In 2001, Vice President Dick Cheney visited Dallas for Republican fundraising dinner. He was accompanied by Speaker Dennis Hastert, and then-majority leader Dick Armey of Texas. Prior to the dinner of 1,500, a reception took place for a smaller crowd of about 100 people. I had a short conversation with Mr. Cheney, and later with Dennis Hastert on a variety of issues concerning the Turkish-Americans and Turkey. One of the issued I raised with Mr. Hastert was our concern with regard to his earlier statement that he would aid the so-called Armenian Genocide resolution on the floor of the floor of the congress. Although, I was not able to get a response from him of any commitment in favor of Turks that night. Mr. Hastert later on, three years later surprised us all with an outstanding uproar defending Turkey and his decision of not to support any such resolutions so long as he was the Speaker. We, as Turkish-Americans, and especially as the Turkish-American leaderships, are nonpartisan. We work with and support any congressman whether he or she is a Democrat or a Republican, so long as they are friend of Turkey. Therefore for instance, out of the approximately 60 members of congress who are in the Turkish Caucus, the proportion of these parties are exactly the same.       DENNIS HASTERT AND ERCÜMENT KILIÇ Texas is an important state with regard to relations of Turkey and America. The state of Texas which is roughly the size of Turkey is the home of such sizable giants as BELL helicopters, BOEING, and L3COM who do business with Turkey. An irregular economic relation between Turkey and the United States effects these companies, therefore the employment levels of the state negatively, and would reflect negatively on a congressman in office running for a reelection. Therefore, it has not been surprising that roughly one-third of all the congressmen in the Turkish Caucus are from Texas. Below is the aforementioned declaration of Dennis Hastert declaring his opposition to the passage of the so-called Armenian Genocide Resolution, followed by my letter, thanking him on behalf of the Turkish-Americans.     LETTER OF APPRECIATION TO SPEAKER DENNIS HASTERT Dear Mr. Hastert, On behalf of nearly one million Turkish-Americans whom I represent, I would like to extend my deep gratitude for your statement of today expressing your strong opposition to the Schiff Amendment to the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill. As you have so eloquently and frequently indicated, this "meaningless" and "crafty" amendment is only an attempt on the part of the Armenian Diaspora, and its supporting members of the US Congress to make an issue of a non-issue. The US law does already prohibit foreign governments from using the foreign aid of US for lobby efforts, and this attempt is only for the game of political score keeping. I am proud to recognize you as a national leader and a great statesman whose sentiments are only those which serves simple common sense, and the best interests of our land, and are not motivated by pity politics and favoritism stemming from an election year expectations. Sincerely yours, Ercüment Kılıç President, ATAA