John Podesta, Jack Lew

“ Today we're releasing the third and final report of the administration's e-commerce working group, which is entitled, "Leadership For The New Millennium: Delivering on Digital Progress and Prosperity." This report outlines the work that we have done to promote electronic commerce, reinvent government for the information age, bridge the digital divide and ensure that all of our children have access to education technology. ”

“ It's very possible that the first round of decisions will be the last if the surplus isn't there when you're done with it. And I think that the report that we've put out today establishes a baseline against which actions can be measured, against which program trends can be measured, whether or not more kids have access to education, or less; whether or not more people have access to health care, or less. I think it's a very important beginning point in the budget process for the coming Congress and administration. ”

“ In addition, we directed each agency to describe its privacy practices and the steps to comply with administration privacy policies in its budget submissions, to make sure that this isn't just something that's off on its own, but it's very much a part of how we look at agencies and whether or not they're doing their basic jobs.
In terms of accessible federal web sites, making information technology available is critical in keeping our economy going and reaching all people, people with disabilities, people who have special needs. ”

“ That's why, in the campaign in 1992 and then in the way they governed, starting in 1993, they made promoting technology, along with fiscal discipline and opening markets and investing in people, a key component of their economic strategy.
It was a profound decision for America's future. Over the past five years, the information technology sector, which accounts for 8.3 percent of U.S. GDP, accounted for almost one-third of U.S. economic growth. ”

“ If you go the next step and ask how much is there really that's available for new policy, you quickly go down from $1.9 billion to $1.6 billion. I think one of the things that gets lost in any of the discussions is that if there is a decision to spend the surplus, be it on the tax cut or on spending programs, the cost of paying interest goes up very rapidly. ”

“ That's from really a trickle of electronic commerce that occurred when the President came into office.
Third, the President and Vice President worked to protect privacy, especially in sensitive areas, such as medical and financial records, and children's privacy. They wanted to make sure that all Americans had the opportunity to enjoy the benefits of the information age. That's why they've worked so hard to connect schools and libraries to the Internet, and to train teachers to be as comfortable with a computer as they were with a chalk board. ”

“ One-stop government information: First Gov provides a simple, straightforward mechanism for the public to locate information and services. Users can access 27 million federal agency web pages at one time. They can search half-a-million documents in less than a quarter of a second, and handle millions of searches a day.
The private sector has played a key role in creating First Gov, and now helping us to broaden it. ”

“ And if you look at the programs that most people rely on the federal government for, you can actually apply for benefits in many cases -- Social Security benefits; the public can apply for benefits, track their benefits. The Veterans Administration -- veterans can apply for and send completed applications electronically to their local VA offices. ”

“ I think people are learning this in the private sector, quite frankly, as well as in places like the White House, that there is more formality than people I think expect out of an e-mail transaction. There is a record left behind. There are footprints that don't take place in a telephone conversation. And I think that that will probably cause some people I suppose to think a little more as they compose it at the keyboard or maybe, in a year or two, as they compose by talking to their computer. But because I think a record is left behind, people have to be able to come to grips with that. ”

“ More companies are using information technology to increase their productivity, develop customized products and deliver online training to their employees. In 1993, when President Clinton entered office, there were 50 web sites on the Worldwide Web; today there are 25 million. People are using the Internet to get lower prices for home mortgage, make better informed decisions about their health care needs, and check on the voting records of their elected representatives. ”

“ It's transforming the way you do business. And this is going to happen throughout the government, in terms of ability for citizens to deal with their government. I think the second is in the area of security. One of the problems has always been how do you authenticate that the person who says he or she is who she says he or she is -- well, in any event, you get the picture. It's difficult, because a dog on the Internet can be just as much a person. ”

“ These initiatives will help ensure that America maintains its technological leadership well into the 21st century.
The administration fought for telecommunications reform so that consumers would enjoy greater choice, faster deployment of broad-band networks, and lower prices. There are now providers of high-speed Internet access in 70 percent of the nation's zip codes.
The administration also made more spectrum available to the private sector for new digital wireless services. The number of wireless subscribers increased from 11 million in 1992 to 108 million today. ”

“ I think that the gains that this technology is showing in productivity, not just in the information technology sectors, per se, but as they essentially trickle through, or flood through, the economy, will mean that many transactions that used to take place that were slower, that were more cumbersome, that were more paper-intensive, will be able to be done electronically. ”

“ I think that it's clear that we can't just be concerned about the digital divide in the U.S., although that has been a central concern of ours. We've got to worry about it around the world. But these kinds of technologies can be rapidly deployed and empowering, and I think India is a very good example of that. ”

“ But it's also an extremely -- I think from our perspective, we have been an active administration and I think the ability to communicate relatively instantly with a wide variety of people to be able to kind of network, to be able to use electronic mail and electronic conferencing technology, to be able to share information has been critical to our ability to stay on top -- like I think any modern organization -- to stay on top of what's going on, and to be able to have a dialogue. ”

“ I think that any decisions that are made with regard to the use of the surplus have to be prudent ones, and that means you have to look at the moment you're making the decision for all the competing demands. ”

“ And the second is going to be, in my judgment, whether the rules that we have in place with respect to financial records, medical records and privacy of children need to be supplemented at all by additional safe harbor kind of rules for privacy on the Internet. We've tended to take the view that the private sector should take a leadership role, and they've done a very good job of improving privacy compliance. ”

“ Thanks to the e-rate, and grass-root efforts like NetDay, the percentage of schools that are connected to the Internet is now 95 percent. The percentage of classrooms connected to the Internet increased from 3 percent in 1994 to 63 percent in 1999. ”

“ Forty-two million people are filing their tax forms electronically. Student assistance -- you can get your applications online, file them online, student aid can be applied for online. And in the last six months, 10.5 million loan applications have been process online in a timely manner. ”

“ Recently, First Gov introduced a new feature called Facts For You, through which a citizen can learn about housing prices, weather patterns, school performance, diet, airline safety, on-time performance, and health quality. ”

“ We'd probably be happy to have a link to the Archives web site if people wanted to come here to find a link to the Archives web site, but we'll have a new URL, and people will be able to find Clinton information, Clinton administration information through that Archives web site. ”