with that i will hand it over to the secretary of agriculture tom vilsack for some opening remarks toomach mr. chairman, thank you and it is certainly an honor to be here with all of the tribal leaders as well as my colleagues in the cabinet. we are very much committed to improving economic conditions in indian country. the u.s. department of agriculture has begun that process if you were with a down down payment this year investing over $660 million economic opportunities. that included $162 million in expanded housing opportunities. roughly $50 million in water and wastewater treatment plant improvements. another $40 million in business development into $3 million in expanding broadband access come in expanding electricity and $9 million in expanding broadband access. we continue that today with a series of announcements. we are announcing today under the 2501 program approximately $2 million in grants to the 12 organizations to expand outreach to encourage a better understanding of the program and over 5 million-dollar grant to new mexico in the tribes to expand broadband access an

representative dwayne alons floor managed the bill and we were able to put that bill on then-governor tom vilsack, a democrat's desk, where he signed the bill that established english as the official language of the state of iowa. that was a crowning achievement of much of the work we had done together. we also opposed the iowa supreme court's decision called varnom v. brean when the supreme court kind of magically, anonymously designeded in the ratification of our state constitution and their equivalent of the 14 amendment or the equal protection clause that they said marriage didn't necessarily have to be between a man and a woman. we were able to pass legislation earlier in 1998 that established that a marriage in iowa would be between one male and one female. representative alons definitely supported that. and when the judges decided they could rewrite iowa law without a legitimate, legal and logical constitutional basis, it was dwayne alons that stepped up to defend marriage between a man and a woman and he did so without apology. he did so without reservation. he did so because he always ac