helen rogers of my staff is also here. the staff do incredible work for us. i always want to acknowledge them. thank you for being here. thank you for what you. do i want to thank the sponsors. i want to thank you for putting this one on. i know my colleagues from the house of representatives will be here a little later on. they have some voting that they're doing at this particular moment. it is a challenge because of the leadership in the house of representatives for them to get anything done. so hopefully they'll be able to move some legislation. i just really wanted to start by saying, 100 years is too long to wait on this thing. we've got to get the acknowledgment of the amendment as being part of the constitution. that's bottom line. i strongly support the efforts of senator gillibrand and representative bush are doing, my legislature, the maryland ledge slay sure has a resolution to acknowledge the equal rights amendment as par of our constitution. we need the states to weafnlgt need the white house to be a little more friendly toward the -- the view.