[applause] >> he's tallen than me. good morning. thank you, steve. grateful for your leadership and for the dedication of extraordinary professionals of the a.t.f. i'm also grateful to all of the police chiefs who have joined us at a.t.f. headquarters this week as i've said before and i will say again, the justice department could not do its work without you and the officers you lead. when i became attorney general, i into you that grappling with the violent crime that had surged during the pandemic would be one of the most urgent challenges the justice department would face. i knew well the scourge of violent crime. i was a drugs and guns prosecutor during the crack wars of the late 1980's and early 1990's and then i was a supervisor of prosecutors and agents in the criminal division at the justice department. i knew that among the most powerful tools the department has to confront violent crime would be our partnerships. our partnerships among federal law enforcement agencies assisting in the fight against violent crime, our partnerships with the s