Indian country but also an issue for all of rural america. Its why i included in my opening remarks the fact that we in 2014 established nearly 10 million of contribution toward expanded Broadband Access. We have completed the rule making process to institute and implement the new farm bill provisions you referred to. Thats now putting us in a position to begin making decisions about where resources go. We announced today the project in mexico which is the first project under the substantially Underserved Trust Area provisions of a previous farm bill. Thats 5. 5 million that will be committed to expanded Broadband Access in new mexico. We are very much committed to this. I would say that there are two specific ways that you can address the issue. One is through our normal program, Distance Learning telemedicine program. Now with the new farm bill rules well certainly be prioritizing areas that are most in need. Working with the fcc to make sure that they put pressure on Telecommunications Companies to understand their responsibility not just to put broadband in highly Populated Areas but also not to leave anyone behind in terms of the 21st century infrastructure. Secondly, i made reference to the cobank Infrastructure Program which we announced in july. Thats 10 10 billion. Theyre working with projects working with capital Peak Asset Management company to identify projects that they can invest in and partner in. I would urge folks to take a look at that 10 billion Infrastructure Fund which is apart from usda and alsoous try to buy down the costs of those programs. Thank you. Our next question, please. Good morning. I am with the prairie band of potawatami nation out of kansas. I think it is clear to everybody here that the future of our tribal nations lies with our youth. We also know that tribal children are disproportionately and negatively affected by teen suicide, drug use, Domestic Violence and High School Dropout rates. At the prairie band potawatami, our boys and girls clubs work hard to reach out to tribal youth and give them opportunities that will help them succeed in school and in life but we need more. Kids today are the innovators for tomorrows business. We hear that Millennials Want to be entrepreneurs and develop innovative startups. The talent is there but it needs to be nurtured and skills need to be cultivated. The desire to succeed is there in our youth but we need to make sure they see a path to success. We need dedicated funds and solid programs to help train encourage and empower our tribal youth to be the steve jobs of tomorrow. And i believe that the next steve jobs can be a native youth given the right foundation. This will not only benefit our youth, but it will also boost reservation and local economies and strengthen our nations as well. I would ask, how do you envision your agency increasing outreach and funding to help tribal youth be competitive and successful players in an increasingly global marketplace . I would probably start with you miss contrerassweet. Im delighted to take that question. I can share with you first wed be delighted to expand on the program which we have which we call Small Business and innovation research, it is designated just to promulgating and promoting innovation. What ive done is ive launched a program just for our youth and i was just recently at Prince Georges Community College where i was able to announce this program thats dedicated just to our underserved youth. We have a little lever over Financial Institutions in that we designate them as preferred lenders. So i thought well whats the point of having that if theyre not engaged in the things that we need them to do. So we reached out to them and asked them to help us develop a toolkit just for our young people so they can learn more about entrepreneurship. So were launching that very very soon. I think that youll be hearing about it. So thats one initiative. The second thing that i wanted to share with you is that what we do across the country is we incubate the incubaters. Which is that we give out grants to incube baitaters that are there to help people think about their innovation, their idea, help them go from startup to scale up. Wed be delighted to host a special session if you wanted us to or we can do something across the country to help young people understand what were doing in this regard. Because were seeing great success. I mean the youth really are the future and they think about innovation in very new and different ways. So im delighted to sit down with you and work on that further. Thank you madam chair. Next tribal leader. Good morning. Welcome to the Economic Development panel. My question is, the tribes need to be able to explore and expand Economic Development and opportunities outside of gaming. In order to do that, we need the support of the federal agencies to enable us to do this instead of hampering our efforts. One example is right now we have a hydroproject that weve gotten grants through department of interior, but at the same time were having to deal with bor, okay ses access to the site just getting soil samples. Were having a hard time with bureau of rek. Right now the hydroproject which i hear is a priority of this administration, but at the same time its being pushed back by federal agencies. So Economic Development. Another one is drilling of oil and gas on indian land. It costs 6,000 per well on indian well. And in states it costs us 50 to drill. 6,000 on indian land. Were saying indian lands arent public lands. Thats the way bln has viewed it. For example, ten wells on a reservation would cost 60,000, whereas in a state it would cost 500. Im just asking that federal agencies instead of hampering our efforts, think of ways to support our efforts in Economic Development and maybe an initiative that you have available. I think a lot of tribes in here, probably first time weve heard some of your initiatives. So a task force on Economic Development where all tribes understand your initiatives, whether it be the Small Business administration, usda, housing transportation, or any other agency to sit together with Indian Tribes and to discuss all of your opportunities youre sharing with us. Because right now a lot of tribes depend on gaming but we need to look at ways to expand our opportunities in Economic Development. Thats one of the reasons why we announced 2 million in our 2501 program to encourage organizations to do a better job of working with tribal leaders to get the word out about the various programs. For example, sba mentioned a program of waiving fees on smaller loans. What weve decided to do is create a small loan program, a microloan program, for agricultural producers. Up to 50,000. Very low interest rate. Long term. Very little security required. It is a Great Program that we obviously need to get the word out to make sure that folks are aware of it. So the 2501 program is one way of getting that. We had a made in native america conference recently which was another opportunity for us to get the word out but thats a very good comment, the need for us to get more outreach. Well, thank you very much. Our time is up. Like i said in my opening comments, there was never a Marshall Plan for Indian Country. These leaders out here in front of you they represent individuals that still have some of the highest unemployment rates of any group in the nation. They have the lowest annual income producers of any group in the nation. So i like what chairman old coyote said, to create a task force to come up with what i called the obama plan for Economic Development in Indian Country where that could be part of his legacy Going Forward. So once again, lets give our panel here a hand for joining us today. Thank you very much. In anticipation of the 114th Congress Meeting for the first time today heres a brief tour of the house chamber. This was part of a 2006 documentary that cspan aired titled the capitol which gave viewers an indepth look at the building and its history. There is the cornucopia next to the clock a traditional american symbol of abundance of course, one of the fruits of liberty. Theres stars. Of course, the new star in the firmament of the United States. Of course were familiar with the stars and stripes. We always think of stars in america. There are lots of other things. There these little rods were bound together in ancient rome, little rods that individually could snap. Sort of like a reid. But put them together and they are awfully strong. They are a symbol of the republic of government in which the people ruled. So those are there, too. Youre in the chamber and raise your eyes up. You see this wonderful silhouette almost of an eagle with its wings spread. Its up there in the sky and its rather like a sky light, although it is covered from behind. Its not open to the heavens. But it is a wonderful eagle. The thing that i love most about it is the sense that spreading its wings over the day to day work of the congress are great aspirations as seen in our great symbols of the nation, foremost among them is of course the american bald eagle. When congress is in session, the mace is also there. I love seeing the mace. Its been there since 1841. It too is a bundle of ebony rods topped by a terrific silver globe with an eagle standing on top of it. I think traditions are important because when you forget about the traditions you forget about the flavor of this place. Every time i see the speaker of the british house of commons, i accuse him because in 1814 when the british burnt the capitol down, they also stole our mace. You read the stories of former speakers, when this place really got rowdy or people got out of hand or there was a fight on the floor, you had to present the mace. So it is a symbol of what this country has vested in the congress, the power of congress, the power of the people coming together and getting things done. The Funeral Service for former new york governor mario cuomo takes place today at st. Ignatius Loyola Church in new york city. He was new yorks 52nd governor winning election in 1982 then going on to serve three consecutive terms. He died last week at the age of 82. Well have live coverage when that funeral gets under way here on cspan3 starting at 11 00 eastern. You can watch as Congress Begins its new session today at noon eastern with the house live on cspan and the senate live on cspan2. Well also have live coverage here on cspan3 with the ceremonial swearing in of members. That begins at 1 00 p. M. Eastern in the Old Senate Chamber with Vice President biden and incoming senators. Thats followed at 3 00 by the ceremonial swearing in of house members. One of the members well see today is republican congressman dave brat of virginia. He defeated House Majority leader eric cantor in the 2014 republican primary. He recently talked about his Campaign Strategy and the republican agenda in congress at an event hosted by the clear boothe luce policy institute. This is 40 minutes. Good afternoon, everyone. Im Michelle Easton from the Claire Boothe luce policy institute. I want to first give a special thanks to our cohost for this monthly event. Heritage today is represented by laura truman, whos the director of strategic operations for heritage. And i want to thank each of you for joining us today. Those of you watching on cspan all over america and all over the world. I want to welcome you to the special december edition of the conservative womens network. As most of you know, cwn usually features top women speakers in the conservative movement. But every december, it is our tradition to feature a special gentleman speaker and this year were so pleased to have david brat, the new United States congressman from virginia. As many of you know, congressman brat defeated former majority leader eric cantor in the primary last summer for virginias 7th congressional district. He was sworn in last month and hell be bringing some much needed economic expertise to the National Policy discussions. Congressman brat is a product of the rural midwest and has long believed in the values of faith, family and a strong work ethic. He obtained a masters in divinity from Princeton Theological Seminary and then earned a ph. D in economics from american university. In 1996, he began teaching economics and ethics at virginias Randolph Macon college where he clard the chaired the economics and Business Department for years. He served the commonwealth of virginia in a number of capacities also. Department for years. He served the commonwealth of virginia in a number of capacities also. He served two governors on the joint advisories panel. His peers elected him as president of the Virginia Association economist and the governor also appointed him to the virginia board of accountant accountancy. A man of deep faith, david attends Catholic Church with his wife, laura, and his two children. Please join me in welcoming congressman david brat. Thank you all for having me, that was a nice introduction, saving my throat a little bit. We have had an exciting week. You all have been following the news. Ill get to that after i frame some of my biography and the background as to how i got to where i am. Ill kind of break it up into a few pieces my biography, then kind of my run for office. Then where we are at today with republicans and the votes that are coming up that just occurred yesterday and in the week prior, but thank you all very much for having me, its an honor to be here at heritage, i have been a long time follower of heritage and its great to be with you all today. First of all, my biography is well captured there, and over the last ten months of campaigning ive started my stump speeches try that. Ten months of campaigning. Ten months stump speeches i basically opened it up and said how would you like to spend someone to congress to bring both economics and ethics up to d. C. And that combination of economics and ethics hits a nerve in the country right now because people do get a sense that were on the wrong track. When we knock doors thats about all we had to say, are we on the right track or are we on the wrong track. Every household in the seventh district were off track. I combined those two themes over a lifetime. I went to hope college in holland, michigan. Then went to work at ar then andersen in detroit in chicago for a little bit in business. Then felt the call went to seminary. I was going to teach systematic theology. A large part of that is ethics fits in there philosophically. That was my goal. And while i was in seminary, i came down here to wesley seminary for a political semester and there was a guy writing on economics and ethics in one book. I got very interested in that and sometimes that happens on the left and that term justice is a tricky one, its got a long pedigree, but its been shaped to end up kind of in the leftist tradition, or the leftist moral descriptions lately and i think it has a longer pedigree that fits in the judeochristian tradition. So i pursued those themes in seminary and then went on from wesley, right up to american university, i said hey i want to pursue these even further through a ph. D in economics. American was a great fit. You can go to interesting talks by world class people across the board every night. And so pursued that through my ph. D. Then i was lucky enough to apply and find a great job down in Richmond Virginia in ashland. We call itle center of the universe actually. Its very small little town in hanover which is a county very friendly to me. This would have been my 19th year teaching economics and ethics. I was the chair of the econ and Business Department but i also chaired the ethics minor for a new years. John allen over at cato helped mean build a program in the moral foundations of capitalism. So that kind of puts the two together in the same way. Then i got a chance to work in the General Assembly for about the last eight or nine years in virginia politics, got to know a lot of how the political system works and then just wasnt happy with some of the things that were going down in my area, in the 7th district. So i put my hand in and the people thought it was good to send an economist up to d. C. So that, in short, is kind of the biography and who i am and why i ran. But ill get a little bit more specific now, when i ran in virginia, i ran on the Virginia Republican creed. How many virginians in here . Oh really. Very good. How many of you know the Virginia Republican creed. Its not perfect but its good. Ill go over with it you. [ inaudible ] very good, okay, good, thats what im going to get at today, very good. Let me go over that creed with you a little bit. Starts off, the first is most important to me, adherence to the free market system, because t