This is a computer system. It helps in the small business export assistance centers, helps our small businesses get on-line and figure out where the product that they make can be sold all around the world within existing markets.

And I would only emphasize that if the President really wants to make free trade one of his marks, in terms of developing our economy, he should not neglect that there are current markets already available that our current producers and manufacturers can export to if they only had the facility to export to.

And, as you know, so many small businesses do not have that backing that will help them find their markets overseas. I encourage you to make sure this is a part of whatever free trade agreement you work on because you have to take advantage more of existing trade as much as you have to expand trade overall.

And I want to add that that has worked very well in my state for our small businesses and would commend it. And I will get you some more information and certainly invite you up to Rhode Island to see how well it works in our state.

NOAA PROGRAMS

Finally, I just wanted to go through a couple things within NOAA. I know it is 60 some percent of your budget, it is a big part and it is important.

For my region of the country, the Sea Grant Program is vital. And I would encourage you to continue to support the Sea Grant Program in the future, which I know you do in this budget.

And also I would encourage the implementation of the Coastal Ocean Observing System, which will provide coastal managers, recreation and commercial fishermen, and shipping interests, as well as Coast Guard and recreational boaters, and offshore oil companies, and many other users more understanding of the ever changing ocean environment and how to manage within the ocean ecosystem. And so that Coastal Ocean Observing System is something I would also like to commend.

And in that regard of ocean issues, National Marine Fisheries Service is very important. This is obviously a contentious issue all around the country, as you know, and you will find out very shortly as Secretary of Commerce, when it comes to deciding what the livelihood of these fishermen will be in terms of what they can fish. We really need your personal involvement whenever those issues come up because people often feel like it is some bureaucrat who does not understand the local situation.

And that is where political involvement makes a difference in just helping to make the message clear and understandable to those whose both short-term interests and long-term interests will be served by a proper management of the fisheries.

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION/MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

And let me say finally, I wanted to just ask, and this is finally my question, what you are planning to do to work with the SBA in regards to the Minority Business Development Agency, which does a lot of work to help small, minority owned businesses?

Unfortunately, as I have learned in my state, SBA and Department of Commerce do not always work as well as they could other

wise. And I would just make a note to your staff, if you can work on that because of course, as you know, minorities and womenowned businesses are growing dramatically, as they should. We have the SBA, and we also have the Minority Business Development Agency. They need to work in concert with one another to be more effective, and I would encourage your effort in that regard.

NATIVE AMERICAN PROGRAMS

The Department of Commerce is critically important in these lower income areas, and I wanted to just commend you, from reading your bio, about what you have done with Native Americans.

I am the cofounder of the Native American Caucus, and when it comes to these under served areas and economically depressed areas, things like the Minority Business Development Agency, SBA, and EDA are critical.

The work that EDA does on the Reservations is critical, particularly those most impoverished ones. We know three of the five poorest counties in this country are Native American Reservations. Most of America does not know that, aside from the well-known examples of prosperity on Native American Reservations that come from gaming, most Tribes still are in desperate situations.

And, as you know, Mr. Secretary, from working with them and your own philanthropic efforts through Natavision, a lot of these Tribes cannot take advantage of bonding authority because they do not have the same governmental authority for economic development.

That is why EDA provides an important component to their economic development. And I would only encourage you to try to make sure EDA money goes to those Tribes that need it most, and that we give those Tribes more tools to borrow and make those plans for their own benefits.

So, I wanted to max out on my available time by giving you all my thoughts on every issue practically that comes before you.

But you can comment or just say ah ha, whatever you prefer to do.

Secretary EVANS. I would like to comment. Can I comment?

Mr. WOLF. Absolutely. We have no five-minute rule, so you can take as much time as you want.

FREE TRADE

Secretary EVANS. Okay. Yeah, I would like to respond to more than just your question.

On trade, I just want to share with you that at the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City where there were 34 elected leaders of democratic countries in this hemisphere, the thing that I was most moved about, one, was being there with 34 democraticallyelected leaders in this hemisphere. It was just certainly very moving.

And then to look at the size of these countries and look at the poverty in these countries, to look at the per capita income in these countries, and then listen to these leaders say that their best hope for bringing their countries out of this poverty was through free trade.

When I looked at some of these smaller countries, first looked at America, and looked at the wealth of America, and looked at the per capita income of America, and then went down into the smaller countries and found, not $29,000 per capita income or gross domestic product, but found $1,200, found $700, found $500 per capita income in a country, and their democratic leader is saying that, look, our best hope to get our country out of poverty and put floors in our homes is through trade.

I share your view wholeheartedly, in terms of a level playing field being very important. I mean we all ought to play by the same rules. It is not going to happen overnight. It is not realistic to think it will happen overnight.

But capital will continue to flow where there is a friendly kind of environment where it can get a rate of return that is acceptable. But having said that, we still have to all play by the same rules. And if I am an American worker, which I have been, I have worked in a steel mill before, I worked on a drilling rig, I know that if I was working on the steel mill floor in this country, and I thought that somebody in some other country was getting a better deal than I was, I would not like it.

And so I think it is very important to stay with the consistent principle of making sure there is a level playing field. But when I saw the hearts and souls of these leaders throughout the Western Hemisphere say that the best hope for bringing their country out of poverty, and improving the quality of life in every kind of way, not just in a material kind of way, in every kind of way, the best hope was through trade, that moved me.

SMALL BUSINESSES

Your comment about small businesses, I could not agree with you more. I do not know if we have got the secret weapon of all secret weapons in government but I have to tell you, the Foreign Commercial Services has a terrific team of people.

Now are we really utilizing this team of people to its fullest extent? I am not sure we are. I must admit to you that it discourages me that you think you have got a better system in your state, in terms of alerting your small businesses where markets are, than what we have.

I mean, that is what we do. That is what Foreign Commercial Service does. It helps small businesses, medium-sized businesses find markets, existing markets that are already there. It just makes sure that the small business is aware that they are there, and then opens the door for them.

So, if there are better systems out there in this country facilitating that, then we ought to know about it and we ought to be participating in it.

I just got back from California. I saw our Foreign Commercial Service Officers from the Asian Pacific region and the enthusiasm they had, the excitement they had for markets that were opening up in that area, that was inspiring to me.

What I want to know is that, they are getting the job done and the small business community is aware that they are there, how to access them, and how to utilize that very important resource that is available to small business.

I hope that I make very few speeches while I am here that do not mention small business. I hope most of my speeches mention it.

When you look at this economy and the strength of this economy, it is found in the small businesses, period. I mean all the data supports that, that is not complicated.

I once ran a small business and so I think it is very, very important to stay focused on small business in America. I want them to know, as we are moving through globalization, that they can participate in that, they should be participating in that.

The Commerce Department has got the Foreign Commercial Service. That is what they do. We have offices all over America, all around the world, and their responsibility, their mission, is to find markets for small businesses. So if there are ways to improve it, we want to improve it.

When it comes to minority business development, we are talking to, cooperating with, and working with the SBA.

I was presented with a program yesterday. I believe we are having a national conference in September, that we are going to hold in conjunction with the SBA.

MINORITY BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AGENCY

I hope you are there. I hope you come speak there. I am excited about it. I think that I am certainly enthused about the leadership that we have now in the Minority Business Development Agency. I am a little bit confused as to why the budget has been cut so dramatically over the last 20 years. We have taken what was a $100 million budget, and turned it into a $28 million budget.

You take, inflation eating away at that. I mean, though I am not sure it is because we were not delivering, or whether we lost our mission-I am not sure what we did. Let me say it this way. I think it is very important that the minority community participate in the American Dream, participate in capitalism, participate in the free enterprise system, and I think that we ought to have ways of helping them participate, and understand how to participate.

And you know, that is all part of what Minority Business Development's supposed to be doing. That is an area where we increased our budget request this year, we increased it $750,000 to expand a Phoenix Database system in place that helps match minority businesses with opportunities that are available in the marketplace.

I hope that this matching system will improve the participation of minority businesses.

So anyway, we are in agreement, and yes, the Native Americans have been a big part of my life.

I have spent a lot of time on the Reservations. I have seen the poverty, I felt the poverty, I have been active, as you have, trying to do things to make their life better, improve their quality of life, and I will continue to do that. EDA does have some very useful programs that have served some of the Native American Reservations, and they will continue to do that.

Mr. KENNEDY. I look forward to working with you on that, and maybe traveling with you at some point to some of our Reservations and talk about how the Commerce Department can be more

helpful, and how it is being helpful to Native American communities that need the help.

Secretary EVANS. Good. Thank you, Congressman.

Mr. KENNEDY. Thank you.

Mr. WOLF. Mr. Vitter.

Mr. VITTER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Secretary, and thanks for being here.

Secretary EVANS. You bet, Congressman.

NAUTICAL CHARTING

Mr. VITTER. I am from southeast Louisiana, so I represent a coastal area and also an area that is a maritime center.

For both of those reasons, NOAA is extremely important to all sorts of folks in my neck of the woods. I am very concerned that, because of inadequate nautical-chart surveys and electronic charts and increasing draft of vessels, we are going to have another Exxon-Valdez-like incident in the next ten years.

I am very concerned that we are just not anywhere near a pace to improve our nautical charts the way we need to.

Right now NOAA is focused on what it calls the most critical areas. That is 1.3 percent of all the areas it needs to chart, the most critical areas, and at our current pace that will take 20 years. So 20 years to do 1.3 percent, admittedly the most critical, but there are other important areas that are even beyond that timeframe in the remaining 98.7 percent of necessary areas to chart.

I want to suggest two ideas to you rather than just more money, which is an easy answer but we all have budget constraints which I certainly support the notion of reasonable budget constraints, but I think we can use whatever money we have more effectively with new business models:

Number one, more private contractor surveys; and,

Number two, long-term time charters with contractor-owned and -operated survey ships.

So I want to specifically suggest those two newer, more innovative business models for NOAA. I think they can help do a lot of things: Eliminate capital costs for NOAA when you are talking about ships; effect great cost savings over the lifetime of a charter in terms of a vessel that is doing the charting; offer fleet modernization; expand survey capability to a full 360 days; and free NOAA hydrographers to focus on their core responsibilities.

I guess my question is if you have any particular reaction or comment to those two specific ideas:

Number one, more private-contractor surveys.

And number two, long-term time-charters with contractor-owned and -operated survey ships.

MAPPING AND CHARTING

Secretary EVANS. Congressman, I know it is a serious issue that we are focused on from what I am understanding. You are right. Our maps are old. They need to be updated.

I know that we, in our budget this year, have allocated $107 million for navigation-related issues.