-- policy analyst, elizabeth burke. also our on-site intern coordinator, ben lasky. national press club staff joanne booz, richard berg is audio and visual, in the back corner. raise your hand. thank you. i want to introduce my wife, dr. patricia berg. who i say has a real job as the --ector of breast cancer lab a breast cancer lap. elizabeth, where are you? making sure everything happens properly. thank you for all your help, liz. so we will now have congressman messer give his opening comments. rep. messer: thank you, bob. thank you for giving me the opportunity to be here today. as bob mentioned, i'm congressman luke messer. i'm chairman of the house republican policy committee. i want to thank bob weiner, tolliver, the president of the club we just heard from, and jamie horwitz. i want to thank them for inviting me and everyone here today braving the weather and rain to find your way here. as bob mentioned, i was asked to thek today on governing 2016 election year and i'm excited to have an opportunity. but first, i

elizabeth burke will be holding this microphone. and she will give it to you so you can ask questions into the mike and that way the media has better quality in terms of its questions and answers. congressman messer is the congressman for indiana's sixth congressional district, a large 19-county region. he was elected to congress in 2012 and established himself as an emergiing leader. in his first term he was elected president of the freshman class by his peers. in the second term he was elected house republican policy chair. he also serves on the house financial services and house education workforce committees where he leads issues ranging from k-12 education to banking reform. he is chair of the school choice caucus. prior to caucus, indiana state legislator, led a not for profit as president and ceo and was partner in two law firms. he graduated summa cum laude. he and his wife, jennifer, who is here today are athe -- jennifer? there yougo. are the participaents of two da, one son. some of those are here today. who's here? okay.

elizabeth burke will be holding this microphone. and she will give it to you so you can ask questions into the mike and that way the media has better quality in terms of its questions and answers. congressman messer is the congressman for indiana's sixth congressional district, a large 19-county region. he was elected to congress in 2012 and established himself as an emerging leader. in the first term, he was elected president of the freshman class by his peers. in his second term, he was elected house republican policy chair. he also serves on the house financial services and house education workforce committees where he leads issues ranging from k-12 education to banking reform. he is chair of the school choice caucus. prior to congress, congressman messer served as an indiana state legislator, led a not for profit as president and ceo and was partner in two law firms. he graduated from wabash college and earned his law degree from vanderbilt university where he served on the law review. he and his wife jennifer, who is here today