Bush Touts Technology Issues

President Bush, campaigning Monday in Minnesota, promised to boost broadband access to the Internet, highlighted federal grants to develop hydrogen as an alternative fuel and set a 2014 target date for all Americans to have their medical records in a portable, electronic format.

Bush touted his technology initiatives during a speech at the annual convention of the American Assn. of Community Colleges.

In his remarks, the president noted the Energy Department’s announcement Monday of $350 million in grants to fund hydrogen research. The grants are the first installment in what Bush has said would be $1.2 billion for research on hydrogen fuel cells, a potential power source for automobiles and other equipment that would be renewable and nonpolluting.

Additional contributions from the private sector, academia and elsewhere bring the commitment announced Monday to $575 million, the White House said.

In his remarks, Bush expressed the hope that one day neighborhood “hydrogen stations” would become as commonplace as gas stations.

He also promoted use of electronic records to store personal health data, citing his proposal to double, to $100 million, annual grants toward such efforts.

Bush said electronic medical records would reduce administrative costs and prevent medical errors. He announced the creation of a position in the Department of Health and Human Services to be called the national health information technology coordinator. This person would be charged with developing, by the end of this year, the technical specifications that would lead to standardized electronic record-keeping.

The federal effort would “go a long way toward introducing IT into a part of medicine that desperately needs it,” Bush said, using shorthand for the phrase “information technology.”

He described much of the current system for keeping medical records as “a 19th century way of doing business,” adding disapprovingly that too many pharmacists confront nearly indecipherable doctors’ handwriting. He said electronic records would be devised so that they did not compromise patient privacy.

On high-speed access to the Internet, Bush called on Congress to make permanent the existing tax breaks for broadband services.

He also set a target of 2007 for making broadband access available “to every corner of our country,” but acknowledged that much work remained because only about 24 million Americans have access to the technology.

A spokeswoman for the campaign of Sen. John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, the presumed Democratic presidential nominee, derided Bush’s speech as “an election-year gimmick to hide the fact that Bush has lost 2.6 million jobs.”

“Bush has spent the last four years making empty but convenient promises rather than offering real solutions to create new and better jobs,” said the spokeswoman, Stephanie Cutter, in a statement. “For example, the Bush broadband policies don’t do anything to provide the new resources that will be needed to deploy broadband in rural and urban areas, and they are not addressing the regulatory barriers that prevent deployment.”

Bush’s comments on Internet taxes were in tune with action in the Senate on Monday. Ending a six-month impasse, senators beat back an attempt to block a vote on a measure that would ban Internet access taxes.

As consumers have flocked to the faster broadband service, nearly a dozen states have moved to pass laws authorizing new Internet taxes. No state has yet begun collecting Internet access levies. Lawmakers have been divided on the issue for months, with some saying a ban on such taxes would deprive states and local governments of crucial revenue and others saying it would boost the economy by fostering new technologies.

During congressional debate Monday, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told his colleagues that taxing Internet access would “stifle economic growth.” He cited Japan and South Korea as among those countries that had more widespread and advance broadband networks.

The House approved a permanent ban last year on Internet taxes. However, intense lobbying by cash-strapped state and local officials has so far thwarted similar action by the Senate.

Before returning to Washington from Minneapolis, the president attended a $1-million fundraiser for the Republican National Committee in suburban Edina.

In the closely contested 2000 election, Democrat Al Gore won Minnesota’s 10 electoral votes, carrying the state 48% to 46%. This time, the state is regarded by both parties as among 17 swing states in the election.

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Times staff writer Jube Shiver contributed to this report from Washington.