It's my pleasure to be joining you today to talk about an issue close to my home and to my heart.
Technology is the fuel that is driving our nation's economy.
But before I begin my remarks, let me a say a few words about our largest civic ceremony, the 2000 census. In January of 1999, the Supreme Court agreed with Republicans that everyone in America to be counted during the census. This week the Census Bureau reported that 65 percent of America's households had returned their census questionnaire. While this is better than originally expected, it does mean that more than 43 million households in America have yet to be counted. Next week hundreds of thousands of enumerators will fan out across the country to find those not already counted.