THE PRESIDENT: Hello. Thank you. Please, have a seat. Good morning, everybody. AUDIENCE: Good morning. THE PRESIDENT: It is wonderful to see all of you and wonderful to have one of the best partners that anybody could have in elected office, our Vice President, Joe Biden -- thrilled to have him here. (Applause.) I want to thank Staff Sergeant Miller for the gracious introduction. I want to thank President Merten for his hospitality. There are a couple of people here who deserve all the credit, because they got a very tough bill done -- and part of the reason they were able to get it done was just because of their extraordinary personal credibility. These are -- one is new to the Senate and one had been there a while, and yet together they formed an incredibly formidable team. They're both class acts. Please give a big round of applause to Virginia's own, John Warner and Jim Webb. (Applause.) I know that we've got a number of member[s] of Congress who are here and I want to thank them all for their outstanding work. I want to point out that Senator Mark Warner could not be here, but we appreciate him. We've got the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, a hero in his own right, General Eric Shinseki, and I want everybody to please acknowledge him. (Applause.) And of the original bill sponsors who could not be here today, we've got Senator Chuck Hagel, Senator Frank Lautenberg, Representative Harry Mitchell, Representative Bobby Scott, Representative Ginny Brown-Waite, and Representative Peter King. All of them worked hard along with the delegation that is present, so we are very grateful to all of them. I want to join all of today's speakers in thanking those of you who worked so hard to make this occasion possible. But above all, I want to pay tribute to the veterans who are now advancing their dreams by pursuing an education. Obviously I'm honored to be here, and to renew our commitment to ensure that the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States of America get the ...
