 Thank you very much. Please be seated, nun. And I thank you. I appreciate this opportunity every year to honor and reward a special group of individuals who provide the creativity and energy that ensure the people of the United States, the government they deserve, and the government they pay for. Well, each of you is a tribute to the fact that throughout our government, we've got top quality professionals getting the job done. Thomas Jefferson once said that one of the toughest tasks of any president was finding the right person for the right job. Well, I'm grateful that those of you we honor today are people who worked your way into positions of responsibility and have taken that responsibility seriously. There's a little story I'd like to tell. You knew I'd have one of those. There's only one thing. I'm standing here very uncertain right now as I'm hoping that I haven't told you this one before. It's about a young fellow that he had a great feeling for animals and wanted to work with animals. And then one day in the help wanted as he saw an ad from the zoo, they were advertising for someone to come and work in the zoo. Well, he went down and he found out that his first job was going to be, if he took the job, to get into a gorilla suit and into the cage to replace their gorilla who died until the one they'd ordered could arrive. But then they said then there would be a regular job for him after he had done that and the other gorilla arrived. Well, he took him on and he got in the cage and there he was in the suit and couldn't just sit around. And when the kids particularly were in front of the cage he started doing tricks and everything he could think of for them. And one day he was swinging on a rope and he got so enthused he swung over into the lion's cage and the lion came roaring at him and he started screaming for help and the lion jumped on him and said, shut up or you'll get us both fired. I guess whoever was running that zoo was certainly employing innovative problem solving. Seriously though, I know that many of you have saved the government and that really means the taxpayer is considerable money. You've done it by your diligence and your intelligence. But you've also done more than that. You've provided leadership and more often than not that's worth more than money. Today's awards are designed as a way of saying thank you and letting you know that you are appreciated. This is my seventh year of being part of this ceremony and I believe your service warrants my personal congratulations and I want each of you to know that. This year there are 58 distinguished and 267 meritorious winners. Almost double the number that was approved in prior years. Large and small agencies are represented from civilian executives in the military service to executives in the National Science Foundation. Thirteen award winners this year come from outside the Washington area. I want to welcome all of you to the Capitol which in so many ways is a company town. But none of us should ever forget the real business of the company takes place in the far reaches of our country and even the world. In fact, 88% of the federal workforce is located outside the Washington area. If I were the CEO of a giant corporation I couldn't find a better group of executives to run my operation than the nearly 7,000 members of the senior executive service whom you represent here today. America's lucky to have men and women such as yourselves and I'm proud to have worked with you over these last seven years. I look forward to a productive year ahead. So thank you from the bottom of my heart and God bless you. And now Connie Horner who worked with me at the office of management and budget has been doing a fine job as director of the office of personnel management. And Kirk Harper our director of executive personnel will help me present the awards. From the department of agriculture, William Manley. And enthusiastic as you are, could you hold your applause till the end please? I feel the same way you do. From the department of commerce, Vernon Durr. From the office of the secretary of defense Richard Donnelly and Jordan Reiser. From the department of the Air Force James Boatwright. Ronald Hovel. Jack Unfree. From the department of the army, Louis Cameron. Jack Hobbs. William McCorkle. Clarence Thornton. And Harry West. From the department of the Navy, Timothy Coffey. Robert Johnson. John Lannan. Richard Rumpf. Frank Swofford. From the defense mapping agency, Penman Gillam. From the department of education, Barry Bonton. And Emerson Elliott. From the department of energy, Donald Bauer. And Eric Figge. From the environmental protection agency, Michael Cook. Rebecca Hanmer. And Alexandra Smith. From the general services administration, Paul Trouse. From the department of health and human services, David Davies. Gary Felsenfeld. Thomas McPhee. And William Robb. From the department of housing and urban development, Albert Kleiman. From the department of the interior, Doyle Frederick. And Alan Powers. From the department of justice, Norman Carlson. And Stuart Schiffer. From the department of labor, Roland Deutsch. From the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Paul Holloway. Thomas Newman. And John Kwan. From the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, James Kepler. From the National Science Foundation, Peter Wilkness. From the Office of Management and Budget, Philip Dussot. And Dennis Boyd. From the Office of Personnel Management, Stephen Cohen. From the Securities and Exchange Commission, Richard Ketchum. And Gary Lynch. From the Department of State, Luigi Bonaudi. From the Department of Transportation, Richard Bowman. And Richard Morgan. From the Department of Treasury, Edward Quaz. Michael Lane. And Patrick Ruttel. And finally, from the Veterans Administration, Barry Bell. Conrad Hoffman. And Frank Sotto. Thank you very much, Mr. President. Again, a heartfelt thank you to all of you for what you've done. And now they tell me, I've got to get back to work. Thank you all.