Clinton tech plan reads like Silicon Valley wish list

SAN FRANCISCO — If there was any lingering doubt as to tech’s favored presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton put an end to that Tuesday.

The presumptive Democratic nominee released a comprehensive tech plan that reads like a Silicon Valley wish list. It calls for connecting every U.S. household to high-speed Internet by 2020, reducing regulatory barriers and supporting Net neutrality rules, which ban Internet providers from blocking or slowing content.

It proposes investments in computer science and engineering education, expansion of 5G mobile data, making inexpensive Wi-Fi available at more airports and train stations, and attaching a green card to the diplomas of foreign-born students earning STEM degrees.

In short, the plan hits on nearly every big-ticket issue in tech, says Box CEO Aaron Levie, a Clinton supporter. “She did a great job of articulating and underscoring” issues affecting talent, patents, content, encryption and privacy, he says.

Campaign advisers have said other Clinton proposals, covering infrastructure and education, would help raise funds that would go toward paying for the technology agenda.

“No doubt, lots of good stuff included in Secretary Clinton’s tech agenda,” says Bobby Franklin, CEO of National Venture Capital Association. “If the details are as good as the blueprint, we would be very supportive of this type of agenda in a Hillary Clinton Administration.”

The 15-page treatise, announced by Clinton in Denver, was released several hours before she was to speak to digital content creators in Los Angeles on Tuesday.

The plan comes a day after political commentator and Uber board member Arianna Huffington, appearing on MSNBC, mentioned Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as possible vice presidential running mates for Clinton. (Benioff did not immediately reply to an email message seeking comment.)

Her presumed general election foe, Donald Trump, who has spent the past several months engaged in lambasting Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Apple’s Tim Cook, Airbnb’s Brian Chesky and other tech leaders on Twitter, has not published any tech policy proposals.