we look forward to your testimony, and learning from you where the legion stands on your legislative agenda. also want to welcome the legion s auxiliary. of course, my friends in florida who had a chance to visit with this morning at breakfast very briefly. but instead of me going through a complete statement i ask unanimous consent that i can enter the full statement into the record. and with that i would like to go ahead and introduce let s see. mike, do you want to give a quick opening statement? thank you very much, mr. chairman. i, too, would like to welcome national commander here this morning, as well as the national president of the american legion auxiliary also. i want to thank both of you for your advocacy for our veterans and enduring support that the american legion s of over 2.5 million members have given for our veterans. before we start i also would like to extend complements to your washington, d.c