Thank you very much, Chair, and happy new year to everyone. The last time we met was before Christmas.
If the chair will allow me, I want to make a couple of remarks before we begin.
First I would like to thank the committee, for their cooperation in particular. We added a few hours to discussion here of the bill, and I think they were full and fruitful. The members were very kind to me, being new to this committee and only being here for a short period of time, so I'd like to thank everyone on the committee for that consideration.
As we move forward to the first clause, I want to remind everyone that we had a discussion before Christmas from analysts and from the folks who were sitting here. I don't remember their names, unfortunately.