meeting the syria orthodox patriarch in 2015 and working with members of congress to pass resolutions to recognize the genocide christians in iraq and syria. [applaus [applause] >> mick and his wife pam are the proud parents of triplets, james, caroline and finnigan and also garrett and harper. please give a warm welcome to mick mulvaney. [applause] >> thank you very much. people always ask me about the dogs named beggwynn nis and harr and that's what i do for fun. your excellencies, colleagues from the house of representatives, and more importantly, many of my friends. thank you for inviting me and beginning this evening. i will begin by saying this, i 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, the-- having to do with the funeral, we were supposed to cancel all of our official events and i talked to the white house and said, look, i'm speaking to this group on wednesday evening. they said please cancel. i said it's in defense of christians and i think it would be something th