But we also have things like batteries out there, things that we really don't want to have sitting out there.

So when they hear me coming to them and saying, we have tribal energy programs, we have a way to help you, believe me, they are interested.

We are approaching April. This is the time of year we start hearing from our communities saying we have run out.

Fourteen percent, about 14 percent of households in Indian Country don't have electricity.

I happen to believe very strongly in Admiral Fagan's comments that this is an extraordinary return for American people.

Most Native communities in Alaska still are relying on diesel fuel and heating oil.

But when it is our own systems that effectively hold them back, that is not fair to anybody.

So you don't consider that outreach, do you?

But many of them are starting to feel like, is this a false promise? Is this a false promise here?

We have a responsibility to support the sovereignty of tribal nations in energy development.

In Alaska, again, with small tribes, it is complicated, but most utilities are also small and simply can't afford the match.

I want to underscore again using my State as an example, Alaska Native peoples as an example of why it is so imperative that we improve tribal energy development.

So as you are working to advance this program, please understand that the reason they are allowing consortia in NTIA and through IHS is because this is what works.

One of the challenges that we have in Alaska, just as it is difficult to get things in, you have to fly barrels of fuel in at the end of winter, it is equally difficult to get things out.

But I will tell you, none of that is any good to a place like Alaska where the electricity is unaffordable and the service is unreliable.

For far too long, we hear about these programs, we hear about the funding that we have put, outlined in legislation, in law with specific, specific set-asides for tribal interests.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Alaska is also a border state, a northern border state with extensive border