Aloha and thank you, Bob [Duvall, NCEE President] for giving me this special award and inviting me to speak today on the Excellence in Economic Education or EEE Act. Thank you also to Terry [McGraw, NCEE Chairman] for your remarks of welcome.

I would also like to acknowledge our energetic representatives from the Hawaii Council on Economic Education, Chairperson Jeanne Skog and Executive Director Kristine Castagnaro, who have really taken economic and financial literacy to new heights in my state and, I daresay, set Hawaii forth as a model in several ways for other parts of the country. I am pleased that some of their efforts have been directly assisted by the EEE, which I don't think needs much introduction because NCEE became the first national grantee -- congratulations, Bob, and others at the Council -- and many of you here today applied for and received subgrants from first-year funding.

For example, one EEE subgrant to Hawaii is funding the development of a pre- and post-test assessment tool that will allow the Council to measure the effectiveness of its courses and workshops. This is so very important in today's Federal budgeting climate, where programs must show results if they are to survive. Such an assessment will be able to show the differences that exist in student learning in the hands of teachers who have been trained to teach economics and those who have not received this training.

Another EEE subgrant helped to fund a calendar poster contest on basic economics concepts conducted among elementary school students in Hawaii. This calendar is wonderful to look at because of the creativity the students exhibited in conveying concepts such as opportunity cost, producers and consumers, and goods and services. For example, this poster for the month of August demonstrates scarcity by featuring four hungry sharks on the left and only one fat fish on the right. This may just seem cute to some, but those of us who have taught in the classroom know how it can be used as a fixed display on a classroom bulletin board and how important this type of student activity can be, particularly when the Hawaii Council paired it with lesson plans and guidance for teachers.

Yet another EEE subgrant to Hawaii is focusing on enriching curriculum through economics. This is done through a credit course at the University of Hawaii for elementary teachers that gives them ideas such as chocolate or Play-Doh economics, or ideas on how to deliver economic concepts through literature, such as Harry Potter. One of the wonderful things about some of the topics that will be taught is that several of them originated in other states and are shared best practices.

These examples of the good that the EEE is doing in Hawaii can be told several-fold in other states. It is heartening to see my vision for the program that I authored several years ago come to fruition. I was pleased to secure nearly $1.5 million for the EEE in each of the first two years of the program. However, in order to make the EEE more effective, it needs more of the Federal pie, not less.

This is why I was highly disappointed that the Bush Administration once again recommended the EEE for termination in the FY 2006 budget by including no funding for the program, even before we have seen the results of its first years. The EEE is in good company in the President's budget, zeroed out along with arts and civic education and programs such as Safe and Drug Free Schools, GEAR UP, and TRIO, but nonetheless, the point is that the EEE needs to be given time to work before it is recommended for termination.

I will be sending a joint letter to appropriators, asking that they support $3 million for the EEE in the FY 2006 process. I am looking for support again this year to help obtain signatures on this letter. It is vitally important that we have a good number of Senators on the letter, from both sides of the aisle, if we are to preserve and even increase EEE funding. If any Senator is interested, they should contact my office.

Once again, I am pleased to know that the EEE has moved ahead and is helping to advance our cause of decreasing economic and financial illiteracy in this country. There are so many other ways that we are working to do this from the Federal level, and I am pleased to see that some of these areas will be addressed later during today's Summit by others in the program, including my colleagues from the House. I wish that I had the time to stay for the entire Summit, because all of this is near and dear to my heart, but it seems I always need to be in two or even three places at one time. So again, mahalo nui loa to NCEE for giving me this opportunity to address you, and have a most productive day.