Gores full remarks at the NPC on NII and Telecom part 3 of 3

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

 The challenge is not in the end the new technology, it
is holding true to our basic principles.  Whether our tools were the
quill pens that wrote and then signed the Declaration of Independence
or the laptop computers being used to write the constitutions of
newly-freed countries, better communication has almost always led to
greater freedom and greater economic growth.  That is our challenge,
and that is what this administration and our nation will achieve.


             Once when Michael Faraday, the inventor of the electric
generator, was showing Benjamin Disraeli through his lab and taking
pleasure in demonstrating his new inventions.  At the end of the tour
Disraeli said, "Well, what good are all these things?"  Faraday
answered, "What good is a baby?"  If we take the narrow view, it
looks as if telecommunications is out of its infancy.  But if we cast
our eyes ahead a few decades, or even a century, we see that it's
barely out of diapers.


             We need to look ahead, to protect it when it needs
protecting, but not get in the way when it needs to walk alone.  Like
those wireless operators should have done in the North Atlantic, we
should be alert to where the collisions could take place, and we
shouldn't hesitate to chart a new course.


             If we do that, then much more than the
telecommunications industry will grow strong.  This country will grow
strong and humankind will as well.


             Thank you very much.  (Applause.)


             Q    If you're talking about totally deregulating the
information highway what steps do you think should be taken to ensure
that the information superhighway is not captured by a few
megacorporations for anticompetitive purposes?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  One of the policymakers who has
been meeting with us on a regular basis for the last several months
is Ann Bingaman, the Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust, and
our administration believes very strongly, as I said in part of this
presentation, that just as suffocating overregulation can stifle
competition and innovation, so the abandonment of antitrust
principles and the surrender to private conglomerations of monopoly
power can have the same effect.


             We intend in this administration to make certain that
the laws are enforced we intend in this administration to make
certain that the laws are enforced fairly and thoroughly, including
those that are designed to prevent anti-competitive practices.


             Q    Where does the administration stand on the pending
legislation -- the Markey-Fields bill, the Dingell-Brooks bill and
the Danforth-Inouye bill in the Senate?  Are you asking that those be
shelved now?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  No, not at all.  In fact, we have
worked very carefully with the sponsors of those bills, each of which
take on a slightly different part of the larger set of issues.

They've done a lot of heavy lifting.  They have achieved some
significant breakthroughs.  We are still in communication with them
about how to incorporate our view of the right outcome on particular
parts of the problems they address.  But the basic principles of the
Brooks-Dingell bill, for example, and the Markey-Fields bill are ones
that we endorse.


             Q    What is the administration's position on the
proposed TCI-Bell Atlantic merger?  Senator Metzenbaum said he
expects the Justice Department will modify it substantially.  Do you
agree?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, that will be for the Justice
Department to determine.  And we have no intention of interfering in
the legal analysis of a pending matter of that kind.  We have not
done so, and we will not do so.


             Q    To what extent does your legislation package that
you're formulating now extend to encompass an international
information highway?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  When I was in the former -- the
republics of the former Soviet Union last week, one of the most
important requests by these various leaders was to gain access to the
Internet and to the successors to the Internet.  And there are
already communications links over this prototype network in many,
many nations around the world.  That is in our interests.  It is to
our advantage to continue and broaden those links, and we'll do that.
             Q    You mentioned this, but how specifically could you
make sure that people of all economic strata gain simultaneous access
to the information superhighway?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  The principal universal service has
been interpreted in the case of telephone service to mean that what
we now have is about 93, 94 percent of all American families have
telephone service and it is regarded as affordable to virtually -- by
virtually everyone.  Our definition of universal service, once the
cluster of services that are encompassed is agreed upon is that
approximately the same percentage should have access to the richer
information products as well, so that a school child in my hometown
of Carthage, Tennessee, population 2,000, could come home after class
and sit down and instead of playing a video game with a cartridge,
plug into the Library of Congress and learn at his or her own pace
according to the curiosity that seizes that child at the moment --not
just in the form of words, but color moving graphics and pictures.


             We know how to do that.  There are no technological
obstacles.  There are no discoveries remaining to be made to put that
kind of resource at the disposal of school children and families and
small businesses throughout this country.  The only obstacles are
legal, regulatory, and financial.  We have the capacity to solve
those problems.


             What I'm saying here today is we want to create an
information marketplace 10 to 15 years from now that makes that
possible.  We want to manage the transition from our current
marketplace to that one in ways that provide universal service,
protect competition, stimulate investment, and enrich our nation.


             There is a growing consensus in private industry, among
leaders on Capitol Hill and in the public interest community about
how we can do that.  That's why you've seen the emergence of
important bills in the Congress over the past year.  That's why the
national debate has heated up so much since President Clinton
authorized Ron Brown and me to put out the national information
infrastructure blueprint soon after we took office in January.



             The good news is we're headed in the right direction.
We know where we want to end up; now we have to tackle the difficult
transition issues about how to get there.


             Q    If I could put in a plug here.  The National Press
Club and the National Press Foundation are working to develop a state
of the art electronic library here for journalists and the public,
including a link to the Internet.  As a former journalist, could you
talk about how technology has changed a reporter's job.


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  When I first started working at the
Nashville Tennessean with Reggie Stuart, we did it the old-fashioned
way and typed it out on a piece of paper and handed it in, and it
would be marked up with a lead pencil, and we'd go and type it again.


             We then went to a transition technology calling for
something known as scanner-ready copy.  Anybody here remember that?
Where you would type it with a different kind of typewriter and then
feed it into a machine that read it in to the computer.  Now, of
course, there are the regular word processors on every desk that
feeds the electronic impulses straight into the typesetter.


             We, as a nation, are going through a similar transition
now.  We're moving from the old technology through a transition stage
that is partly old and partly new, and we're going to end up with a
new information infrastructure that relies on digits of information
-- bits of information, zeros and ones.  Television signals will be
digitized, radio, videos -- all of it will be just in the form of
bits.  But because we're in this transition stage, we still have
regulatory and legal frameworks that were built up around the old
technologies which have all these distinctions that are no longer
especially relevant.  But moving from one to the other will be just
about as awkward as that scanner-ready copy was in the newsroom.


             Q    Switch topics here.  You've just returned from
Russia.  What are your impressions of Zhirinovsky and the future of
democratic reform?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, Vladimir Zhirinovsky, the
ultranationalist, whose party gained almost twice the number of votes
of any other party in the election that provided for half of their
lower House of Parliament, has made statements and expressed views,
as I have said previously, I think are reprehensible and an anathema
to those of us in this world who love freedom.  I think his victory
has to be put into context.  As President Clinton said, much of it is
attributable to a protest against the serious economic conditions in
Russia.  Their depression is much deeper than our Great Depression of
the 1930s.  They have lost, just in one year, the same number of
defense jobs that we've lost over the last five years, and there is a
growing impatience there.


             The victory of the Constitution in Russia is, in my
opinion, a more important outcome of that election.  It contains a
world class Bill of Rights.  And even though the strength it provides
to the Executive Branch has inspired some controversy in the American
context, it nevertheless provides a legal basis for a government of
laws and not people.  And the forces of reform and democratization
will probably have, after all is said and done, a narrow majority in
the new Parliament.  Now, how the coalitions form and which
independents go in which direction, that all remains to be seen.  But
the overall result should cause us to redouble our efforts, and I
hope will cause nations around the world to listen more carefully to
what President Clinton has been saying all year long about the need
for the world to rally much more effectively to support the process
of reform and democratization under way there.



             Q    You had suggested that conditions for aid to Russia
should be loosened.  How exactly do you propose to do that, and why?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, first of all, let me tell you
what I'm not saying there.  The so-called conditions imposed upon a
lot of multilateral aid by the International Monetary Fund are
designed to ensure that hyperinflation doesn't get out of hand, and
that basic economic conditions essential to inspiring the confidence
of private investors inside Russia and from other countries are
established.  And that's a legitimate task which has to be pursued.
But the way these conditions are imposed now, the people in charge
don't always take into account the social impact of the
implementation of these restrictions and conditions.  Ambitious
targets will be set, the Russian authorities will make great efforts
to meet those targets.  If they fall just short, then it's a yes or
no decision.  They don't get any of the aid that is conditioned upon
exactly meeting the target.


             I think it's good that the IMF has begun to change and
search for ways to take social impact into account.  The World Bank
has been a little faster off the mark and has changed more readily
than the IMF, but both are beginning to change.


             Now, these are good people who are administering these
programs.  They recognize the message of these elections as it
applies to what they're doing.  And I think not only here in the
United States but in other countries with representatives on the
boards of these institutions, you're seeing a great effort to look at
the pace of the reform process implicit in these conditions; to look
at the way the conditions are administered and to try to take the
social impact more into account even as we continue to have
conditions that work to establish the right macroeconomic conditions.


             Q    One last question that came in from the Internet --
this is from the University of Texas at Austin.  Recently groups of
artisan scholars on the Internet have been discussing the lack of
input from people in the arts and humanities in policymaking for the
national information infrastructure.  What plans do you have to make
sure that the needs of the arts and humanities are met by the science
and business interests?


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Well, the arts and humanities
communities have been very active users of the Internet.  And we are
keenly interested in the views of those in that community about the
future of our national information infrastructure.  During the
hearing process that NTIA is carrying out and during the consultation
process that our task force will be carrying out over the next few
weeks and months, we will certainly seek out such views.


             Q    Before asking the final question, I'd like to
present you with a certificate for appearing here today.


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:   Thank you very much.  This means a
lot to me, and I appreciate that very much.  (Applause.)


             Q    A disc with all the comments and questions that
came in on the Internet for you.


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  That's pretty impressive.  Thank
you very much.


             Q    A book by National Press Club member Herbert Block
-- "Herb Block, A Cartoonist's Life," and I've marked the place where
you're mentioned.  It's right in here.  (Laughter.)


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  There's only one place in here?
(Laughter.)


             Q    There's only one cartoon, I'm sorry.  (Laughter.)
And also it would not be a luncheon without the mug.



             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  (Applause.)


             Q    I also wanted to correct -- we did have more than
6,000 questions for Santa Claus; and I said 100 for you -- actually
it was 200.  (Laughter.)  A lot better than I thought.


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  Twice as good.


             Q    Right.  With all the remarks about your wooden
appearance -- (laughter) -- I must quote Barbara Walters, "If he
could be any kind of tree, what kind of tree would he be?"  (Laughter
and applause.)


             THE VICE PRESIDENT:  What's your favorite color?
(Laughter.).  Let me say that I just don't understand all of these
comments -- didn't you see me dance Inauguration night?  (Laughter.)
Didn't you see that?  The next day, after Tipper and I danced, there
were all these people who came up and said, you know, your wife is a
great dancer.  (Laughter.)  And I waited, and -- you know, I kind of
thought there was another half to the remark, but for some reason it
didn't come.  But even that did not prepare me for the Jay Leno Al
Gore dance party contest.  I don't know if you saw that where he
called five guys at random out of the audience and had a contest to
see if anyone could dance more stiffly or worse than Al Gore, and
nobody won?  (Laughter.)


             Thank you all very much.  I'm glad to be here.
(Applause.)  Thank you.  (Applause.)


                                 END2:05 P.M. EST