----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, June 25, 2000 6:41 PM
Subject: Clinton/Gore: New "E-Government" Initiatives
Below please find information about new efforts to enhance the
availability of online government information, including grant
opportunities. The President also announces a $50,000 competition for
the most innovative idea for advancing "e-government." A fact sheet
about "Twenty Things You Can Do and Learn On U.S. Government Web Sites"
is also attached. The text of the President's Saturday webcast
announcement follows.
===========================================
PRESIDENT CLINTON AND VICE PRESIDENT GORE:
MAJOR NEW "E-GOVERNMENT" INITIATIVES
Saturday, June 24,2000
Today in his first-ever Saturday webcast addressed to the Nation,
President Clinton will unveil a series of new initiatives to give the
American people the "Information Age" government they deserve. These
steps will cut red tape, make government more responsive to the needs of
citizens, and expand opportunities for participation in our democracy.
These initiatives build on the Administration's efforts, led by Vice
President Gore, that have already greatly expanded citizen access to
online government information and services. By the end of the year:
+ Citizens will be able to search all online resources offered by
the federal government from a single web site called "firstgov.gov."
+ Citizens, small businesses and community groups will have one-stop
access to roughly $500 billion in grants and procurement opportunities.
+ Citizens, students, researchers, and government employees will be
able to compete for a new $50,000 prize for the most innovative idea for
advancing "e-government."
CITIZENS WILL BE ABLE TO SEARCH ALL ONLINE RESOURCES OFFERED BY THE
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT FROM A SINGLE WEB SITE: A team lead by Internet
entrepreneur Eric Brewer will create a single web site called
"firstgov.gov" that will allow citizens to search all online government
documents. This free site, which will be developed at no cost to the
taxpayers, will have the ability to search half a billion documents in
less than one-quarter of a second, and will be able to handle at least
100 million searches a day. This will make it much easier for citizens
to find government information and services, which are currently located
on at least 20,000 different web sites. The site will be available this
fall, and will not collect any personal information from citizens.
CITIZENS, SMALL BUSINESSES AND COMMUNITY GROUPS WILL HAVE "ONE-STOP"
ACCESS TO GRANTS AND PROCUREMENT OPPORTUNITIES: This year, the federal
government will award roughly $300 billion in grants and buy $200
billion in goods and services. Currently, there is no place where
vendors can access all of the information they need to bid on government
contracts. Moreover, there are 30,000 different organizations across
the United States that receive at least $300,000 in federal grants, and
must deal with systems for grant applications that vary from agency to
agency. By the end of the year, the Administration will make it
possible for people to go online to bid on, or apply for, the vast
majority of these procurements and grant opportunities. Moving this
business online will save time and money, and will bring more Americans
into the process by them the opportunity to compete for these funds.
CITIZENS WILL BE ENCOURAGED TO SUGGEST NEW IDEAS FOR ADVANCING
E-GOVERNMENT: The Administration will work with the Council for
Excellence in Government, a non-profit, nonpartisan organization, to
launch a new "e-government" competition. The Council will seek
applications from students, businesspeople, researchers, and government
employees for new applications, new technology, and new ways that
government can serve and connect with citizens electronically. A top
prize of $50,000 will be awarded for the most innovative proposal to
advance e-government that is user-friendly, accessible, cost-effective,
secure, and protects the privacy of citizens' personal information. The
Council has assembled a team of corporate sponsors for the competition
from its Technology Leadership Consortium. For more information about
the competition please contact Council for Excellence in Government
President and CEO Patricia McGinnis at 202-728-0418, or visit their
website at www.excelgov.org.
===========================================
Twenty Things You Can Do and Learn
On U.S. Government Web Sites
Embargoed until 10:00 a.m. EST, Saturday, June 24, 2000
President Clinton is the first president of the Internet Age, and with
the leadership of Vice President Gore has moved the U.S. government
on-line. Government web sites make information and services available at
the click of a mouse, helping Americans keep in touch with their
government and making government work better for people. There are now
over 20,000 government web sites -- here are just a few of the more
popular ones.
1. Get tips on choosing a health plan, a doctor, a course of
treatment, or a long-term care facility from the Department of Health
and Human Service's Healthfinder service (www.healthfinder.gov).
Healthfinder also provides the information on the latest health
research, different illnesses, and a host of medical resources designed
to help families stay healthy. It served over 4.5 million visitors in
1999.
2. Teachers, parents, and students can access lessons and educational
materials on any topic on to the Department of Education's new Gateway
to Educational Materials (www.thegateway.org). The Gateway makes
finding materials on the Internet easy by connecting users to over 140
web sites.
3. Start your own business with help from the Small Business
Administration (www.sba.gov), which offers everything from loans to
outreach initiatives for women and minority-owned businesses. The site
lso provides e-mail counseling and mentoring, online educational
courses, and a database of federal, state and private contracts
available to small firms.
4. Protect yourself and your children from environmental hazards by
finding out about drinking water quality, toxic and air releases, and
hazardous waste in your neighborhood by signing on to the Environmental
Protection Agency's (www.epa.gov) Enviromapper site. You can also find
out about water discharge permits and Superfund sites.
5. Need a government statistic? FedStats (www.fedstats.gov) provides
the public a single point of entry to 40 Federal statistical programs.
Since its inception in May 1997, FedStats has logged over 3.5 million
user sessions.
6. Is it possible that you or someone you know may be owed pension
benefits without knowing it? The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation
(www.pbgc.gov) reunites people with missing pensions, and features an
online Pension Search Directory that allows you to find benefits that
may be owed to you.
7. Learn how to get health insurance for your children through the
Children's Health Insurance Program (www.insurekidsnow.gov). CHIP's web
page offers state-specific information on who is eligible and how to
enroll to make sure children grow up strong and healthy.
8. Begin planning for retirement by computing your estimated Social
Security benefits online at the Social Security Administration
(www.ssa.gov). SSA's home page also provides information on obtaining a
Social Security number as well as information for employers on reporting
earnings.
9. Agencies from across the Federal government joined forces to
provide Federal Resources for Academic Excellence (www.ed.gov/free),
which makes hundreds of education resources available on the web for
teachers, students, or parents. Subjects range from an architectural
tour of the National Gallery of Art's East Building to a mutual fund
cost calculator from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
10. Buy your first home with help from the Department of Housing and
Urban Development (www.hud.gov). HUD's web page provides a
comprehensive homebuyer's kit, complete with searchable databases of HUD
homes for sale, condominiums and developments approved for FHA
financing, and HUD approved lenders.
11. With Access America for Students (www.students.gov) -- students can
gain information on how to obtain financial aid, pay their student
loans, and get career information. This website is part of an
initiative announced by Vice President Gore called "Access America."
12. Learn food safety and handling tips, proper cooking temperature
for food, and how to test to see if your kitchen is safe from foodborne
illness from the Department of Agriculture (www.foodsafety.gov).
13. Find a fuel-efficient car with help from the Department of Energy
and the Environmental Protection Agency (www.fueleconomy.gov/feg).
14. Kids, parents and coaches can get tips from the U.S. Women's
Soccer Team (and other experts) on good reasons not to smoke -- like,
not being able to run down the soccer field -- on the Smoke-Free Kids
web site (www.smokefree.gov).
15. Curious about online trading? Learn how to invest wisely and
avoid fraud on the Internet from the Securities and Exchange Commission
(www.sec.gov).
16. Travelers can now check for weather-related delays using the
Federal Aviation Administration's web site (www.fly.faa.gov). The web
site has received almost one million visitors since its launch on April
2000, with the number of visitors doubling every week.
17. Find help after a natural disaster from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency (www.fema.gov). FEMA's web site provides information
on where to find temporary shelters, crisis counseling, or legal
counseling. FEMA also provides help in applying for assistance for help
in rebuilding your home
18. Find the Veterans' Medical Center nearest you, and find out what
benefits you may qualify for, with help from the Department of Veterans'
Affairs (www.va.gov).
19. Learn about your Medicare benefits, get information about home and
community-based services, or report suspected Medicare fraud through the
Health Care Financing Administration's (www.hcfa.gov) web page. HCFA
also provides an on-line version of the Medicare & You 2000 handbook.
20. Learn how you can pay back student loans and volunteer in your
community through the Corporation for National Service (www.cns.gov).
=========================================
THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
(Santa Monica, California)
For Immediate Release
June 24, 2000
REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
IN FIRST INTERNET WEBCAST
Los Angeles, California
THE PRESIDENT: Good morning. Here in America, a revolution in
technology is underway. It is more than a time of innovation, it's a
time of fundamental transformation, the kind that happens, at most,
every hundred years. Today, in my first Saturday Webcast, I'd like to
speak to you about how we can seize the potential of this information
revolution to widen the circle of our democracy and make our government
much more responsive to the needs of our citizens.
Early in our history, people often had only one option when they
needed the help of the national government. They had to visit a
government office and stand in line. Indeed, as Vice President Gore has
pointed out, after the Civil War the only way our veterans could collect
their pensions was by traveling all the way to Washington. D.C. and
waiting for a clerk to dig out their war records. Those war records were
actually bound in red tape. That gave rise to the universal symbol of
bureaucratic delay that has existed down to the present day.
Thankfully, things have gotten a lot easier for citizens over the
years. In recent years, advances in computing and information technology
have led to remarkable gains. Under the leadership of Vice President
Gore, we have greatly expanded the spread of information technology
throughout the government, cutting reams of red tape, putting vast
resources at the fingertips of all of our citizens. Citizens now are
using government websites to file their taxes, compare their Medicare
options, apply for student loans, and find good jobs. They're tapping
into the latest health research, and browsing vast collections in the
Library of Congress, and following along with NASA's missions in outer
space. This is just the beginning.
Today I'm pleased to announce several major steps in our efforts to
go forward in creating a high-speed, high-tech, user-friendly
government. First, we're going to give our citizens a single,
customer-focused website where they can find every on-line resource
offered by the federal government.
This new website, firstgov.gov, will be created at no cost to the
government by a team led by Eric Brewer, who developed one of the most
successful Internet search technologies with the help of government
grants. In the spirit of cutting through red tape, this new website will
be created in 90 days or less. It will uphold the highest standards for
protecting the privacy of its users.
When it's complete, firstgov will serve as a single point of entry
to one of the largest, perhaps the most useful collection of web pages
in the entire world. Whether you want crucial information in starting a
small business, or you want to track your Social Security benefits, you
can do it all in one place, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Second, now that we're poised to create one-stop shopping for
government services, we'll also greatly expand the scope of those
services. Increasingly, we'll give our citizens not only the ability to
send and receive information, but also to conduct sophisticated
transactions on-line.
For example, this year the federal government will award about $300
billion in grants, and buy $200 billion in goods and services. Over the
coming year, we will make it possible for people to go on-line and
compete for these grants and contracts through a simplified electronic
process. Moving this enormous volume of business on-line will save a
great deal of money and time for our taxpayers. It will also expand
opportunities for community groups, small businesses, and citizens who
never before have had a chance to show what they can do.
Third, in conjunction with the nonprofit Council for Excellence in
Government, we're launching a major competition to spur new innovative
ideas for how government can serve and connect with our citizens
electronically. The Council will award up to $50,000 to those students,
researchers, private sector workers or government employees who present
the most creative ideas.
In the early years of our republic, Thomas Jefferson said,
"America's institutions must move forward hand in hand with the progress
of the human mind." Well, today, the progress of the human mind is
certainly racing forward at break-neck speed. If we work together, we
can ensure that our democratic institutions keep pace. With your help,
we can build a more perfect, more responsive democracy for the
Information Age.
Thanks for listening.
(End of Posting)
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