[laughter] so with that i am very pleased to introduce senator max baucus sewell been giving the day's opening keynote. senator baucus says all of you know has a distinguished record of service from montana and the country in the senate since 1978. chairman of the frame for the senate finance committee where he is leading an effort in conjunction with ranking member senator chuck grassley to get consensus on a comprehensive bipartisan health care reform bill in the coming weeks a. as part of that effort he has been a passionate advocate for comparative effectiveness research downright, sponsoring his own legislation with senator conrad in the last congressional session and including provisions to address the inappropriate use of cost information in the comparative effectiveness research. in addition to this he finds time per ultramarathons which is pretty good preparation for what he's trying to accomplish now. senator baucus, we're pleased to have you back at brookings institute for this opening keynote. [applause] >> thank you, mark, very much and thank you very much for inviting me