A little more than a half-century ago President John F. Kennedy laid out a course of action that eventually led to the United States winning the first space race and landing men on the moon. It was an audacious plan that pitted the nation against its main geopolitical rival in a contest for technological supremacy. It was a race we eventually won as our economic might and technological acumen prevailed.

We are in another innovation race right now. The race to 5G isn’t accompanied by the soaring rhetoric and romantic notions that marked our journey to the moon, but it does position the United States against our major economic and technological rivals in a contest that could have more far-reaching effects than the race to the moon.

The Trump administration deserves credit for articulating a policy that aims to see America win the race to 5G. “[I]t is imperative that America be first in fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies — wireless technologies capable of meeting the high-capacity, low-latency, and high-speed requirements that can unleash innovation broadly across diverse sectors of the economy and the public sector,” the White House said in a recent memorandum.

But it’s important to recognize that support for 5G isn’t a party-line issue. Politics stop at the network’s edge, with tech-savvy lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agreeing that 5G is critical to future economic and societal success.