By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 27, 2004; Page A04

ALBUQUERQUE, March 26 -- President Bush, who is gradually retooling his economic message to compensate for a stagnant job market, set a national goal Friday of making high-speed Internet access available to every home within three years.

Bush has not publicly addressed the question of broadband Internet access since August 2002.

His statement was grafted onto a speech about homeownership shortly after his opponent, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), released an economic plan that called for "spurring the growth of new industries like the broadband technology that will dominate the future."

Presidential advisers said that Bush will put an increasing emphasis in coming days on the changing economy and that the target date for broadband access was an early part of that effort. Republican lawmakers have been pressuring his campaign to come up with a stronger economic message to counter Kerry's focus on the2.2 million jobs that have been lost during Bush's presidency.

The presidential endorsement of "universal, affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007" was applauded by the technology and telecommunications industries, which have lobbied for a specific deadline to give them more leverage as they seek tax and regulatory breaks from Congress and the Federal Communications Commission.

"Broadband" refers to Internet access that is faster than dial-up, and it is typically provided through telephone or cable lines. The additional access would mainly benefit rural areas, because most of the country already has the service available.

Bush spoke only of the availability of the service and did not say how many households could actually tap into it. He also did not propose tax credits or other ways to make the service available to poor households, a move that has been pushed by activists who complain about an "economic digital divide" between people who have access to the latest technology and those who do not.

"This country needs a national goal for broadband technology, for the spread of broadband technology," Bush said, speaking in the sunny courtyard of a Pueblo-style 4-H complex at the New Mexico State Fairgrounds. "Then we ought to make sure as soon as possible thereafter, consumers have got plenty of choices when it comes to purchasing the broadband carrier. See, the more choices there are, the more the price will go down."

Bush added that Congress "must not tax access to broadband technology if we want to spread it around." A moratorium on taxing access to the Internet expired late last year, and congressional negotiations over a renewal are hung up by a battle over how much of the telecommunications infrastructure for Internet service should be tax-exempt.

A six-point plan for job creation that Bush talks about in nearly every speech focuses on tax cuts, lawsuit reform and deregulation. He previously has said little about making technology more widely available. The last time he spoke publicly about broadband access was at an economic forum he held in Waco, Tex., two summers ago.

Bush's aides said that in addition to talking about the changing economy as a way of explaining why jobs are being lost amid productivity gains, the president also will focus more heavily on the many economic indicators that suggest a recovery is underway. That was why, before the broadband message was tacked on, Bush's day was designed to highlight the nation's homeownership rate -- which at 68 percent is the highest in history.

"The housing industry is booming," Bush said at a carpenters union training center in Phoenix, his second stop of the day. "Inflation is low. Interest rates are low. Manufacturing activity is up."

Bush spoke Friday in two Sun Belt states that both campaigns believe will be in play and where the Hispanic vote will be critical. He flew first to New Mexico, which he lost in 2000 by fewer than 400 votes, where he appeared with Lori Benavidez, a new homeowner selected by the White House. The mother of two had been living in government-subsidized housing but closed on a three-bedroom townhouse in November.

"I don't know if you saw Lori," said Bush, who spoke without a tie and with his sleeves rolled up. "She had a tear in her eye when I introduced her because of the thrill of owning her own home."

Afterward, Bush went to Arizona, a state that he won by 6 percentage points in 2000 but where he could be vulnerable and is advertising heavily. At the carpentry training building, Bush used a screw gun to help hang drywall and then spoke on a set that consisted of a framed house with two signs saying "A Home of Your Own."

But Douglas J. McCarron, general president of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, wanted to talk about something else: "You'll hear from advisers and pundits, but speaking for the carpenters union, let me tell you the most important issue for us is jobs." Bush responded: "The most important issue for me is jobs."

In touting the record level of homeownership, Bush was piggybacking off a success of President Bill Clinton, who set that goal in 1994 and achieved it in 1997, partly because of low interest rates brought on by deficit reduction. Bush will stay at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., until Monday.

Staff writer Jonathan Krim in Washington contributed to this report.