Federal Computer Week submitted questions to the campaign staffs of Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush asking for the candidates' views on federal information technology issues and policies and their visions for electronic government. Read their responses.

QUESTION 1. Would you appoint a federal IT czar?

AL GORE

As president, Al Gore would work with entrepreneurs to determine what policies would further strengthen the United States' position as the best place in the world to start and grow a high-tech business - such as an emphasis on entrepreneurial education, policies that promote the development of information technology, expanded access to capital markets and increased investment in new technology. He would not appoint an IT czar but would give a senior White House economic official the responsibility of promoting this entrepreneurial agenda within the administration.

GEORGE W. BUSH

If elected president, George W. Bush would issue an executive order designating a federal chief information officer at the Office of Management and Budget. The federal CIO would be responsible for providing the leadership and coordination needed to realize the vision of a truly digital and citizen-centric government. The CIO would head agency cross-functional councils on information technology, facilitate collaboration with state CIOs, and lead development of standards, protocols and privacy protections, among other things.

QUESTION 2. The federal government spends $38 billion on information technology every year, including nearly $2 billion for security. President Clinton is proposing a 15 percent increase in information technology security for 2001. Would you propose more, less or no change in overall spending?

AL GORE

In January, the administration launched the National Plan for Information Systems Protection, the first national strategy for protecting the nation's computer networks from deliberate attacks. This program supplements the 1997 Partnership for Critical Infrastructure Security, which was launched to promote cooperation between government and private-sector initiatives for cybersecurity. As president, Gore would continue to provide the funding necessary for the critical protection of information technology and work with the public/private initiative to maximize the effectiveness of IT security efforts.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Currently, Bush has an IT steering committee with more than 400 members. He draws on their expertise and depends on their advice and counsel as he considers the new range of issues that affect Texas and the United States now and in the coming century.

His e-government initiatives would require sufficient federal investment to meet the needs of enabling a more "citizen-centralized" government. He has seen - in states like Virginia, Pennsylvania and right here in Texas - the effectiveness of maintaining an electronic portal to government agencies. Citizens should have unlimited access to rules, regulations and services via the Web. Bush envisions parents receiving information on an Education Savings Account for their child, activists downloading the latest environmental regulations or an entrepreneur downloading data on export markets.

It would be the duty of the federal CIO to ensure that all security requirements are strictly enforced. In addition to other funding for security controls, Bush would expand the role of the CIO, who would oversee the allocation of Bush's $100 million fund to support interagency e-government initiatives. This fund would support interagency IT projects, initiatives to promote customization of services and systems integration.

Bush believes that IT security and citizen privacy are critical issues in this new era. A recently released General Accounting Office report indicates that 97 percent of federal Web sites failed to abide by the Federal Trade Commission's four basic privacy principles. This indicates gross negligence by the Clinton/Gore administration. Bush advocates tremendous investment and accountability in the security aspect of Internet technology. It is imperative that the privacy of individuals and corporations be respected as the digital marketplace expands.

Bush believes that all Americans should have absolute control over their personal information in the online as well as the off-line world. As governor, Bush has worked to protect the privacy and security of every Texan by signing legislation to ban identity theft, to safeguard genetic information and to protect driver's license information. In addition, his office has provided $800,000 to form an Internet Bureau Task Force to combat emerging cybercrimes, including online gambling, child pornography, stalking and fraud, while protecting Internet privacy issues. Finally, Texas is utilizing IT to enhance state government, to improve the lives of Texans, to bolster the public's trust in online government and to address important policy issues, such as access, privacy and security.

QUESTION 3. How would you close the digital divide? In government? In society? Between the United States and other NATO-member nations?

AL GORE

Gore believes that we must redouble our efforts to close the digital divide and create digital opportunity. Increasingly, access to IT and the skills needed to use it effectively are becoming essential to full participation in America's economic, political and social life. Unfortunately, low income, rural and minority families are still much less likely to have access to computers and the Internet. Gore would work to ensure that all Americans benefit from the Information Age.

He would launch a new crusade to make the Internet as universal as the telephone in every American household. As president, Gore would encourage public/private partnerships to bring affordable Internet access to the hardest-to-reach urban and rural communities. In April, he announced that the administration had allocated funding to enable America's one-millionth classroom to be connected to the Internet. Gore knows that technology is fueling the engine of our new economy and that by connecting all our children to the Internet, we will put a whole new world of knowledge and information at their fingertips.

Gore fought for the "E-rate" program to provide low-cost Internet access to the schools that serve our nation's most disadvantaged children. As president, he would make sure we finish connecting every classroom and library in America to the Internet, train all teachers to use technology effectively, expand access to modern computers and multimedia, and encourage the development of high-quality educational software and online resources.

As president, Gore would work with the private sector to establish a national network of Community Technology Centers in low-income neighborhoods, where people can learn how to use computers and the Internet. He would also work with private and community-based organizations to support the development of applications that would empower low-income families - such as adult literacy courseware that would allow low-income workers to compete for higher-wage jobs.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Closing the digital divide in our nation must begin in our nation's schools, and it must be paired with the fight to close the achievement gap. Bush believes that reading is the building block for success, and success in reading must be the foundation for education reform. That is why he would commit his administration to the ambitious goal of ensuring that every disadvantaged child can read by the third grade, with federal investments including the Reading First Initiative.

Through the Reading First Initiative, we would invest $5 billion over five years to conquer illiteracy among disadvantaged children. Once reading is mastered, Bush believes that our nation's children have a tremendous opportunity with the advancement of our new economy. At this point, it is critical that we ensure that all students have the tools they need to be successful in the technology era.

The real divide is in educational achievement, not just digital access. Focusing on the percentage or number of wired schools misses the point. Technology is a tool, and the goal must be improved student performance. To encourage the use of technology as a means to student achievement, Bush wants to enact a number of reforms, including a package of new initiatives totaling $400 million over five years.

To provide schools with maximum flexibility in the use of federal education technology funds to help close the achievement gap, as president, Bush would establish a $3 billion Enhancing Education through Technology Fund by consolidating the U.S. Federal Communication Commission's Schools and Libraries program with eight of the Education Department's technology programs. He would also free states and schools from federal regulations to allow maximum flexibility in using federal funds for such purposes as teacher training, software purchase and development, and system integration. And he would continue to give priority to rural schools and schools serving high percentages of low-income students.

However, Bush would not continue to accept poor results with federal money. With federal funding and local control would come accountability. If a program is found to be ineffective, it should be changed so that our nation's children receive the very best education possible. He would also promote a clearinghouse for information, which would provide educators with materials that have proven to be effective teaching resources.

In addition to providing schools with more information about the uses of technology for improving student performance, Bush would do two more things:

* Provide $65 million annually to the Education Department's Office of Education Research and Improvement for universities and other research institutions to conduct research on which methods of education technology boost student achievement.

* Provide $15 million annually to establish the Education and Technology Clearinghouse to make available to schools and states information on effective education technology programs, best practices and the latest research studies.

When it comes to the global digital gap, too often the federal government's export policies are arbitrary and irrational - overtaken by the very technology they attempt to regulate. Yesterday's supercomputer is today's laptop. Yet current rules don't take this into account. And there has been too little opportunity for America's high-tech exporters to make their case about what should be restricted and what should not.

As president, Bush would fix the export control system by developing a tough-minded, common-sense export control policy that significantly narrows the scope of restrictions on commercial products while building high walls around technologies of the highest sensitivity. He recognizes that our national security and commercial competitiveness - as well as global competition - have been compromised by a broken export control system.

Too often the system penalizes our high-tech companies by controlling technology that is widely available from other countries while failing to prevent unique technology from falling into dangerous hands. Moreover, controls often lag behind technological developments. And because the international regime for coordinating export controls was disbanded under the Clinton/Gore administration, the United States now frequently finds itself trying to single-handedly prevent diversion of sensitive technology. We need a sensible export policy - a policy that protects our national security - but we must also recognize that the competitiveness of our high-technology sector is itself a critical component of that security. Such a policy must consist of several key elements.

Bush also wants to develop a tough-minded, common-sense export control system that safeguards military technology while allowing American companies to sell technology that is readily available in the commercial market. First and foremost, we must strengthen America's intelligence and counterintelligence capabilities to staunch the theft of sensitive military technology at home and identify threats abroad before they arise.

Second, we must allow American companies to sell products in the international marketplace when those products are readily available from their foreign competitors. That means easing export controls on computers and encryption products that can already be purchased on the open market. At the same time, as the use of encryption programs increases, American law enforcement must always have the resources to stay ahead of the criminal use of that technology.

In addition, Bush supports bipartisan Senate legislation that reauthorizes the Export Administration Act (EAA) and allows companies to export products when those products are already readily available in foreign or mass markets.

Under the current system, controls are generally based on technical specifications (such as raw computing power) that consistently lag behind technological developments, resulting in unilateral U.S. restrictions on widely available technologies. Such restrictions needlessly penalize U.S. businesses while failing to strengthen our national security.

For those items not already available in foreign or mass markets - and therefore requiring a license - Bush would work to streamline and expedite the license approval and post-shipping reporting processes. This effort would recognize the brief nature of most product cycles for the limited number of high-tech products that require a license.

To further streamline the export review process, Bush would establish the president's Technology Export Council (PTEC), which would report regularly. PTEC's membership would include technology-sector representatives. It would meet regularly to monitor the implementation and operation of the EAA, with special attention to whether products are already available in mass or foreign markets.

The world is changing and so must the attitude of government. As president, Bush would work to lift barriers to innovation and fight efforts in the United States and overseas to impose new obstacles. One priority would be pursuing an international agenda that supports America's high-technology companies.

Finally, Bush understands that to be prosperous as a world economy, we Americans must embrace free trade. So he would fight to tear down the international barriers to innovation that have already been raised and work to ensure that new ones are not erected. Among other things, Bush would:

* Make the Internet a duty-free and tariff-free zone worldwide.

* Fight to tear down nontariff barriers to trade in information technology.

* Step up efforts to combat piracy of American ideas and intellectual property.

* Promote the development of internationally compatible standards for e-commerce.

In all these things, Bush is committed to encouraging and supporting solutions conceived, developed and led by industry itself, wherever possible. He also plans to establish a stable environment that encourages research and innovation without attempting to direct them. One key way to spur creativity is enacting a permanent tax credit for research and development. The R&D Experimentation Tax Credit would encourage long-term investment in research by high-technology companies and thereby strengthen America's technological leadership. It is time to get rid of the temporary on-again, off-again nature of this credit, which confuses and disrupts corporate planning. As president, Bush would lead Congress toward making the tax credit permanent. He has also proposed doubling the research budget of the National Institutes of Health.

QUESTION 4. Should more government IT jobs be outsourced?

AL GORE

Since he took office, Gore has led the way in reinventing government, making government more effective in its mission of service to the public. Under his leadership, the federal workforce has been cut by 377,000 workers, making it the smallest government since Dwight Eisenhower was president. This has been accomplished through cooperation and partnership.

As a percentage of the country's workforce, the federal government is the smallest it has been since the New Deal, and Gore knows that we must continue this progress while at the same time ensuring that government has the tools and expertise necessary to provide high-quality service.

He believes that when government work is contracted out to private companies, they should adhere to the same level of accountability as public agencies, and those arrangements must incorporate labor, safety, health, civil rights and other important safeguards. He would work to promote those standards while streamlining the federal government.

GEORGE W. BUSH

As chief executive of a government, Bush believes that elected leaders should always be looking for more cost-effective and innovative solutions to meeting the needs of citizens. As president, he would oversee a federal government that draws from the talents of government employees and the private sector to meet our IT challenge.

Governments don't create wealth. Americans create wealth - by creativity and enterprise and risk-taking. The great engine of wealth has been the human mind - creating value out of genius. The role of government is to create an environment in which businesses, entrepreneurs and families can flourish.

QUESTION 5. What do you plan to do about the shortage of trained IT workers? Would you propose raising IT workers' pay to help recruit and retain them?

AL GORE

To keep up with a fast-moving, fast-changing economy, workers must have the ability to continue learning and upgrading their skills for a lifetime. That is why Gore has focused on the next great frontier in American education: dramatically expanding opportunities for lifelong learning and worker training.

Today, many of our most advanced industries are facing shortages of the skilled workers they need. Gore has proposed expanding programs so that every adult who needs training to adapt to the new economy can get it - and can prosper from the technological change. He has also proposed the creation of a new 401(J) Job Training Account so that we can keep workers trained for a lifetime. Gore believes that no person should be denied a chance to succeed in the Information Age.

GEORGE W. BUSH

Bush has proposed an aggressive policy agenda to help our nation develop and maintain a workforce prepared to seize the opportunities of the high-technology economy. One important way to maintain the competitiveness of our high-technology companies is allowing them to recruit more workers with special skills through an increase in the current limit on H-1B visas.

Temporary highly skilled workers are admitted under H-1B visas, which in 1999 were limited to 115,000. The cap for this year has already been reached, creating a situation that could hurt high-tech industries that face a shortage of computer engineers, software programmers and technicians.

Also, as discussed earlier, Bush has a far-reaching plan to equip schools and educators with resources and tools to effectively teach our nation's children to be members of the new technological era. This will potentially provide millions of new, educated workers to fill the rapidly expanding core of high-tech jobs QUESTION 6. What is your vision for electronic government?

AL GORE

Gore has proposed creating an e-government where citizens are online not in line, thereby creating a government that is always open. By providing information and the ability to do business over the Net with government, the government can give the American people what they need when they need it, with fewer hassles, headaches and delays.

Gore's plan would put virtually every federal government service online by 2003. Under the Gore plan, Americans would be able to, for example, check the purity of their drinking water, find new job opportunities or determine the quality of nursing home care for an aging parent or other loved one. They will be able to apply for a Social Security number, ask to participate in a clinical medical trial or pay their student loan online. Under this proposal, a virtual government field office would be available to all Americans - 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at the convenience of the citizen.

The Gore plan would require agencies to put progress reports online so every American can see what has been achieved and where government has fallen short. This Interactive Town Square would empower Americans to respond with suggestions on what actions need to be taken to improve the effectiveness and quality of government services. Armed with this information, citizens would also be able to work directly with others who share the same interest, for example, in their neighborhood veterans health care clinic or in planning their community's disaster-preparation strategy.

Under the Gore plan, the government would save taxpayers tens of billions of dollars by letting all buyers compete for government business on the Internet in real-time auctions. In addition, the Gore plan would create a new online government auction site - G-Bay - to sell equipment the government no longer needs. The savings would be used to produce even greater efficiency, more savings and better services for taxpayers.

Finally, under Gore's plan, the federal government would work in partnership with the private sector to provide a free digital certificate to any citizen who wants to connect with the government online. Americans would be able to use this technology to gain information about their Social Security benefits, apply for a home loan or report a crime in their neighborhood, all while protecting their privacy. As president, Gore would protect Americans' privacy - because it must remain a fundamental right in the Information Age.

GEORGE W. BUSH

The explosive growth of the Internet has transformed the relationship between customers and businesses. It is also transforming the relationship between citizens and government. Bush believes that by enabling citizens to drill through the federal bureaucracy to directly access information and transact business, the Internet promises to shift power from a handful of leaders in Washington to individual citizens.

State and local governments are already demonstrating the effectiveness of the Internet in providing services to citizens. Here in Texas, a bilingual, e-government portal, combined with an electronic payment system, has been launched to provide individuals and businesses with a one-stop Internet portal for conducting transactions with state and local government.

Bush believes that providing access to information and services and making government more user- and citizen-friendly are just the first steps in e-government. In order to make government truly citizen-centered, individuals should be allowed to create their own personalized interface with government. This would require integration of government systems, the establishment of adequate security and privacy protections, and the use of secure and protected databases to send individuals information tailored to their specific needs and interests.

At the federal level, government is already spending considerable resources on e-government initiatives. But there is a need for greater leadership and coordination. The 1996 Clinger-Cohen Act mandated the appointment of 54 departmental and agency chief information officers and established a governmentwide CIO Council. But, according to the acting deputy CIO of the Defense Department, very few CIOs have operational responsibility, and very few have a role in the decision-making process or the budget process of an agency.

In addition, there is no one person or entity responsible for coordinating e-government activities. Finally, because the great majority of e-government appropriations are agency-specific, there is a lack of funding for e-government projects that cut across agencies, such as the systems integration needed to provide citizens with the ability to seamlessly navigate among programs and departments.

Therefore, to accelerate the implementation of citizen-centered e-government, as mentioned earlier, Bush would appoint a federal chief information officer. To reiterate, the federal CIO would be responsible for providing the leadership and coordination needed to realize the vision of a truly digital and citizen-centric government. The CIO would head agency cross-functional councils on information technology, facilitate collaboration with state CIOs and lead development of standards, protocols and privacy protections, among other things.

In addition, the CIO would control the allocation of the $100 million fund to support interagency e-government initiatives.