 
last year. That's rapid growth. Yet, on a per capita basis, America 
ranks 10th amongst the industrialized world. That's not good enough. We 
don't like to be ranked 10th in anything. The goal is to be ranked first 
when it comes to per capita use of broadband technology. It's in our 
Nation's interest. It's good for our economy.

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    The spread of broadband will not only help industry; it'll help the 
quality of life of our citizens. We saw some really interesting 
projects. I want to thank those who came to show me some demonstration 
projects today. We saw a--I met a--where's the doc? Doc, there you are. 
Good. He's a heart doc--cardiologist, I think, is a more sophisticated 
way of putting it. [Laughter] Probably liked it when I talked about 
medical liability reform too. [Laughter] He works at Washington's 
Children's Hospital. And so he had a patient in--Maryland? Yes. And he 
was able to--they put a little scan on the little guy's heart, and he 
was able to assure the mom that this person who had a heart operation 
when he was a young child is doing well.
    This healer was able to spread his compassion and talents and assure 
a mom across broadband technology. It's amazing, when you think about 
it. Imagine what's going to happen in Texas when in Alpine or somewhere 
down there, they're looking for a specialist, and a parent is panicked 
about whether or not their loved one is going to receive the care 
needed, and they don't have--they can't drive 600 miles to a local 
hospital. So they call up this guy via broadband technology, and he is 
able to analyze the child from afar with very sophisticated software and 
give the reassuring words to the parent, ``Everything is okay.'' And 
whether it be cardiology or ear infection or any other aspect of 
medicine, we'll be able to make sure health care is available throughout 
the country by using this technology. The quality of life for our 
citizens is going to improve dramatically as we spread this technology 
all across America.
    I saw what broadband technology can mean for education. I mean, if 
you've ever been a Governor of a State, you understand the vast 
potential of broadband technology. You understand how hard it is to make 
sure that physics, for example, is taught in every classroom in the 
State. It's difficult to do. It's, like, cost-prohibitive. But it's not 
cost-prohibitive when you can wire your classrooms and have a physics 
professor from the University of Texas-San Antonio give a lecture in a 
real-time basis to kids out in rural Texas or anywhere else in America. 
It's a fantastic way to take information and spread it on a real-time 
basis.
    We saw a project there today in northern Pennsylvania, a school in 
northern Pennsylvania, and it's exciting. Think of the vast potential 
this will mean for the public school systems of America. It means that 
some who go without certain subjects can now gain access to those 
subjects. It will mean we've got a more educated population when we get 
broadband technology spread throughout the entire country.
    This effort, by the way--the reason Ann is here, Ann Veneman is here 
is because the effort was launched by the Department of Agriculture. 
That may be a hard one to explain at home. [Laughter] But the reason why 
is, is because her job is to give grant and loan programs for rural 
development. And it makes sense to--and she's cranked out $2.5 billion 
of loans and grants for rural development.
    A lot of people in rural America like living there. [Laughter] The 
quality of life is really good. You can walk down your street and know 
who you're looking at, and generally, they'll say, ``How are you doing? 
It's good to see you. I hope you're having a wonderful day. What can we 
do to help you?'' And it makes sense to be able to take the potential of 
broadband to rural America. People are going to be able to find work 
there and be able to live in their--where they're raised or where they 
want to raise their kids in a rural setting.
    I also saw what broadband technology can do for our borders. I know 
this is a particular concern for Lamar. He's--your district doesn't go 
all the way down to the border now, does it? Well, it has. He's had 
about five different configurations of his district. [Laughter] But 
we've got a big border in Texas, with Mexico, obviously--and we've got a 
big border with Canada--Arizona is affected. And this is a good chance 
to have broadband technology deliver information to those who are 
responsible for guarding borders, guarding plants and equipment. It's 
amazing with the software that has been developed these days that enable 
a camera to distinguish the difference between a squirrel and a bomb. 
And yet, I saw some software today that is very sophisticated and at the

[[Page 1148]]

same time will enable people to better do their duty in securing that 
which needs to be secured.
    Remember, we're still in a battle against ideological extremists who 
use terrorism as a tool to frighten, scare, kill people such as us who 
love freedom. And therefore, what I'm telling you is as broadband 
expands, it's going to enable us better to protect our homeland, which 
is a vital concern of any of us in our Government.
    We're going to--so somebody says, ``That's great. It sounds good. 
How are you going to achieve the goal? It's one thing to set a goal; how 
do you achieve it?'' Here's some things we can do that make sense, to 
make sure that broadband is available to everyone by 2007 and that there 
is a choice shortly thereafter. It's one thing to make sure broadband is 
spread out in America, but we want consumers--in this country, we 
believe in giving consumers alternatives. If you have an alternative, 
you're likely to get a better price and a better quality. We like to 
respond to demand in a market-oriented economy, which is what we're 
going to do.
    First, we've got to make sure that broadband access is affordable 
and, therefore, it should not be taxed. It's essential that we not tax--
there has been a Federal ban on Internet access taxes. I want to thank 
the Members who worked there on that issue. I think that's why these two 
guys are here, by the way. [Laughter] And States now, because the ban 
has expired, States have started taxing broadband access. And that's 
going to make access less affordable. If the goal is to spread 
broadband, it doesn't make any sense to tax it as we're spreading it.
    And so, therefore, I support--strongly support reestablishing the 
ban on Internet access taxes. The Congress needs to act on this. I know 
these two Members want to act. We look forward to working with you to 
make sure that the Internet access tax ban can be signed into law soon.
    Taxes can stop the spread of broadband, and so can burdensome 
regulations. And sometimes Government has a way of imposing burdensome 
regulations. And we look forward to working with industry, investors, 
and entrepreneurs as to how to get rid of those burdensome regulations 
that defeat the goal of spreading broadband.
    For example--well, one way to look at it is our regulations for the 
telephone were established years ago. And I don't think those 
regulations should apply to a 21st century technology. I thought the 
Federal Communications Commission did a smart thing in a recent decision 
by telling communications companies they don't have to give away use of 
their fiber-optic broadband lines. I thought that was a smart thing.
    In this case, the FCC provided regulatory certainty and by doing so 
created incentives for communication companies to build out their fiber-
optic broadband lines to more homes. It's a good decision. I think the 
decision will benefit American consumers as well.
    Another issue we face is that broadband providers have trouble 
getting across Federal lands. And that's why I signed an order to reduce 
the regulatory redtape for laying fiber-optic cables and putting up 
transmission towers on Federal lands. You see, if you can't put up 
towers and lay cable, you can't get broadband to all corners of America 
by 2007. And so hopefully we've reduced that regulatory burden. If we 
haven't reduced the regulatory burden enough, we need to hear from those 
who are stymied. We want to meet the goal. There's a practical reason 
why we want to meet the goal: It'll improve the lives of our fellow 
citizens.
    Thirdly, we want to help consumers find more ways to obtain 
affordable broadband access. I just told you that. I told it to you 
again. [Laughter]
    Most people who have broadband access now obtain it through a cable 
wire or telephone wire. A small percentage obtain it through a 
satellite. But most of us who have got broadband go through the 
telephone or your cable.
    We need to get broadband to more Americans, and so therefore, I want 
to talk about two other ways to get broadband to the consumer. We need 
to use our power lines better. They go everywhere. It seems to make 
sense, doesn't it, if what you're looking for is avenues into the home. 
Well, electricity goes into the home. And so one great opportunity is to 
spread broadband throughout America via our power lines.

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    And one of the problems we've got here is that there are some--there 
is--the Commerce Department has had to develop technical standards that 
will make sure that our broadband can go across power lines without 
unnecessary interference. So this is a technological problem. It's a 
technological issue. It turns out that sometimes the competition of 
broadband and electricity just doesn't go too good across one line. And 
so--if I could put it in simple vernacular--and so, therefore, the 
Commerce Department is helping to sort through these issues so that 
broadband access will be available through--by our power companies.
    And as I understand it--as a matter of fact, was shown a little 
thing you plug in your wall that will give you broadband access at 30 
times, you told me? Sixty times--sixty times the current speed of a 
dial-up. And that's now available in Cincinnati and parts of Kentucky. 
There's a power company in that part of the world that has been 
innovative, has diversified the product to the home and now can provide 
broadband across the electricity lines, which is a fantastic innovation.
    And so our job in Government is to help facilitate the use of 
electricity lines by helping with the technological standards that will 
make this more possible. And I want to thank those in the Commerce 
Department who have worked hard to do this.
    The other promising new broadband technology is wireless. The 
spectrum that allows for wireless technology is a limited resource. In 
other words, it's not endless spectrum. And we need to use it wisely. 
And a wise use of that spectrum is to help our economy grow and help 
with the quality of life of our people. And after all, that's why we're 
here. We're here because of the--we want to enhance the quality of life 
of the American people. We want them to live better lives. We want them 
to be healthier. We want them to be smarter. We want them to be able to 
find work easier. And so one of things we need to do is unlock the 
spectrum's value--economic value and entrepreneurial potential without, 
by the way, without crowding out important Government functions. And we 
can do both. That's what's important for our citizens to understand. And 
so we're helping to promote new wireless technologies without crowding 
out the Defense Department's capacity to defend America.
    There are two kinds of wireless technology. One is called wi-fi. It 
works with a regular broadband connection. If you use that kind of 
connection, someone from their home or their office can set up a 
wireless network that covers the home or the office. For example, I was 
shown a wi-fi hookup today that enables somebody to put a little system 
in their home that when their child comes home, if it's set up properly, 
they will be able come in; it'll trigger a noise; the person will look 
on their phone and see a picture of their kid coming in the home. It's 
pretty imaginative, isn't it? It's a--it's just an illustration of what 
is possible--of what is possible with this new broadband technology.
    And so the problem with this kind of technology is that we can 
actually interfere with Government uses like radar. We want to make sure 
our radars work well. [Laughter] And so we took the necessary steps to 
make sure these wireless broadband applications could work within the 
same spectrum as the Government functions without interference. It took 
some awfully smart people to figure that out. But you know something? 
Our Government employs awfully smart people. And for those of you who 
have been working on this project, I want to thank you very much. It 
took some innovation.
    And people are beginning to take advantage of this--like, cities 
are. Spokane, Washington, yesterday established a wi-fi hot zone that 
allows users within a hundred-block area of the city to obtain wireless 
broadband access. Imagine if you're the head of a chamber of commerce of 
a city, and you say, ``Gosh, our city is a great place to do business or 
to find work. We're setting up a wi-fi hot zone, which means our 
citizens are more likely to be more productive than the citizens from a 
neighboring community.'' It's a great opportunity.
    Another kind of wireless broadband would be more wide-ranging. It 
would be based on mobile wireless. It wouldn't depend on a physical 
connection to an existing cable or telephone modem as wi-fi does.
    This--to me, this is a very exciting opportunity for the country, if 
you think about it. The problem is, it requires a spectrum that

[[Page 1150]]

is not now available. And so Congress needs to make the spectrum 
available. If we want to achieve the goal of broadband in every corner 
of the country by 2007, and shortly thereafter, people will have more 
options and more choice, we need to make more spectrum available.
    There's a bill called the ``Commercial Spectrum Enhancement Act.'' 
It is a bill where we can take spectrum that is currently allocated to 
the Government and auction it off to the private sector without 
diminishing our responsibilities in Government. In other words, it will 
be an auction process. Taxpayers will not only benefit because broadband 
has been expanded, the taxpayers will benefit because we're not going to 
give the spectrum away. We'll let them pay.
    And so these are some of the policies that will help us achieve the 
goal. What I'm telling you is, there's a role for us here in Washington 
to help the entrepreneurs and innovators of the country succeed and 
thereby help make the quality of the life of our fellow citizens the 
best it can possibly be.
    I am here at the Commerce Department because a lot of the work to 
make sure the entrepreneurial spirit is strong is done here. And I'm 
here to thank those of you who work here for your hard work. I 
appreciate what you're doing. Keep doing it. We have a responsibility to 
fulfill our missions and our goals on behalf of the taxpayers of this 
country.
    There is no question in my mind, with the right policy and right 
incentives, that we will be the leader. Instead of being the 10th per 
capita in broadband use, we'll be the first. You know, we're the fastest 
growing major industrialized nation in the world today, and that's 
great. We want to be the fastest growing major industrialized nation in 
the world tomorrow and the next decade and the next decade. And one of 
the best ways we can do so is to always stay on the leading edge of 
technological change, and here are some practical ways--by working with 
the Congress, working with our regulators, working with our Commerce 
Department--that we can do so.
    Listen, thanks for your work. May God bless you all, and may God 
continue to bless our country.

Note: The President spoke at 2:08 p.m. in the main lobby at the U.S. 
Department of Commerce. In his remarks, he referred to Theodore W. 
Kassinger, General Counsel, Department of Commerce, and nominee to be 
Deputy Secretary of Commerce; and Dr. Craig Sable, Children's National 
Medical Center.