Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks in strong opposition to the farm bill rule and the underlying bill because it takes food and nutrition from working families.

Mr. Speaker, a parliamentary inquiry.

Mr. Speaker, will not this day go down as one of the most shameful days in American history?

Thank you very much, Chairman Peterson.

Mr. Speaker, ladies and gentlemen of the House, what we have here is not a farm bill. You tell me how in the world we can have a farm bill and separate food and nutrition out from it. The American people don't get that. When you think of farms and you think of agriculture, do you mean to tell me it isn't about food?

Here we have made this critical, terrible mistake of divorcing, of segregating, of separating the most basic essential of farm policy, which is to produce the food and the nutrition for the people of America. This isn't just about food stamps, although we are here because the Republican Party, my friends--and I have many over there-- have been hijacked to turn a bipartisan effort to deal with the complexity, the vulgarity, where 38 States in this Nation their primary part of their economy is agriculture, is business.

My members on the Agriculture Committee, we have a broad mandate. We should be the most powerful committee up here. We not only deal with food, we not only deal with agriculture, we deal with fuel going our way up to energy independence. We are dealing with the heavy finance of $600 trillion in derivatives. But this makes us look small.

To bring a bill and call it a farm bill and it has nothing to do with food--and it's so hypocritical, my friends. You've seen the news reports. The American people have seen the news reports, where we have Members who are accepting millions of dollars in subsidies and will be voting against poor people who need the food to eat.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran).

I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me just correct one thing. The Goodlatte-Scott amendment has a very robust safety net program in it. As a matter of fact, it's the same safety net program that is in the bill itself.

Let me make one other point right quick, Mr. Chairman. With the recent study by Professor Scott Brown, the University of Missouri put in a study that showed if this plan in this bill, this management supply bill, goes into effect, in the first month alone, school lunch program costs will go up $14 million, and the price of a gallon of milk will go up 32 cents.

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Lee).

Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentlewoman from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).

I now yield 1 minute to the distinguished lady from Florida, Ms. Corrine Brown.

Mr. Chairman, I claim time in opposition.

Mr. Chairman, this is one of the most terrible amendments that has ever been brought before this House of Representatives. It goes against the very grain of what America is about.

I don't care if you're rich. I don't care if you're poor. I don't care if you're in the service. I don't care if you have to have SNAP. You are an American. And Americans today if they're tired of one thing, they're tired of the government prying into their lives under surveillance that's happening right now on the 6 o'clock news, in our major papers. The one thing is the mistrust of a government- surveillance program. This has everything to do with surveillance. That's exactly what it is. It's a food surveillance program from my good friend, Mr. Tom Marino.

What this will do--you tell me if it isn't--it will require retail food stores to monitor, to put in a surveillance system, to collect and report back to the Secretary of Agriculture detailed information that identifies what food items, what type, what size of purchase by those who are on SNAP.

This isn't about SNAP. You've gone into the grocery stores. Everybody goes into that grocery store as an American to purchase, to buy the food, the basic things that he needs to survive. You can't put surveillance on the SNAP person without putting surveillance on every American that goes into that store. How asinine such an amendment this is in this eagerness of this declaring of war on SNAP recipients.

We are declaring a war on the soul of America itself. And I don't care if you're liberal; I don't care if you're moderate or you are conservative. Every American ought to be concerned about this. You're not going to be able to put a surveillance program over what the SNAP folks get without putting a surveillance program over all Americans. Just think about how big our system is, and the statistics bear it out. Right now, there are 460,000 different items on the market shelves. There are 15,000 new ones going on every year. What's going to happen there?

And for the consumers, there's going to be a cost. Yes, there's going to be a cost. These retailers don't go and print money and make it. Do you know who is going to pay for the cost of this surveillance program that is unneeded? It's going to be the customers.

And so, ladies and gentlemen, and with all due respect to the gentleman, let us ease this war against the poorest who are among us. I remind everybody every day that the fastest growing group of recipients who are receiving benefits from food stamps are our veterans, the very ones who've gone and put their lives on the line, who come back maimed, that have to depend on food stamps, who went and fought overseas so we could be free from surveillance, and here's an amendment that wants to put surveillance on them.

Let's look at this and see it for what it is. It is an awful surveillance program. And I have respect for the gentleman, but this amendment is totally misguided and does great damage to the heart and the soul of this Nation, because you cannot discriminate going into those grocery stores against the poor recipient of SNAP without discriminating and taking away the freedoms of every single American.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Madam Chairman, I rise to claim time in opposition.

Madam Chairman, I yield myself 2 minutes.

First of all, this is, a very dangerous, dangerous amendment. I am a member of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. I am also the vice chairman of the Science and Technology Committee of NATO. I have been a member of NATO for 11 years. That means I get to travel across the world two or three times each year into this region. I can tell you firsthand that this is a dangerous amendment, it is very dangerous at this time.

Now, you have mentioned about some of our NATO colleagues. And yes, we are having a challenge. Each nation is going through economic challenges. But let me tell you, they are increasing their input and their financial resources each year.

One thing is for certain: the wrong message that we should send to them now and to encourage them to contribute more is for us to cut and run and contribute less, and that's exactly what this amendment that you are offering will do.

The other point as to why it is dangerous is that we would sit here in Congress and force the hand of President Obama--or, for that matter, of any President or future President--to publicly state that he is going to remove a contingent of a brigade like the 2nd Cavalry Regiment in Vilseck, Germany, and then return that brigade to the United States and not put anything in its place. Europe and the Mediterranean and the Middle East--there is no more volatile, unpredictable place on this planet. At the same time, there is no place on this planet that we have the strength of alliances as we have here.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Will the gentleman yield 10 seconds?

Even today, yes, you are absolutely right; but what did they do in Europe when we asked them to stand with us in Afghanistan? They stood with us. What did they do when we asked in Iraq? All I am simply saying is that we have an obligation today and in the future.

I yield 2 minutes to my dear friend, the gentleman from Ohio, Mr. Mike Turner.

Madam Chair, how much time do I have remaining?

I would like to say this very quickly.

How things have changed. Messages that go out from this floor go out around the world. As we speak, just at our most recent NATO meeting, we were able to get 27 nations out of the 28 nations of NATO to pass a resolution supporting the United States' and Israel's position against Iran's acquiring a nuclear bomb. That's how relevant we are today.

With that, Madam Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Oklahoma (Mr. Bridenstine).

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to yield 10 minutes of my time to Ms. Moore of Wisconsin, who's done a tremendous job on this issue, and that she be allowed to control that time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today in support of H.R. 742, the Swap Data Repository and Clearinghouse Indemnification Correction Act, which has been sponsored by my colleague and good friend Representative Crawford from Arkansas, and it's been a pleasure to work with him on this. I would like to strongly urge all of my colleagues to vote in favor of this bill.

H.R. 742 is noncontroversial and it is highly bipartisan, shared by both Democrats and Republicans alike. It passed the Agriculture Committee by voice vote unanimously, and it passed the Financial Services Committee by a unanimous vote as well, 52-0.

Madam Speaker, Dodd-Frank ushered in a new era of financial marketing, reporting and transparency requirements--which was very much needed--in order to aid regulators by providing insight into what were once very opaque markets and to facilitate information-sharing between and among United States and international regulators. These were very laudable and necessary changes that were welcome by regulators and market participants alike.

Dodd-Frank also included a provision requiring that in order for the gathered action information to be shared, the SEC and the CFTC, or a swap data repository, be indemnified against accidental release or misuse of information.

Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, this indemnification provision is having an unintended consequence, an unintended effect of preventing data collection and information-sharing, particularly when international transactions and international regulators are involved, because indemnification is a legal concept unique only to the United States. H.R. 742 would very simply remove this indemnification requirement, as requested by United States, foreign regulators and swap data repositories, so that we can realize the level of global information-sharing that is so critical to monitoring systemic risk.

Madam Speaker, as I said, I strongly support this very simple but necessary bill that will help to facilitate greater information- sharing, as intended by Dodd-Frank, and I encourage my colleagues to do the same.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, as I have no additional speakers, I would like to close by simply saying a great thanks for the work of Mr. Crawford from Arkansas, Ms. Moore from Wisconsin, Ms. Sewell from Alabama, and Mrs. Maloney from New York in this great show of bipartisanship that will help us to facilitate greater information sharing, which was intended by Dodd-Frank.

I urge passage on this much-needed legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise today to offer my full support for H.R. 1038, the Public Power Risk Management Act, which is sponsored by my colleague from California (Mr. LaMalfa). And I'd like to commend Mr. LaMalfa for his outstanding leadership because, as he pointed out, this is another one of those unintended consequences that we're here to fix.

H.R. 1038 is a noncontroversial bill. It passed the House Committee on Agriculture by a voice vote. And H.R. 1038 seeks to correct an oversight in Dodd-Frank that has hindered the ability of publicly owned utilities to offset their risk in the traditional fashion. Put simply, H.R. 1038 would simply allow producers, utility companies, and other nonfinancial entities to continue entering into energy swaps with government-owned utilities without danger of being required to register with the CFTC as a swap dealer.

What this will do is it will allow these publicly owned utilities to continue using their traditional swap counterparties to help manage their risk related to the generation of electricity and the production of natural gas. This is very important, Madam Speaker, because, if the law remains as it is without this bill, the ability of utilities to manage risk would be hindered by increased costs and could lead to higher energy rates for millions of Americans. We certainly do not want this to happen.

This is something we want to avoid, especially during our still fragile economic recovery. So, Madam Speaker, I support this technical correction to Dodd-Frank, and I urge my colleagues to support it as well.

I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LaMALFA Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Crawford).

I have no other speakers, Madam Speaker, so I would like to close by saying that Mr. Costa, our distinguished Congressman from California, expresses his deep concern and support for this legislation, and I certainly wanted to register that on his behalf.

And certainly to Mr. LaMalfa and to Mr. Crawford, I again commend you for your outstanding work on this. Wherever we can cut costs and save money for the American people, we need to do it and do it quickly. Therefore, I urge very quick passage of this very important and timely piece of legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LaMALFA Madam Speaker, I appreciate again how we have been able to come together in such a good bipartisan fashion. I greatly appreciate my colleague from Georgia's kind and helpful words in moving this legislation today on the floor.

In closing, again, H.R. 1038 seeks to keep electricity and natural gas bills affordable for over 47 million Americans. Our publicly owned utilities should have access to the risk management tools that they need to keep costs down, a goal we all share, and which prevents utility rates from rising. I ask my colleagues to support this commonsense legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Let me say at the outset that what has been clearly brought to our attention today is a great need for leadership. That's what this is about. Derivatives are here. The other side pointed out very magnificently we're dealing with a $600 trillion piece of the world economy. It must have rules. It must have regulations. This is the duty and the responsibility of the United States Congress to do so. To do otherwise would indeed weaken Dodd-Frank. What this bill does is strengthen Dodd-Frank.

Now, I serve on both the Agriculture Committee and the Financial Services Committee. I'm also the ranking member of the General Farm Commodity and Risk Management Subcommittee. I mention those things because I have been intimately involved in this issue for a long time, and I know the consequences if we do not respond.

Now, why do we need this bill? Dodd-Frank has been approved almost 3 years; but right today, we still do not know what swaps activities will be subject to U.S. regulation and which ones will be subject to foreign regulations. If something is shameful, that is shameful.

In section 722, the Dodd-Frank Act limits the CFTC's jurisdiction over swaps transactions outside the United States for those that have ``direct and significant connection with activities in or effect on commerce in the United States.'' However, section 722, the same section, limits the SEC's jurisdiction over security-backed swaps outside the United States, as well. That brings confusion.

What is the proper thing to do? Ask these two agencies to harmonize. Give us one rule so that that will apply. That's what this bill does. We are dealing with a global market. We cannot put our American banking system at a disadvantage competitively. That is what will weaken Dodd- Frank. That is what will bring about another crisis beyond what we already have.

So, Mr. Speaker, what we need to do is understand that on the foreign market, what are we dealing with? We're not dealing with every nation in the world. We are dealing with only the nine largest economies, and we must make sure that their regulatory regimes are as strong as ours. That is the responsibility of the SEC and the CFTC. That's what this bill is.

As far as AIG and as far as all of the other debacles that have happened, we're all upset about that. That's why we must move with this legislation.

Now, very briefly, much has been said about what has happened as if we've done nothing about it. Mr. Speaker, we've put clearing in so that all swaps transactions must be cleared. Clearing of swap contracts will eliminate bilateral credit risk, and it transfers that risk to clearinghouses which requires market participants to post margins, put up their own money. That's how you prevent another calamity.

The margin requirements are there also for uncleared swaps. And the clearing rules and the margin rules taken together mean that all swap contracts will be fully secured by high-quality liquid assets, and this is what will prevent another scenario.

And so I started what I said with what is desperately needed here: leadership. To allow this crossborder to go unanswered any longer is weakening us. Mr. Gensler, who is the chairman of the CFTC, next week will be meeting in Montreal with the European regulators. Leadership is needed. There is a July 23 deadline that all of the international markets must meet to deal with rules and regulations.

The wrong thing for us to do is not to pass this bill. And I assure my colleagues, my Democratic and Republican friends, I've gone through the safeguards we've put in here. This will not happen again. It will not happen again because we have strengthened Dodd-Frank. And the head of our Fed, Chairman Bernanke, said in his own words, We need this cross-border protection; we need this legislation.

So with that, I reserve the balance of my time because I have some other speakers that we'd like to hear from.

I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Carney).

With that, I'd like to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Murphy).

With that, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Wisconsin (Ms. Moore).

With no other speakers, Mr. Speaker, let me just close by saying, with the international, interconnected, complex nature of financial markets and the sizeable role the derivatives play within the global economy--as I mentioned, $600 trillion--international harmonization of rulemaking between the CFTC and the SEC is critical, and a coordinated regulatory cooperation between the nine largest global partners keeping our financial institutions at a competitive position is critical. That's what this bill does.

I urge all of my colleagues to support this important and timely piece of legislation.

I yield back the balance of my time.

I rise today to give great support for

Mr. Speaker, I have no further speakers. I'll just take this opportunity to join all of us in the Congress of the United States to salute the First Special Service Force for the outstanding work that they have done.

I urge unanimous passage on this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

I thank Ranking Member Waters for yielding.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today to join my colleagues in strong opposition to H.R. 1062, the SEC Regulatory Accountability Act.

Unfortunately, what we have before us today is nothing more than a thinly veiled attempt at paralyzing an agency under the guise of an otherwise worthy activity, which is cost-benefit analysis. Cost-benefit analysis is a good thing to do, but not under the terms of this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I don't think that there is anybody in this body who is opposed to an honest, open, balanced, thorough, and truly objective cost-benefit analysis in the rulemaking process. On the contrary, we all agree that it is essential for creating good policy, as I said. However, the regime established in this bill is nothing but. Rather, the assumptions which would be codified into statute by this bill are worded in such a way as to prejudice the outcome of the analysis toward the side of not regulating at all in nearly every circumstance.

And while some in this body may think that this is a good thing, ask the Americans who were victims of the latest financial meltdown, many of whom are still suffering because of it. Ask them what they think, because the SEC, Mr. Chairman, is currently required to balance protection of investors with the maintenance of effective and efficient markets. This bill would do away with that balance by focusing solely on the cost to the industry and investor choice. Nowhere in the bill is investor protection, which is a part of the SEC's core mission, even mentioned at all.

Moreover, I think it is crucial to point out that this bill does nothing to ease the strain on the SEC's resources. Instead, it exacerbates the problem by slapping the SEC with a huge new administrative responsibility, all while they are still working, curiously, to implement Dodd-Frank and the Jobs Act, without giving them the resources to accomplish the task.

How on Earth do my colleagues who support this bill think that the SEC can produce the type of analysis they're asking for--any analysis at all, for that matter--without the additional staff that even the CBO says they will be required to have? The problem is especially acute considering this bill would require going back and studying every rule in effect since the agency was first created way back in 1934. No other agency in the Federal Government is saddled with that kind of burden.

Mr. Chairman, let me just clear the air on one important thing.

We know that there is a value for cost-benefit analysis. What we're saying is this is the wrong approach because they're not after cost- benefit analysis. They're after tying the hands of the Securities and Exchange Commission to lessen the regulations.

We have a bill, Mr. Chairman, which is a bipartisan bill by myself, along with Representative Conaway from Texas, a Republican, that is a more thoughtful, a more direct and beneficial way of cost-benefit analysis, because we do not have in that bill this very convoluting, confounding requirement of what we call look-back.

You've got to remember, the telling point about Mr. Garrett's bill is that he requires that the SEC look back at every single rule for the last 80 years since 1934. There is no Federal agency that has even nearly that kind of burden and, on top of that, does not allocate one dime for any needed staff. It is, indeed, a burden.

So the point I want to make is that we understand when he says, okay, let's make sure that we have a cost and a benefit of what they're doing, yeah, we go along with that. But my bill, along with Representative Conaway, we digested this bill, we have passed this bill, our bill, which has a more reasonable approach to cost-benefit analysis out of the Agriculture Committee and will be before this House that has a better approach.

We're not opposed to this cost-benefit analysis, but we are opposed to this measure, which is designed to tie the hands of the SEC by allowing them and mandating that they look at every record, every rule all the way back to 1934.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 90th Anniversary of the Kappa Omega chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. The Kappa Omega chapter was the first chapter established in the South Atlantic Region, where it was chartered on March 1, 1923 in Atlanta, GA. The charter members include Founder Marie Woolfolk Taylor, Floy Brown, Eva Conner, Caroline Bond Day, Madeline Smith Davis, Adelaide D. Smith, Alice Rucker, Ruth Prince, Louise Shivery and Hattie Watson. I honor their commitment to their community, particularly to promoting and cultivating high scholastic achievement and social unity amongst girls and women of color.

For the past nine decades, Kappa Omega has distinguished itself as a guiding torch in servicing others by implementing programs that impact communities around the world. Their current international program initiatives focus on Global Leadership through Timeless Service. The women of Kappa Omega certainly know leadership. Several notable chapter members have become leaders on the local, regional and international level. At the regional level, A. Cathryn Johnson, Sujette F. Crank, Dr. Mary Shy Scott and Dr. Lucretia R. Payton-Stewart have all served as South Atlantic Regional Directors, while Dr. Scott has also served as the 23rd President of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Members of this chapter have also served on and chaired several international committees.

The members of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority deserve to be commended for the thousands of hours of volunteer work they contribute every year. Their efforts at the local level to encourage young girls to go to college, and to help them succeed after they get in, are laudable and must continue. Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to honor their hard work and service, and I encourage my fellow colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call your attention to an entire profession of people dedicated to serving the most vulnerable among us. I am referring, of course, to social workers. Social workers have touched the lives of millions of individuals and families in need of emotional, psychological, economic and physical support. They have integrated themselves within our nation's social safety net in order to help meet the basic needs of all people.

These hardworking advocates do not simply provide individuals with the resources they need to resolve their life challenges; they also cultivate a sense of self-reliance to encourage individuals to create their own solutions. Social workers help connect service providers to those in need to weave an ever-growing social safety net, and I commend them for their dedication.

March was officially recognized as National Professional Social Work Month in 1984. Since then social workers around the country, in my community and in yours, have worked to spread awareness of this critical profession. They have reached out not only to service providers and those in need, but also to students and others with the potential to join this noble profession.

To those of you who have joined this hard-working, empathetic and resourceful group of people, I thank you for all the time and energy you have invested in helping others in your community. I hope that you will continue to do so, with the knowledge that your efforts have been recognized and appreciated.

Mr. Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I stand before you today to honor Lt. Col. Jack G. Reed, USAF (Ret.), who passed away at the age of 82 in December of 2012 in Granbury, TX. Lieutenant Colonel Reed was an honorable man who dedicated his life to his country.

Lieutenant Colonel Jack Reed was born near Rio Vista, Texas, on August 25, 1930. After attending Texas Tech, Mr. Reed joined the United States Air Force in January 1951 as an enlisted Soldier during the Korean War. In 1953, his abilities soon won him entrance to the Aviation Cadet program and a commission as a Second Lieutenant.

In 1954, Lieutenant Colonel Reed was selected for assignment to the B-47 program, and transferred to Mather AFB, Sacramento, CA. From 1954 to 1960, Mr. Reed was assigned to the 22nd Bombardment Wing, March AFB, and Riverside, CA. From 1960 to 1965, Mr. Reed was assigned to B-58s with the 63rd Bomb Squadron, 43rd Bombardment Wing, Carswell AFB, and Fort Worth, TX, where he participated in military preparedness for action against Cuba during the missile crisis of 1962.

Lieutenant Colonel Reed performed exceedingly above all that was asked of him as an Airman. In August 1965, Lieutenant Colonel Reed was one of two Air Force officers selected for assignment to the CIA/USAF programs OXCART/TAGBOARD/SENIOR BOWL at Groom Lake, NV, and later Beale

Ladies and gentlemen of the Congress and United States of America, we stand here today and we're witnessing something that there has been a great hunger among the American people for, and that is to see, finally, Democrats and Republicans working together for the good of the United States. We're going to have that today. We're going to have a bill--all may not vote for it, but I think what is important here is that this is a product of a true compromise, with Republicans and with Democrats putting the United States of America foremost.

I think we ought to have a tip of the hat to President Barack Obama, I think to Leader McConnell in the Senate, and certainly to our Vice President, Joe Biden, and to the leadership of Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, and Jim Clyburn over on our side. I know that our Republican friends have had a tussle here, but our tip of the hat to you as well, and certainly to my friend, David Dreier, who is in his ending time as chairman of the Rules Committee. Good luck, my friend.

I rise to join some of my fellow colleagues in recognizing and honoring a distinguished gentleman serving in the Congress of the United States, who is the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and that is Representative Reverend Emanuel Cleaver.

God has a way of having the right person serve at the right time and in the right place, and we have such a person in our chairman, Chairman Cleaver. Chairman Cleaver took office at a time of great turmoil and tumultuousness. This country was experiencing and we were at the height of perhaps the most devastating financial crisis since the Great Depression.

Chairman Cleaver turned that situation into a tremendous positive by bringing his insightfulness and by helping to share with the entire Nation that while we did have great economic calamity, for every sector in our economy nowhere was that damage as greatly felt as in the African American community. We were blessed to have a chairman who could articulate it with the sensitivity and with the intelligence and with the intellect to be able to express those very serious concerns that were impacting the African American community in a way and in a manner that it enveloped the entirety of the entire population of our country.

Chairman Cleaver became chairman at the time of the height of the tumultuous health care debate, where there was great passions that were brought to bear and expressions of demonstration where hundreds of thousands of people gathered here in Washington to express their concerns. But Chairman Cleaver provided a calmness, an impact that helped us to navigate those troubled waters very, very successfully.

When it came time to look at the disparities of this economic impact and joblessness, he initiated job fairs in every congressional district all across this country that helped people be able to get jobs. He addressed the health disparities--particularly as they impacted the African American community--in a way and in a manner that everyone was able to accept the reality.

So, we thank you, Congressman Cleaver, for the outstanding job that you have done, and we want to thank God for sending the right person to us at the right time. Thank you, Chairman Cleaver. It is my great honor to serve with you. Thank you for your outstanding service.