[inaudible] will get started here. Welcome. Im pe peter and i think you all for coming today. This is entitled the homestretch for major tax reform. We crossed a hurdle today and house as they agreed to the Senate Budget proposal which paves the way for reconciliation for tax reform package. The Cato Institute released the eighth edition for our recommendations begin on page 45. Therefore the chapters that deal with fiscal policy. Mark copies please contact me. You can also go to cato. Org. Ryan born occupies the chair. Hes written on Economic Issues including fiscal policy, minimum wages and rent control. Before joining us he was head of Public Policy at the institute of economic affairs. He has extensive broadcast and print media experience and has appeared on bbc news and he also writes weekly columns for both the Daily Telegraph and the london paper. We will leave time at the end for q a. All have a short announcement before he leaves. But for now lets welcome brian form. [applause] good afternoon and thank you for being here today. I think the size of the audience is a testament to the importance of the audience of the quality of our speakers on the panel. The title asked whether this is the homestretch for major tax reform. Feels like momentum has been building particularly with the Senate Budget agreement passing the house today. Major tax reform has been talked about for decades. I think its exciting for ordinary voters, workers and businesses were waited for this. A multitude of questions remain. Factual once we get hammered out the coming weeks. How far will the Corporate Tax rate to cut . What will the top tax rate be . Will happen to berkshires with this data locally good tax reduction . Also contestable ones related to analysis of the plan. What would be the impacts on Economic Growth what about any revenue losses and how far will corporate rate cuts through into higher wages . With the debate still rumbling you wonder whether to quote winston churchill, read the beginning of the under the end of the beginning. Now we have an expert panel to get. Theres one bad argument thats to distinguish between tax cuts on one hand and tax reform is this pure, revenue neutral concept on the other. Economists would say they cut the taxes that make them more economically neutral constitute reform. So eliminating reductions, but when you look around the world that successful tax reform, without net tax cuts form becomes more difficult. If you have no net tax codes to many people identified as losers make it difficult to get changes through. A line that stuck with me a few years ago sums up the sentiment, tax reform without tax cuts is politically suicidal. Tax cuts without reform is a huge missed opportunity. Three great speakers today to discuss issues. First, is the founder president of americas for tax reform. Along with credits without matching tax rates. He has been described as the high priest of taxcutting on the new york times. Alex is a resident fellow. Is the author of numerous before joining he served as the house ways and Means Committee has been on the white house economic advisers and on the Simpson Bowles commission. Chris edwards is the director tax policy before joining cato he was a senior economist and an economist with the Tax Foundation. He is coauthor of global tax revolution. Speakers will speak for about ten minutes and that will leave time for questions. Step one, tax reform, tax cut, the answer is yes. Its both. The people who suggest are two things miss the point. Where were trying to get . Tax reform as outlined no significant progress in going to pass. How do we know it significant progress . We want to get taxing income one time at one rate. You want to move toward taxing income at one rate is not a question of fairness, taxation is taking people from people earned it and given it to people who didnt earn it. Fairness is not the issue. The reason you want to move towards a single right tax is because them politicians have to look everybody in the eye and say i have a good idea and youre all paying for. Prior to coming to the United States i grew up in massachusetts. There we have a constitution a single rate tax. Five times they put on the ballot to go to a graduated income tax. Five times its been voted down on the basis that youre wrong you raise taxes on the kennedy kids but year to three and four youll come to the rest of us. If you dont have a single right tax you have the Richard Specht theory which is if you cant take on everyone in the room it take them out one at a time. And then you take them out and mugged them outside. Taxing income one time you tax it when you earn it, save, invest and Capital Gains. They keep coming back. Part of our doing is taking rates down which gets you towards a single rate tax by not having a death tax and more savings taxfree we move towards taxing income one time. Is this the end of the game . One of the things i found most disappointing about the conversations set this is onceinalifetime, historic event. We havent done fundamental tax reform since 1986. Thats been 30 years. That implies another 30 years. That means everyone who runs a trade Association Says i will be dead by retired by the time we revisit this. Therefore i want to get what matters most to me in the spill or sink it because if i dont get it done now i wont see another opportunity to do it. Its very sharp elbows with those want to get on the plane. Theres a bus every 20 minutes you let the lady in the wheelchair go. Had a dry conversation with paul ryan and chairman brady Vice President pence. Said could we work on not calling this a onceinalifetime thing, in the sense of not again for 30 years. He said will get a tax cut every year, we did under bush. That will be the case now. Think its important for us to make it clear to the american people. So be a significant tax cut in reform the many things left off the table. Well go to a territorial tax system for businesses, we are not going to that first people. Five and half million americans who work overseas. Five have million who work and could vote, i wish my talk about americans with jobs without talk about bringing the american jobs back here, that includes 5 million plus people who happen to be working in hong kong, britain or another country and right now we tax them just as we do with companies. Its a very stupid and destructive thing to do. So stupid to do to people. Companies overseas or hiring people from other countries rather than americans because our tax system makes it more expensive. Why will this pass . Do we just have a big blowup the other day and doesnt that endanger this project . Lake and corker, its not hundred votes with the modern Republican Party, theyre both grownups, theyre committed to tax reform. The beach played a role in the bill and shaping it. I do not believe that shiny thing that attracts folks and Cable Television suggest anything about how people will vote on tax reform. Weve seen it come to the house and senate. Everyone except rand paul then he tweeted im all in for tax reform. That vote was because he wanted something on spending focus on an issue. Get some of what he wanted but not all. It wasnt an effort to hold tax reform hostage. We have 52 votes. Have a solid republican agreement. We saw people who voted today are those who want to get on talk radio and it did solve all the worlds problems i had to vote no. This is not a part that endangers repeal in reform of healthcare. Why are we here . The issue that divides the two parties more than others is the tax issue. Theres not a republican who wont cut your taxes. Theres not a democrat who wont raise your taxes. There are few democrats who wont steal the guns. There note democrats will not reach her taxes every time to have a shot at it. And no republicans against cutting taxes. If somebody was a republican you need he was born north of the masondixon line. Today, the little old lady in mississippi degrees with Ronald Reagan on everything and then voted for mcgovern, those people have moved on, passed away or switch parties. We have two rational parties on questionable size of government. The other thing we helped his we asked all the candidates 90 plus have taken cap the pledge. George Herbert Walker bush for people to agree with him to raise taxes so he could start stop the reagan period of Economic Growth. Reminds us with his tax increase that noahs life is a complete waste, some People Service bad examples. Dont do that, it didnt work. In the modern Republican Party wash. Otherwise he was very successful. Kicked direct out of weight without getting stuck occupy the place. One problem. Tax increase. And he lost the presidency as a result. Since then weve had republicans committing they wont raise taxes. This is progress, moving in the right direction, you have a unified Republican Party will be discussion between nona but the reason things will be settled is not only the unity of the pledge republicans understand their brand of their party is the party that wont raise your taxes, cocacola spends time working on its brand and Quality Control c can go to the store you dont have to read the ingredients or ask what it tastes like, you know whats inside it, but if you got your bottle home and he looked down and when you are two thirds through the bottle you notice there is a redhead you not say thinking i wont finish the rest of this bottle right now. It affected wonder if you buy coke in the future and you take a selfie and cocacola would have a big problem it would damage the brand a republican elected officials who voted for tax increases are redheads. The damage the brand for everyone. They confuse small children both nature of the world. Mom, you said so moving the two parties into separate directions has made it difficult to cut taxes when democrats are in charge. It easier to cut the Republican Party is in charge. We are going to have a tax cut every year the republicans at the house and senate. Anything that doesnt get into this package is not lost for 30 years, makes it easier to print and complete bill that doesnt do enough it doesnt enough to reduce the cost savings and investment make a list of things that are not in the spill. Thats not a list of disappointments. Its a list of things will do next year or the year after. I would suggest to those companies that say i didnt get enough out of this, if you help get this across the finish line you can be at the beginning of the one next year. Host and kick people in your shins here at the end of the line will resolve other peoples problems. That will make it easier for interested parties to be supportive of the bill that does many good things but not everything. The irs is still there. The tremendous step forward in progress politically it will pass because it does not endanger general votes. After all the stuff the other day the senate voted to pass a Congressional Review Act to go after the trial lawyers which they say their anti consumer. You have united Republican Party voting, everybody just after this dustup. The press covered the dustup and miss the dramatic series that overrode the dodd frank regulation we now to get out. Within hours it affected nobody slow. We lost two people because trial lawyers of police on them. Not ownership perhaps you would lose those anyway whether best friends with the president or not. Cheerful news can pass, think some people make a case with all the cool things it will do thank you. [applause] thank you very much. A lot of great insights i would like to associate myself with his optimism. If i cant replicate his passion. Im optimistic will have a tax bill. Im hopeful people are optimistic and thats weather here not just for the. Here because you believe therell be a tax bill and you want to know more about it what it might look like or what it should look like. So i the if you think of how to message 70s issues we have heard when this debate has heated up about folks talking about that concept and oftentimes they say i am for tax reform want to cut taxes and cut tax rates and closed loopholes but that ways sounds pretty good because people are not in favor of tax loopholes. Another way to say the same thing is someone to cut taxes and tax rates and broaden the tax base and they think if you say that to a broader audience of constituents that may go over okay. I think that because to understand tax cuts and lower rates it doesnt really affect them 51 to cut taxes are lower the rates and raise taxes at the same time that doesnt go over well at all and that is the winners and losers problem mentioning in the introduction and that is the challenges. So tax rates a and creating winners the there is plenty of evidence of that. But it is then the of by neary choice to see that play out with a course outline them probative leaders have introduced talk about cutting tax rates like doing some things to of run negative repeal deductions or credits and there are good reasons for that in defense of these repeal of the special provisions because they are a distortion very they make people make choices they wouldnt otherwise make. Using that as a tool that lawmakers are deciding how to go over and over push or pull taxpayers into making different decisions then we end up with the system bowlfuls and some people have high tax rates. So those distortions are often times as well. So it is about taxing everything once tax everything just once but tax everything and move in that direction. With the budget resolution was to reduce taxes over the next decade by 1. 5 trillion budget from the proposals they also talk about a system that is simpler with a broader base. Then read double the standard deduction and repeal state and local Tax Deductions and some fairness then with more tax cuts with those offsets and when you add that together looks like a net tax reduction to afford more tax cuts overall. I want to focus on one aspect of the tax reform which is what is happening on the business side. Those that know them revenues raised from the payroll tax is a huge tax but that ordinary income tax is very get most of our revenue from taxing wages and workers and households. But 10 percent of that comes from corporations and which taxes to cut first war which yield the most benefit we dont know that by looking at where we get the revenue. We know that through economics that is easy to understand because as somebody said yesterday with a milliondollar tax on Airline Flights but we dont know Airline Flights that doesnt mean it is a distortion hillary. So this is the tax saving is the most distortion area that i think everybody who follows tax policy knows two things about the Corporate Tax cut. The highest tax rate in the industrialized world. Everybody else has cut their rate we are 35 and as a consequence our system is not competitive with our competitors. Everybody has heard that over a decade there has been a campaign at least to cut the Corporate Tax rate of those are the arguments. So what . What does that mean . Nobody has made the case why i as a worker should care so much the ceo of four passes it on top of a company where he is the ceo with the system is less competitive bmw. What does it matter to me . We have heard it is the worst but we dont pay that we pay individual income tax. What we havent heard is a strong argument why i should care. It is true but nobody has done a good job as a lie that matters and telex couple weeks ago quite frankly. Then the argument started to shift it became a debate but there is a big argument going on right now why we should care. We know corporations collect tax than broadly speaking he could own the business or work set the business so who is the loser . For a long time there was a consensus or a agreement that goes back decades among liberal and conservative economist the shareholders, the owners bore the brunt of the Corporate Income tax. Then people started to revisit that question to look again at the evidence to recognize the Economy Today is different of 20 or 30 or for your 50 years ago so this burden is different as well. And quite frankly it may have been true but where that came from was the view the economy was simple that the economy is generally closed meaning not open to trade so if you tax capital if you owned it did you bear the brunt of the tax. Other than that it doesnt matter because it is fixed. That is not how the economy works today. Is much more open from 50 years ago. There is an infinite amount of capital lot of really but we do know that when Business Opportunities are good in one country whether france to germany or the netherlands or canada people take their money and go to that place they build factories and hire workers of that is not United States so put people behind Corporate Tax reform it will bring activity here. That is the first thing. Second and bring reported profits here as well and were in a very dynamic globally economy we have not closed as of yet even though we have threatened we have a relatively open economy and when the Corporate Tax rates changed dramatically profits will shift back into the United States with an increase of Real Investment and that consequence of that change will have consequences for the workers in those factories because their wages will benefit. It is not a complicated model to suggest that in we can get those defects so with the it economic advisers it could be 4,000 her household other people have different numbers the Tax Foundation said it could be 200 others from the wall street journal a few weeks ago and if its hard to know because we have not done this in a long time but it is an experiment because we know theoretically that when other countries have done less to this than wages will go up. Celaeno they will be better off that doesnt mean the shareholders will be better off. There is a lot of chatter not only about though wage question lives are give it is 1800 or 4,000 also the gdp overall we should be confident if we can bring their rates down we have to be cognizant of the net budget impact. But we can have a tax reform that positive for it the overall economy. So those with a better system the size of the u. S. Economy will be larger than it otherwise would be sold to take time when it is fully realized during that period of time the economy will grow faster and reach a new higher level and we will be better off as a result. Sometimes people complain from 10 growth a thing that is misleading but i absolutely believe we can see faster Economic Growth and good tax reform fiscally responsible to bring a corporate rate to make us lower than our competitors to bring in a lot of revenue. So that dynamic scoring is something we should think a lot about because there is a good chance there is so much on shore of corporate profit we will lose far less revenue than otherwise suggested. I share the optimism i do think it will take a little bit of time. It will not wrap up before christmas but that doesnt matter lawmakers will get this done early next year and there will be benefits as a result. Thank you. [applause] thanks for being here i will talk about individual tax changes on the business and. With the republican plan with the lower marginal tax rates wide everyone that . Lower rates encourage people to do productive things and discourages them from doing unproductive things like tax avoidance and the evasion. Cutting the top tax rates is important. Ronald reagan the top rate back to 1981 then it dropped further in 1986 down at 20 . The 1986 Tax Reform Act was remarkable if you would get the vote counted large bipartisan majority of the house and senate in 1986 to drop the top personal rate at 20 of remarkable today it is up 40 republicans talking at dropping in at 35 which is progress. Why is that important . I will get a little long tv touches as tax rates rise economists say that it is a standard proposition in economics the deadweight loss the tax rises if we double the tax increases for for the 40 percent is tax rate four times more damaging than 20 basic economic theory the damage is troubling for the economy. Also high earners are dynamic with their earning and investing behavior. You get the biggest bang for the buck in tax cuts with a strong behavior response it is also the true it is more than opinion the people at the top are highly productive it is true the top end of that distribution with hollywood people like Kim Kardashian however the bulk of those at the top venture capitalists are doctors or Brain Surgeons they are important to the economy doing more for Economic Growth to cut their taxes than the wage earner like me. For these reasons countries have slash personal income tax rates for car talk about how Corporate Tax rates have fallen but its also true with individual rates in the 80s the average top rate for individuals was 64 percent at the time we were up 55 . Then we slash rates 1986 and we remain below the average for about three decades up through 2013 then the bush tax cuts expired and since then United States has had a higher top personal rate than the average countries. And for individuals the averages 43 percent. The United States is punishing those higher earners. The number of years ago fire in the United States has the most progressive tax system i dont think it is a good thing. The top 10 percent pay 45 percent of all income and Social Security taxes the average is 32 . For country that should be a haven for opportunity we have punishing taxation at the height and is bad economics. I will talk about the g. O. P. Framework with the dropping of the tax brackets down and three lower brackets the republicans will also double the standard deduction increasing the Child Tax Credit. That wont do anything. Because he dont change the individuals workers marginal behavior but it is true that doubling that standard deduction would be a big implication i the Capital Gains tax will play a unique role in investment was start of Companies Nearly all of the countrys has a lower tax rate. It is around 16 so republicans will come back in future years to capitol lawn negative tackle the problem. So with the distribution or who gets the tax cuts there was a lot of discussion in the media of tax cuts for the rich the Tax Policy Center analyze the republican plan with the results that showed it favored high earners they do have topnotch analysts and economists but going in a liberal direction and i will give you an example their results showed the middle earners have an average tax cut of 650 higher earners 8,400 but the Tax Policy Center did not show how much they pay in tax so i found a 400 tax cut for the highest earner is 12 the for the higher earners is 20 percent said they did not show this but that underlying number shows the bigger earners get the big kid bigger percentage tax cuts so they are modeling so with dynamic scoring has a lot of discussion that affects the overall revenue estimates for the tax bills but with dynamic scoring is very important to distribution to show that high earners would be better because there were static another issue is the allocation of the tax Policies Center receiving the tax burden of the shareholders which shows the republican plan benefits higher earners but the reality is the most conservative economists think the burden lands on the workers of you cut the Corporate Tax rates in the long run workers are the beneficiaries. So the point is to be cautious about who benefits from the tax cuts but those are complicated. So to discuss those distribution tables. They ought to leave those to the other party and republicans sought to focus on how they benefit everyone. They suggested we dont need a tax cut for that purpose of tax reform is long term Economic Growth. As noted in the wall street journal with the supplyside tax bill at a time of full employment because those labor markets are fairly tight with the supplyside tax cut. It generates more Business Investment and Job Opportunities and higher wages and in my view the tax plan so far would advance those goals to benefit every american so the challenge going ahead as republicans retain the most supplyside elements of their plan in dont get watered down. Thanks for being here will give the podium to ryan. [applause] thanks to all three of you a very optimistic analysis so now we will take 10 minutes for questions. Just say who you are. [inaudible] is that the most important thing . Corporate taxes are an issue but keeping republicans in their seats dont you believe there will shivah should be respected . The biggest winners of the tax package are those who dont have a job today and did not have one during the obama years to get one because of Economic Growth they go from zero negative day wage those give 4,000 per family with an increase wage that is good bet that is not as big a deal as the guy used to have a job or didnt have a job and now does. That is where the damage that was done by the high tax rates at 35 socialist china is at 25 then we wonder why we can compete with the chinese. We did that to ourselves. Stop damaging yourself is step number one and that is the biggest winners of people who dont have jobs just coming into the labor force and have been waiting outside i dont think the economys doing well im tired of hearing this people who quit looking for work for growth briefly is not heroic that used to be a little less than normal so we need a much stronger economy but the biggest beneficiary is the guy who gets the job those who are that person or married to that person that is the biggest political win to pick up seven seats in november and hold the house than me get back to serious tax cuts after the election. This is the order of. Also with the issues you have to make a distinction between policy that is popular in surveys when they analyze the tables and figure out if it is win or lose it may not be popular but the results may be so with those Corporate Tax growth people would consider that in the round rather than thinking of the debates as the bills go through from paris. Grover you were optimistic their current tax reform bill will become a lot. Why you think that . Several. This is bin in the works three years everybody things we started one month ago. The house and senate have been coordinating over months the house and senate and leadership have been talking daily least six months this is pretty negotiated you saw how seamlessly we saw the house passed a budget a bunch of people didnt want to vote for the budget that they did in the house and the senate said what would you like different . Survey amended theres this is an incredible amount of house and Senate Coordination working together. And then they had to vote for their measure so we see them work it isnt quite fred astaire but it is close with them working together. With each of these also im sorry, it is to dimensional per go up and down. It is not a lot of moving parts it is not health care. There is not a huge financial interest like Insurance Companies or hospitals or pharmaceuticals fighting because they are paid off and undoing obamacare they dont get the deal but we dont have that in the same way with tax reform were cutting everybodys taxes it is an easier sell all the republicans know how to cut taxes with small countries they dont know how to pronounce but they will cut taxes. Crises and unusual unification of purpose of the business side for years in washington i have lamented these corporate lobbies will fight for their narrow thing and not worry about reform but i have seen so many corporate ceos on cnbc the last few years pushing for broad reform. They are unified so it is a strong show of support so we hope that unity stays together. Those to say dont tell anyone if the rates were not a part of it they bush cared deeply the to bring the rates down and that subchapter s merely unifies the Business Community they all care deeply about the rates. There is no mention of the National Debt with 20,000 every second so how important is the responsibility to you . I worry about the longterm fiscal outlook. I think we need to think about getting back in balance but i would say in context of tax reform we should distinguish between the 10 your budget number of policy with the longterm budget consequences. I think it is very reasonable to be concerned and to recognize there are costs associated with transitioning from the tax code we have to the tax code we want to. There are reforms that have positive revenue in the nearterm but Large Revenue impacts outside the of revenue. So there may be a mismatch within the budget window so we have the frame work but it is totally reasonable to say we need to finance that transition but that said we need to be cognizant of long term budgetary consequences but by recognizing the dynamic nature of fiscal policy thinking how we could be better off or the next day it does take time to make the adjustment negative adjustment but once it does we have of Broader Tax Base and other reforms will take effect it depends on the details that we may not necessarily face the same long run budget consequences within 10 years. The deficit is an interesting and an important number the difference between two very important numbers are much the government spends is the dead weight cost whether they borrow or steal that is the dead weight cost. How much the government takes from taxes and how they do it is important so win people focus on the deficit is because republicans said we are against deficit spending. They said that so they didnt think anybody would care but it is the total spending that is the problem. Deficit spending is as stupid concept he saw the use of deficit as antispending to be very pro Government Spending but conservatives said free market People Limited government to say deficit spending make a mistake they should be talking about spending. Raising taxes to pay for Big Government does not make Big Government go away just encourages them because then they spend more. We have to raise taxes. Those who dont mind deficits with field on the stimulus or obamacare creating new entitlement programs that now with tax cuts it is a deficit. That is why the thirdparty candidate ross perot the republicans are against deficits they all agree that they cannot do it. But theyre using it to mean to do different things. So we should be clear about what we are doing and in the long run not to add deficit not to be spending less with the economy growing so much so the deficit could be what they used to distract and making it difficult to have a conversation with liberals. And the foreperson watching tv says i dont understand why they cannot agree. It is immoral and unethical to throw this cost of Government Spending on to future generations i think why the tax bill it is very important to make sure the vast majority of reforms and cuts are supplysides though the economy will get the flow of revenue. If you have the expansion of Child Tax Credit i get what they want to do that but if it causes 50 billion per year revenue loss, that will stay in the long term if you take that 50 billion cut the Corporate Tax or other supplyside reforms so that corporations will report more income with the flow of revenue back in the United States the government is the winner in the long run so i hope they focused on progrowth not just those tax cuts that are the short term giveaway. One more question. You touched on broadening the tax base and also people who dont have jobs being of beneficiary but how confident are you those tax cuts will broaden the tax base curve there is an industry that will benefit more where they come from . I am optimistic. I am very optimistic across industries they have faced different tax burdens so tax reform should even now that burden. I a degree if you dont have a job get a job. That would be great with the low unemployment rate. I dont know that i hope so and i think that they may. But there is an opportunity and that means more things happening here in the United States. It is a like it is a single Silver Bullet people have to want to work better generally people do want to. And the tax reform is more likely than not to lead to more investment. Is pretty good. I think one of the big beneficiaries of the politics it will be easier and vice armstrong Economic Growth with lousy Economic Growth the weakest recovery in modern history and everybody is grumpy because they dont have jobs or cannot move so the of participation rates are going down. It is still an ugly number. If we get the growth that we should get for your to roll young to remember but when reagan cut january 834 million jobs were created 1 million in october. 6 million jobs created in one year for that tiny growth which included those reregulation changes but Trump Administration has been doing help it awful things with the regulation that will be the untold story people will say that tax cut was big and the regulation was a large part of that growth. Why do people get grumpy about International Trade and immigrants . They think itll have the job because the immigrant took it. Or something was soldan expansively with strong Economic Growth people were cheerful because they see themselves as beneficiaries in the immigrant and not take their job because they dont have a job. It makes for a less grumpy electorate not just economic benefits. That is all we have time for but just before you head off please give the usual applause. [applause] so with health care in your portfolios were doing an event november 15 called liberating telemedicine. We hope to see you soon. [inaudible conversations]. Mexican americans in a particular were viewed as public enemies if not number one then number two right behind japanese americans. They were not seen as american. With this site has the original slave owner was very active in the slave trade so one of the things he decided to put in his yard was a slave Auction Block the auctioneer stand. That is a huge reason why this site is so powerful. With men and women and children after this there would have been scattered all over the United States. So to put that over the door which is carved with flowers and ribbons and acorns probably the finest example in 100 years subcommittee on border security. Subcommittee on border security. [inaudible conversations] the subcommittee will come to order without objection we can recess at any time we welcome everyone to todays hearing oversight of the Refugee Admission Program i now recognize myself with the opening statement. By a long been a supporter of refugee addition programs and the humanitarian mission that it serves. The United States and under which we live should give to those who face persecution by their government that at some point to be free of dexterity to see the work firsthand those whove been able to avail themselves and drive but just like with many Government Programs that start with the best of intentions and over the your need updates the time has come for reform a few problems that have come to light include fraud with executive authority and threats to National Security the House Judiciary Committee has highlighted some of these deficiencies. For instance we know in 2015 the fbi director made statements about the inability of Law Enforcement officials to properly that applicants for Refugee Status those officials acknowledged that state and local consultations to the Refugee Resettlement process has not been as robust as needed in all cases. In fact, i have been approached regarding this issue they are concerned about the localities represented that simply wanted to resettle as many refugees as possible with the issue of fraud i am pleased we have the gao here to discuss to report on this issue one of which highlights potential fraud