director mulvaney has been a friend and advocate for middle eastern christians for years. meeting with the mennonite patriarch in 2014, meeting the syria orthodox patriarch in 2015, and working with them to pass the resolution to recognize the genocide in libya and syria. [applause] >> mick and his wife pam are the proud parents of triplets, james, caroline and finnegan, and two great danes guinness and harper. ladies and gentlemen, please give a warm welcome to mr. mick mulvaney. [applause] >> thank you very much. people always ask me about the dogs named guinness and harper and ask me what i do for fun. i want to thank mr. hage for the introduction. i want to thank you for inviting me. thank you to all the religious leaders and excellence that are here. thank you for inviting me and giving me this opportunity to speak this evening. i will begin by saying this. i really wasn't supposed to be here today. we had been asked by the heads of protocol at the white house not to do any official events today given the solemnity having to do with the funeral. we were supposed to ca