President Unveils Tech Initiatives for Energy, Health Care, Internet
Remarks by the President at American Association of Community Colleges Annual Convention
Minneapolis Convention Center
Minneapolis, Minnesota
THE PRESIDENT: 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. (Applause.)
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. (Applause.)
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's dad, you can realize
your dream here. You can raise your son. You 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.
(Applause.)
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 and applause.)
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 state House here in Minnesota for coming. I want to thank all
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. (Applause.) 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 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 would 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. (Applause.)
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 to 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 three 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. One of the
lessons of September the 11th 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 ten years. For the sake of
world peace, why don't 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, but it's 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. (Applause.)
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 pro-growth 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, home ownership 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 home-ownership 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 home ownership 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 four 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.
(Applause.)
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 non-competitive, 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 [sic] 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 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.
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 that's "difficult to educate," they
call them, and say, just 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 a got a
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 a child is literate. (Applause.)
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. Now, 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 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, 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, 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 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. (Applause.)
I know many -- 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. (Applause.)
So I laid out a reform package, that we've got to give states more
flexibility. You see, flexibility means you're more able 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 taxpayer's dollars in a good way
to train people for jobs. That ought to be the standard. See, that's
where our focus is. (Applause.)
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 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 of foreign sources of oil. (Applause.)
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 auto makers -- see, auto makers
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 ten 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 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. (Applause.)
Another 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 this. (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 and applause.) 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.
I catch the story of a man 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 -- 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 ten 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
happens by developing 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 the 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. (Applause.)
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. (Applause.)
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 --
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 x-ray image in seven seconds and have
a response back in ten 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. (Applause.)
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. (Applause.)
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 fiberoptic cables and transmission towers. That makes
sense. As you're trying to get broadband spread throughout the
company, 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 power lines.
Power lines were for electricity; power lines 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. (Applause.)
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 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. (Applause.)