Dear friends, good evening. I am honored to receive the Adam Smith Medal of Distinction from the National Council on Economic Education. I would like to thank everyone at the National Council, especially President Bob Duvall, Economics International Vice President Patty Elder, and NCEE's Washington, DC, representative Ellin Nolan--they have worked tirelessly in building support for my bill, S. 1487, the Excellence in Economic Education Act.

I would also like to thank John Knox and Gail Tamaribuchi of the Hawaii Council on Economic Education. Both of them came a long way tonight to help make this award presentation a special one. I only regret that because of my schedule, I am unable to accept the award in person.

This award takes on special significance because the National Council is celebrating a very important event in its history–its 50th Anniversary. It takes a tremendous amount of commitment to stay around for five decades, along with hard work and innovation to keep up with changes of the times. The National Council has done well to understand the needs of students, teachers, and schools in the area of economic literacy, and this is reflected by the strength of its national network and international program today. I wish you all the best in building on this solid record over the next 50 years.

The Hawaii Council on Economic Education, based at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, is an excellent example of the components that make up the National Council's nationwide network. The Hawaii Council provides a good model for how active a small council can become. I thank John and Gail for the work they do in reaching students and teachers alike on the importance of economic literacy.

I also commend all of you for carrying out similar efforts in other States in the Nation. Part and parcel of these efforts have been the letters, faxes, e-mails and the like, from all of you to Senators and Members of Congress, requesting that they support S. 1487. These efforts must continue so that we can reinforce the Federal responsibility to shoring up economic education.

Please continue to emphasize the importance of S. 1487 and economic literacy overall to elected lawmakers and education leaders in your states, so that we may advance our effort. We must continue to work to improve the education of our nation's young people in basic economic principles, so that they may become more responsible workers, parents, caretakers of older generations, voters, and American citizens.

Thank you very much, or mahalo nui loa.