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[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 2 (Wednesday, January 7, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Pages S154-S156]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

                           ECONOMIC STIMULUS

  Ms. KLOBUCHAR. Madam President, we all know the American economy is 
in a challenged state. That is a nice

[[Page S155]]

way of putting it. I spent about a week in December traveling around my 
State visiting 22 counties, meeting with people who had been working 
three jobs, had their hours reduced, were afraid they weren't going to 
be able to buy their grandkids Christmas presents. Letters coming to my 
office included a woman who said she inherited a small amount of money 
from her dad. She thought that would go to her daughter's wedding, but 
instead it was used to pay for her retirement because she had lost so 
much money from her retirement funds. We heard stories of a man and his 
wife who would put their daughters to bed at night and gather at the 
kitchen table, shaking their heads and wondering how they were going to 
make it. Those were the comments I heard when I was home in Minnesota 
in December.
  I also saw some optimism and hope as I traveled the State and saw the 
growing energy economy and heard the enthusiasm for our new President-
elect. Obviously, there was frustration with what has been going on 
with this administration for the past 8 years and how they have not had 
a forward-thinking plan for the economy. People have hope that is going 
to change.
  I can tell there is widespread interest in the economic stimulus 
package proposed by the new President. There is widespread interest in 
my State for infrastructure spending, for the energy jobs. One thing I 
believe we need to devote some specific time to in the next few weeks--
and I know the new President is interested in this--is the idea of 
looking not only at roads and bridges and infrastructure but to look at 
technological infrastructure, to figure out why we have had trouble 
competing with countries around the world.
  When one talks to people in Park Rapids, MN, who go maybe a mile out 
of town, they can't get on the Internet or it costs them $700 a month 
if they are going to do satellite, or they can be stuck with dial-up 
that is so slow they can hardly use it, you get to understand the need 
for better technological infrastructure. What I finally figured out, 
after this 22-county tour--I had been trying to figure out why some 
companies say they are offering Internet service. I finally figured out 
what the problem is. In many parts of my State, they may have Internet 
service, but it is either much too slow or much too expensive.
  As a country we have ensured that every American has access to 
telephone service and electricity regardless of economic status. We 
must now do the same for broadband Internet access. Broadband not only 
creates educational and health care opportunities, it can create 
opportunities for businesses and employment that would otherwise not 
exist in rural communities.
  In these tough economic times, broadband deployment creates jobs--not 
only the direct creation of jobs in the tech sector but also the 
creation of even more indirect employment opportunities by increasing 
access to broadband.
  After visiting 22 of Minnesota's counties, I convened a Broadband 
Roundtable in my State on December 29. I heard firsthand from people 
about the importance of making sure they have access to fast and 
affordable broadband. We have had success stories in our State, as 
well.
  One story I heard when I was out in a small town in Minnesota--
Sebeka--they began diversifying early into cutting-edge technologies, 
including fiber optic infrastructure, digital telephone switching, 
cable and satellite TV, broadband Internet service to 100 percent of 
their customers. They have a very high percentage--I think 70 to 80 
percent--of people who are actually purchasing this high-speed Internet 
in a very small town in a remote area of Minnesota.
  The government of Carver County, MN, is leading a collaborative 
effort to interconnect county facilities with cities, school districts, 
townships, and other entities in the development of high-speed 
communications.
  Through a number of funding and technical assistance programs, 
Minnesota's Blandin Foundation's Broadband Initiative has worked in 
rural Minnesota communities to educate community leaders and to get 
these partnerships started.
  Despite these local success stories, however, much more needs to be 
done. The overall reality is America has become an international 
laggard on broadband. In 2000, the United States ranked 4th among 30 
nations surveyed in broadband subscribership, according to the 
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Today, the 
United States is 15th on the list. So in the last 8 years, we have gone 
from 4th in the world to 15th in the world. That is not the kind of 
progress that is going to keep this country moving and get us back on 
track.
  According to the International Telecommunications Union, the United 
States is now perched as 24th in the world in broadband penetration. 
Canada has a higher level of broadband penetration and digital 
opportunity than we do.
  Broadband adoption in the United States does continue to grow--from 
47 percent of homes in March 2007 to 55 percent in April 2008. But the 
figure is significantly lower for those living in rural America: only 
38 percent.
  Of course, we have to consider more than just access, as I noted 
earlier. We need to look at speed. We need to look at speed if we are 
going to compete with countries such as India and Japan.
  So we have work ahead of us. All of us understand broadband is a 
critical infrastructure for the 21st century. By one estimate--to give 
you a sense of what we are talking about, jobs--every 1 percentage 
point increase in broadband penetration per year would lead to the 
creation of nearly 300,000 new jobs. That is why it is essential that 
all communities, including our rural communities, have the opportunity 
to take advantage of the opportunities offered by this 21st-century 
infrastructure. I want these jobs in my State going to Thief River 
Falls or Lanesboro or Crookston instead of going off to other countries 
such as Japan and India. It is that simple. I want these jobs to stay 
in the United States. We have seen the challenge before to make sure 
our rural communities are not left behind as technology develops.
  For example, there are still many Americans who can remember growing 
up in homes with no electricity and no telephone service. In 1935, 
about 80 percent of all homes and towns and cities in the United States 
had electricity, but fewer than 12 percent of farms in America had 
electricity, and only about 25 percent had telephone service, which was 
often unreliable.
  In 1935, President Roosevelt created the Rural Electrification 
Administration, REA. The REA helped organize and support farmer-owned 
electric cooperatives to bring electricity to farms. By 1949--this was 
from 1935 to 1949--more than three-quarters of all farms in America had 
electricity. So with those standards that were put in place, it went 
from 12 percent to 75 percent. That is an amazing achievement during a 
time of crisis because people believed you could get this done.
  The penetration of telephone service actually took longer. In 1949, 
only 36 percent of America's farms had telephone service. That year, a 
telephone amendment was added to the Rural Electrification Act, which 
made loan funds available to finance rural telephone systems. In just a 
little more than a decade, nearly 80 percent of farms had telephone 
service.
  Even much of our modern transportation infrastructure--including 
paved roads and steel and concrete bridges--has come into existence 
only in the past 70 years, thanks to both the New Deal and President 
Eisenhower's Interstate Highway Program. Our broadband infrastructure 
presents us with the same challenge to make sure no one is left behind.
  President-elect Obama understands that broadband must now be 
considered a basic part of our national infrastructure. He also 
understands that investment in our broadband infrastructure is 
essential to our long-term prosperity.
  A few weeks ago, in a weekly address, President-elect Obama announced 
that a key part of his economic recovery plan would involve increasing 
broadband deployment and adoption, saying:

       It is unacceptable that the United States ranks 15th in the 
     world in broadband adoption.

  On Monday of this week, I sent a letter to the President-elect 
applauding his efforts to include investment in our Nation's 
information infrastructure as

[[Page S156]]

part of an economic stimulus package. I also asked that he consider 
these partnerships that we have seen work so well in our State, and 
that matching grants on the Federal level to work with the local 
communities would be one way to spur broadband development.
  I finally asked him to look at the fact that this is not just about 
communities that have no access, it is also about communities that have 
bad access or slow access or too expensive access. If we really want to 
get the broadband infrastructure in place, we have to make it work for 
everyone, just as what Dwight D. Eisenhower did with the highway system 
in the 1950s, and just as President Roosevelt did with rural 
electrification in the 1930s and 1940s.
  I believe any economic stimulus package must include mechanisms 
designed to bring affordable and fast broadband to this country. An 
economic stimulus package should fully fund the Broadband Data 
Improvement Act, which I cosponsored and which passed last Congress.

  Any economic stimulus package, as I mentioned, must also fund 
matching grants for community-level partnerships that demonstrate 
strong cooperation among local governments, businesses, schools, health 
care, and others.
  Finally, one aspect of the Nation's information infrastructure that 
may continue to elude us absent some type of Federal involvement is the 
creation of an advanced, interoperable communications network for 
public safety.
  I still remember hearing when one of our police officers was shot and 
killed in St. Paul, MN, how those who were trying to apprehend the 
person, the murderer in this case, were trying to communicate. When 
they were up in the helicopter, they literally had to have multiple 
walkie talkies and telephones, sometimes six or seven, to try to match 
up with all the phone systems that were in use across the area.
  Well, since then we have had improvements in the large metropolitan 
area of the Twin Cities in our interoperability, but we do not have 
that kind of matching and that kind of cooperation in the rural parts 
of our State, nor do we have it across the country.
  The first responsibility of government is to protect its citizens. 
The fact that our Nation's police, fire, and other first responders, 
including those in our rural areas, still do not have access to such a 
network more than 7 years after the tragic events of September 11 is 
simply unacceptable. I believe consideration of this issue in the 
context of broadband stimulus measures may present the best chance to 
address this continuing problem.
  I join the President-elect and so many in this Senate in calling for 
21st-century technology to create jobs and help our economy be more 
robust and competitive in the long term. This is about creating 
immediate jobs, and we can get that with technological infrastructure. 
But it is also about creating jobs in a way that leaves us with 
something that will actually move this economy forward.
  This technological infrastructure, whether it be the electricity grid 
or whether it be the broadband I have spoken about today, is really our 
rural electrification. It is our interstate highway program. It is our 
generation's chance to build this infrastructure in a way that will fit 
the changing needs of this country and allow us to compete on the world 
stage.
  Madam President, I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a 
quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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