I was standing in the green room. I just wanted to go to the bathroom and took one step out and the guy who looked like he could play for the green bay packers, he said would you like to take a step back . I said, i would love to take a step back and i didnt have to go to the bathroom anymore, so all is well. All right, folks, listen, youre seeing the logos of all of our sponsors and wed like to give a special thanks to all of them to make it possible for the 12th annual summit. And hold applause until im out and well shout and tell appreciation. Frc action. American association action. American values, Family Research counsel, the Kennedy Center for christian statesmanship and first time sponsors association of mature citizens and Christian HealthCare Ministry and pleased for our student sponsor, wesleyan, and fox radio. And Heritage Foundation and united in purpose and Washington Times and the official newspaper of the value voters summit and finally meese note that the plan has this across the hall to check out. And thank all of our sponsors for making this possible. Thank you. [applause] all right, now, brace yourself for scintillating announcements at that get through. I have housekeeping items and if youll be patient ill run through them quickly. We appreciate youre being sensitive to enhanced security and there will be no backpacks allowed in the ballroom. All backpacks are subject to search and your name badges are required for admittance to all sessio sessions. Dont look at me, dont do as i do, do as i say, my imitation of a liberal democrat. And no sign or literature. Look at the monitors as i read the disclaimer, the summit is cosponsored by speakers and each speaking at this event or distributing literature acts for itself and the Family Research council or any of our sponsors. The views expressed for each organization are solely those of the speaker and or their organization and do not represent the reactions of frc or any other sponsor. They do not sponsor candidates for Political Party nor support votes or endorse any candidate for public office. Thank you. Make sure to stop by all of our exhibits to check out our exhibit hall. We have 15 amazing exhibitors to take advantage of. You could win an ipad mini, you could get an autograph the a the bookstore, be on live radio at radio row or find a new job at the job stair, ironically my boss tony perkins keeps urging me to check out and a charging station there and a cafe. Family Research Council is sponsoring a passport book you can get and try to get that stamped by all of the exhibitors and at 3 p. M. There will be a drawing so you can win an android. Htablet. And the selfie bvf 17. And extra points for the most celebrities. Ill pause if youd like to take that picture now and the prize for the tweet of today and tomorrow, throughout the event. And complimentary wifi is available for the ballroom and media rooms, not your guest rooms. Wifi frc and open your browser. Were introducing, you can stay up no matter stay uptodate no matter where you are. Create a custom schedule to keep on track of your favorite breakout session and list of local restaurants and find the exhibiter booth serving free candy available on android and iphone. For assistance plugging in go to the registration desk. Were pleased to have the members of the media here as our guests, hundreds credited to be a part of our program and we want you to please show them the same respect that they are showing our president. [laughter] no, dont do that. Please, dont do that. But seriously, we do, for example, i know that fox news is coming in a couple of times today and doing some live feeds and so they may be interviewing one of our speakers right next to you and youll feel the shine of the light and hear the commotion, we ask that you behave yourselves, dont wave hi to mom or anything like that. And it will only be for a few minutes so if theyre speaking while youre trying to speak just be patient and well get through that together. All right, now, before we begin our program i want to ask add a comment about the current controversy of athletes, they refuse to stand for our National Anthem. Let me show you just how far weve come as a nation. By some old baseball footage from a game just about a generation ago with legendary vin scully of the Los Angeles Dodgers on the call. Lets look at the monitors together. Together. Im not sure what hes done, looks like hes going to, the flag and take it away from him. And the set fire to the american flag, can you imagine that . Better lose him in a hurry. When he realized what he was going to do, raced over and took the flag away from him. Unfortunately, today, that same athlete would be demonized for his disrespect of these fans freedom of expression. But not here and not today at the values voter summit. So do honor america and our almighty god would you please proudly stand and we will begin with the giver of all of our values, were going open with invocation representative of kala kissinger, and by the way one of the youngest legislators in america. Lets pray. So thankful and humbled for the opportunity that we have to come together with one mind and one accord, father, we know that we are so blessed to live in the greatest nation on earth and help us over the course of this weekend, as we reflect on the greatness of this nation to remember the miracle that is the founding of this nation and the biblical principles that we all hold dear and are engrained in the fabric of our country. Father i pray you give us a special blessing for those who worked so tireless to get together and passionate in servant for the issues that are close to your heart for life and courage and religious freedom. Father, i pray that you would continue to give our leaders wisdom and guidance and direction, father. I pray that you would direct our president and our representatives, lord. That you would direct their steps, lord, and that they would walk in those steps, lord. That you would give them wisdom for every vote that they cast, for every decision that is made. Father, i pray that you will remind us that our hopes and our salvation and redemption is not bound in any Political Party or movement, but found in you. Father, i pray you will give a special blessing on this event, lord, that we will not only be passionate while were here, and that we would go back to our communities and you would use us to ignite a revival within the hearts of americans, lord. We know if we are to see america survive and thrive, lord, it starts in the heart of the people. Father, i pray you will ignite a fire in our hearts that we will in turn give to the people in our communities, pray that you will give wisdom is pastors, lord so they will lead and sheppard their blocks to serve you in the political realm, the spiritual realm and every day of our lives, god, i pray that you see the division thats come across our nation and, father, you say that whether its a division the people perish, father, i pray youll bring a spirit of unity across our nation and our country so we will turn our hearts to you. Father, you said if we seek you and ask for wisdom, you would grant it. Lord, i pray for our president that you would make him like david, give i am had an art after yours so he would lead us in the direction that we are to go and, father, i just pray a special blessing over those here this morning and that will be here, i pray for safety over this event, and in jesus name, amen. Amen. [applause]. Please remain standing, ladies and gentlemen, for the presentation of our colors, presented by the naval junior rotc, from Woodson High School here in washington d. C. And followed immediately by our pledge of allegiance led by United States marine corps pastor phil howser and our National Anthem by a member of the national opera, angela knight. Present colors. Attention. Salute. I pledge of allegiance to the flag. United states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Oh say can you see by the dawns early light what so proudly we hailed at the twilights last gleaming whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight oer the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming and the rockets red glare the bombs bursting in air gave proof through the night that our flag was still there oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave oer the land of the free and the home of the brave [cheers and applause] thank you, ladies and gentlemen, you may be seated. One final announcement, i need to mention there is no unauthorized taping or recording of the values voters summit. If you would like any of the sessions you can go to our website after the event. Any violators of this important rule will be given a copy of this book. [laughte [laughter] there you have it, ladies and gentlemen, the question and the answer on the same cover. When i first saw this title, i thought it was referring to donations to the clinton foundation. But i think this title was chosen because the title, somebody call a wambulance had been taken. I think the most honest answer to why Hillary Clinton is not our president today can be best summed up in her own words. What difference at this point does it make . Amen . Amen. Well, listen, are you ready to have a good time . Lets light this candle. Shall we . Coming out to call the 2017 value voters summit to order, the president of. If rc action and council, tony perkins. Good morning well, good morning, everyone and welcome to the 2017 values voters summit. Let me ask you, are you ready to drain the swamp . Yeah ive got the equipment and ive got the motivation and were going to get it done. Look, this is our moment. We must seize this moment and save our republic. We must save our republic from the dangerous and destructive policies that were unleashed by the barack obama administration. And today, we, as we begin the 12th annual values voters summit, we have folks in here from around the country and via the internet. We literally have likeminded swamp drainers from around the world and i want to thank you, in all seriousness. I want to thank you for having the courage to not be silent, but rather to stand up and speak out and contend with those who want to feed our freedoms to the swamp monster we call government. This is our moment and we must seize it and i hope at the conclusion of our time together that you are better informed, more encouraged, and motivated, with a fresh resolve to drain the swamp and save our republic. And to not just defend. The time to defend is over, folks. Its time to advance faith, family and freedom to every corner of america [cheers and applause] and its now my honor to call the 2017 gathering of the value voters of america to order. Welcome. Lets have a great time. [cheers and applause] i thought id seen it all. Okay. Well, listen, were going to get things kick off with how were winning the hill and put together a pretty impressive panel. Let me take a moment now to introduce each one and theyll come out and you can show your appreciation. Beginning with Congress Woman vickie heartsler from the Fourth District of my home state of missouri, there she is, ladies and gentlemen. Before vicky started in the house of representative she served five years in state house of representative from 1995 to 2000. For the marriage and Prolife Movement and others to get engaged in politics with her new book running gods way, step by step to a successful political campaign, lets give her another round of applause. Welcome, vicky. And number 42 left field no, mark walker serving the 6th district of North Carolina. Hes an ordained baptist minister and serves on Homeland Security oversight and chair of congressional prayer caucus. Lets hear it for mark walker. [applaus [applause] and rounding out our panel this morning on winning the hill, is mike johnson, who was elected to the u. S. House of representatives in 2016 by the largest margin of victory in his region in more than 50 years. He was appointed to the powerful House Judiciary Committee and two of its sub committees, the committee on immigration and Border Security and House Committee on crime, terrorism, Homeland Security, and investigations. Would you also welcome our third guest for our panel. [applaus [applause] all right. And tony is still in the swamp right now so were going to continue stalling while we wait for tony to get out of the swamp. All right. How about that cubs game last night. Was that exciting . Everybody welcome back frc president tony perkins. Take it away. [applause] somebody was using my phone booth. Well, we are excited to begin with a panel of some of the swamp drainers here in washington, some of our leaders on the value issues that we care so deeply about and im going to start in the center, ladies first, but also, congressman Vicky Hartsler is the cochair and leads the values action team in the house of representative. She has been here since 2010. She also serves on the important House Armed Services committee, and vicky, i want to ask you about the importance of undoing the social engineering that has been put upon our nations military, treating our men and women in uniform as if they were lab rats by the Previous Administration. Yeah, its just been devastating to watch over the last eight years under the obama administration, the dismantling of our military readiness and with the policies that are implemented not only cutting defense dollarwise, but inflicting upon them the social engineering policies that are detrimental to our nation. One of the ones that i was very concerned to see and we took some action recently with the president s help on reversing when president obama last summer unilaterally without checking with congress or anyone else says now were going to allow transgenders to serve openly in the military, giving them the full rights of medical treatments as well as including sex change operations, and as a member of the Armed Services committee, i was very concerned about that because we are facing more threats now in our nation than at any time since world war ii whether you look at the rise of china, kim jongun and his threats, iran, or putin in russia. The and yet, at the same time, we are with this policy, using tax dollars to allow for sex change operations, which will make soldiers nondeployable. Now, that just doesnt make sense, and so, i did offer the amendment during the National Defense authorization act to say that no tax dollars can go to paying for sex change operations. [applause] and the reason that thats bad, its going to, by estimations over the next ten years cost taxpayers 1. 35 billion dollars just for surgeries alone, that doesnt count the ongoing hormone treatments, but then in addition, if you have a surgery of that magnitude, it makes you nondeployable for 267 days a year. So my question is, why would we use precious defense dollars that makes soldiers that cannot be deployed . [applause] so we were, unfortunately, came a few votes short of of passing that, but very, very thankful that your next speaker, after our panel, the president of the United States, realized that this was a tremendous detriment to our nation, a misuse of our tax dollars. He has changed that policy and its being written out, the guidance right now im so glad that hes our commanderinchief a prioritizing our military once again. [applaus [applause]. By the way, just to put that cost in perspective. Thats one navy destroyer, a fighter jet. Its not an insignificant price tag. I want to go next to congressman mark walker who serves as the chairman of republican study committee, came to congress in 2014 and i think was well equipped to work in congress and bring people together after serving as a baptist minister and being in many business meetings, he knows how to deal with contentious situation. Survive a wednesday night baptist business meeting, youre in good shape. Thats right. Let me ask you, congressman walker, how you see the role, now, coming from the Faith Community as a pastor, what role does the church evangelical, social conservatives, catholics have in determining the future of our country . I think youre seeing it play out in our very present day. Certainly, i want to thank you for all the great work youre doing from impacting from your level and certainly the great army here even today. We saw this play out last week. The amount of influence that the church and the people of christ are really pushing back on some of the social engineering and the social culture. Were seeing it. That vote last week on the house floor where we were voted to end all abortions after 20 weeks, its due to the people fighting this fight, tony, and, yes, give yourself a hand for the great work there. So [applause] when did it become even a point of contention in our country that we would even consider that this were one of only seven countries out of 198 nations, including north korea, that even allowed abortions after 20 weeks, it boggles my mind sometimes that weve drifted this far. It doesnt mean that we dont have plenty of work and fight left in us to be able to push back on some of the culture. I think we do it, obviously, to answer your questions specifically. There is an evangelical threat that worked in all components and aspects and the like that we have to understand there is a relationship component. For 50, 60 years, some of our communities have been i am kt pa impacted, should i say indoctrinated that the government is end all, whether its spiritually, fiscally, weve got to reach across the communities and share the message out of psalms, that everyone is made for goodness for god and were happy to carry that here. [applaus [applause]. Our third panelist from my home state of louisiana, congressman mike johnson from shreveport and we have a couple of people from louisiana here. Ive known mike since he was a mere lad in law school and i want to ask you this, mike, youre a const