Broadband, CHIPS Act, Green Energy, Other Tech Issues in Democratic Platform
The platform links together investments in broadband infrastructure with policies promoting semiconductors and green energy.
CHICAGO, August 19, 2024 – As the Democratic National Convention opened here on Monday evening for a four-day celebration of the party’s presidential and vice-presidential candidate, the convention opened by passing the party’s platform.
Released on Sunday, the 92-page platform (compared to 16 pages in the GOP version in July) emphasized investing in America through broadband, lowering costs for the middle class, addressing energy and climate issues, as well as a range of other issues.
Broadband infrastructure featured on the second page of the platform, which included: “Under President Biden, we’re finally rebuilding our roads, bridges, ports, airports, water systems, electric grids, broadband, and more, paving the way for a great American ‘Infrastructure Decade’ that will create hundreds of thousands of good-paying union jobs.”
The platform was approved unanimously by the convention at 6:28 p.m. CT, just an hour after the convention's evening program began at 5:30 p.m. CT.
A bit later, the platform highlights – at great length –the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to broadband internet access as a result of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of November 2021:
We’ve been bringing affordable, reliable, high-speed internet to every American household. High-speed internet is as vital to our economy today as electricity first was a century ago; Americans need it to do their jobs, to do their homework, to access health care, and to stay connected. But a full 45 million of us still live in areas where there is no high-speed internet. Democrats are closing that divide. These projects don’t just build infrastructure, they create hundreds of thousands of good jobs for American workers.
This section on “Investing in America” also highlights the role of semiconductor production and clean energy in the administration. “After the pandemic exposed our reliance on foreign-made semiconductors, we passed the CHIPS and Science Act, to restore America’s role producing the tiny computer chips needed to make everything from cell phones to dishwashers to cars.”
The platform also references the Inflation Reduction Act, which invested significant sums in “building renewable energy, electric vehicles, and other green technologies here at home.”
As part of those investment, the platform says, the country has “added over 80,000 megawatts of new clean power capacity, the equivalent of building 40 Hoover Dams, to help shrink energy costs and meet ambitious climate goals.”
In greater detail, and tying the investments in infrastructure together with semiconductors and green energy, the platform notes:
The President's Investing in America agenda has incentivized a historic $877 billion in private funding across the United States to date. Companies are investing hundreds of billions more than under Trump to build new factories. In fact, under President Biden, more than a dozen states have seen the largest private sector investments in their history. We’ve designated more than 30 tech hubs in communities from Reno, Nevada; to Charlotte, North Carolina; to North Central Pennsylvania. And we’ve made sure that lower-income counties see a larger share of investment. Today, instead of exporting American jobs for cheaper labor, we’re creating American jobs and exporting products, leaving no one behind.
Under President Biden, we’ve also boosted funding for the kind of research and development that can seed economy-transforming breakthroughs, like the internet. In recent years, America became one of the world’s only major countries to pull back on R&D investments; Democrats are changing that. President Biden for example launched the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H) in 2022, to find game-changing medical cures and treatments and transform important areas of medicine… Democrats will keep America at the forefront of scientific discovery and innovation, responsibly leading the way in the defining fields of the future, like AI, biotech, quantum computing, advanced materials, and more.
Drew Clark
Other mentions of broadband internet
The platform returns to broadband in a section on “Lowering Costs,” speaking about the Affordable Connectivity Program:
Democrats are working to help Americans cover other housing-related costs, like utilities. Families are already saving thousands of dollars with clean energy tax credits; and 23 million households received free or monthly discounts, saving $30 to $75 per month on high-speed broadband through the largest internet affordability program in history. It expired in May, because Republicans refused to act; but Democrats will keep fighting to reinstate it. We’ll keep working to expand other programs that reduce home heating, cooling, and water bills as well, especially in rural areas; and to speed the transition to cheaper renewable energy, like solar, that will lower people’s bills long-term.
The platform also refers to “junk fees,” or hidden charges added to bills without consumers’ knowledge, and says that the administration has “taken action to crack down on a range of these junk fees charged by airlines, internet providers, hotels, and apartment buildings.”
An additional reference to broadband internet service references the importance of IIJA’s provisions to expand affordable broadband for people with disabilities.
Climate policy
The party platform proposed to invest in clean energy research by launching an Advanced Research Projects Agency for Climate (ARPA-C) modeled after the defense research agency “that’s behind breakthrough technologies like the internet and GPS, and the new ARPA-H that the Administration created to transform medicine.”
This segment of the platform also highlights tax credit rebates for energy efficiency at home, standards that require federal projects to use low-carbon technologies, and tax credits for electric vehicles.
Privacy, artificial intelligence, no crypto
The platform includes extensive endorsement of the protecting Kids Online, strengthening Americans’ data privacy and promoting competition. And, in the section on artificial intelligence underscores, the platform reads:
During President Biden’s second term, Democrats will continue to advocate for the safe and secure development of AI. We will invest in the AI Safety Institute to create guidelines, tools, benchmarks, and best practices for evaluating dangerous capabilities and mitigating AI risk. We will also prioritize funding for critical AI research and development that advances AI safety.
The reference to Joe Biden’s “second term” highlights the platform’s creation and origin: It was produced in July at a time when Biden was still a candidate for president.
The document appears only to have been lightly re-edited in light of Vice President Kamala Harris’ new role as the party’s presidential candidate.
Sarah Oh Lam
The document makes no reference to blockchain or cryptocurrencies, which were topics of considerable discussion in the GOP platform.
