***** Reformatted. Please distribute. CLINTON/GORE ON REBUILDING AMERICA In the 1980's the concrete foundations of the United States crumbled as the investment gap widened between America and our global competitors. By the decade's end, Japan and Germany were investing more than 12 times what we do on roads, bridges, sewers and the information networks and technologies of the future. No wonder they threaten to surpass America in manufacturing by 1996. No wonder we are slipping behind. Just as interstate highway construction in the 1950's ushered in two decades of unparalleled growth, investing in the pathways of the future will put Americans back to work and spur economic growth. The creation of large, predictable markets will stimulate private industry to invest in our economy, create high-wage jobs, and smooth our transition from a defense to a peacetime economy. A Clinton/Gore Administration will work to develop the world's best communication, transportation and environmental systems -- and rebuild America. The Clinton/Gore Plan * Create a Rebuild America Fund, with a $20 billion federal investment each year for four years -- leveraged with state, local, private sector and pension fund contributions. Make states and localities responsible for project development and management. User fees such as road tolls and solid waste disposal charges will help guarantee these investments. * Invest in transportation systems: renovate our countries roads, bridges, and railroads; create a high-speed rail network linking our major cities and commercial hubs; develop smart highway technology to expand the capacity, speed, and efficiency or our major roadways; and develop high-tech short-haul aircraft. * Create a door-to-door information network to link every home, business, lab, classroom, and library by the year 2015. Put public records, databases, libraries, and educational materials on line for public use to expand access to information. * Develop new environmental technologies and create the world's most advanced systems to recycle, treat toxic waste and clean our air and water, direct funds to the development of new, clean, efficient energy sources. * Develop a plan for defense conversion to ensure that the communities and millions of talented workers that won the Cold War don't get left out in the cold. Many of the skills and technologies required to rebuild America are similar to those now used in our defense industries. We will encourage companies that bid on projects to rebuild America to contract work to, or purchase, existing defense facilities; order the Pentagon to conduct a national defense jobs inventory to assist displaced workers; and provide special conversion loans and grants to small business defense contractors. The Record * Senator Gore introduced and steered into law the High Performance Computing Act of 1990 to create a national high-speed computer network linking schools, research centers, and universities to the nation's most powerful computers, and making those computers accessible to people who otherwise would not be able to take advantage of their power and speed. * Wrote the Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 to more quickly move the new technologies developed under the High Performance Computing Act into schools, hospitals, and businesses, to improve education, expand health care and provide jobs. * Was a sponsor of legislation to speed up the move of key technologies form laboratory to factory, and to strengthen U.S. leadership in these technologies, particularly high-tech manufacturing. * Was a key sponsor of the Strategic Environment Research Program, a groundbreaking effort to promote cooperation between military and civilian scientists and researchers to expand efforts to understand the global environment. Gore also sparked efforts that for the first time will make available to civilian scientists data about the earth collected by the U.S. intelligence community. * Author and key sponsor of legislation to stop skyrocketing cable television rates and protect consumers by returning to local officials the ability to regulate basic cable television rates, by promoting competition in the industry, and by gaining viewing rights for 2 million home satellite dish owners.