Talk from the Tech Industry: Letter from Intel to the Incoming Obama CTO

posted by Justin Rattner on January 19, 2009

Thank you to the thousands of men and women who participated in Intel’s survey last week at CES. As I blogged about earlier, the survey looked to stimulate broad support for Intel policies, asking you what the top priorities should be for the incoming Obama administration’s chief technology officer (CTO) in four areas where technology plays a key role: education, environment, health and Internet broadband.

As President-Elect Obama gets sworn in tomorrow and he appoints the country’s first CTO, we look forward to the active role that we - the tech industry at large - can play in working with the new administration to advance efficiencies across government agencies, spur innovation and address the top technology initiatives.

I’ve summarized my thoughts and the top-line survey results below (see the full results here) and incorporated them into my letter to the incoming CTO:

• Education: Along with investing more in K-12 education (basic math, science and technology skills), the administration needs to double NSF and DOE research budgets and enact a multi-year extension of the R&D tax credit.
• Environment: There is a need to establish a national policy around green technology and renewable energy and continue passing laws and policies designed to drive energy-efficiency.
• Broadband: We think government regulations and policies ought to enable, not impede, the broadband revolution. Incentives to make fast, affordable and high-quality broadband deployment needs to become a reality for all Americans.
• Healthcare: We need to implement a new national health care network system by connecting doctors, hospitals, labs and patients by 2012. We believe funding to training 10,000 health IT specialists in the next few years and deploying new health IT equipment will help reduce costly medical errors and drive down health costs.

Innovation is at the heart of American competitiveness and global opportunity. I believe it is imperative that we unleash the American spirit of innovation and creativity through increased investment and industry/governmental cooperation in basic and applied scientific research. These changes along with dramatic improvements in math and science education are essential to the success of our nation. By driving the adoption of new laws, regulations and incentives that support these changes, we can address the fundamental challenges of our current economy, enhance the national security and benefit the global community now and into the future.

Sincerely,

Justin R. Rattner Intel Chief Technology Officer Senior Fellow and Vice President, Corporate Technology Group

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tagged: CES, CTO, technology