Reasons, but the number one reason today that i love aei is because only here is a conference on government statistics more popular than the rolling stones. That is a great thing. This is a topic that doesnt normally get headlined, but lets face it, in a time when the phrase alternative facts has entered the american lexicon, is anything more important than what were going to talk about today. At aei we arent completely dedicated to the proposition that rigorous, rocksolid Empirical Data are essential for evaluating the success and failure of Public Policy and for ensuring that we are fulfilling the true purpose of our work which is to help more people live a better life. We are delighted to partner with the Brookings Institution and the hamilton project to examine this critical subject and we are co releasing a paper on the topic and this is a free event for that paper. I want to introduce our panel in our keynote speaker. Our panel today starts with Martin Feldstein of harvard and the president emeritus of an ber. Rebecca blank the chancellor of the university of wisconsin madison. Alan davis the retail federation, David Lenhart from the new york times, and diane whitmore, director of the hamilton project and senior fellow at brookings. Finally, let me introduce robert ruin. Robert is the founder of the hamilton project and a leading voice on many economic issues. He is also the cochair of the council on Foreign Relations and a board of trustee. A lot of institutions and many others. Previously, as you all know, he set aside a privatesector career to serve as the director of the nec and then as the 70th secretary of the treasury please join me in welcoming robert rubin. [applause] thank you. For those of you who were frightened that i am in the keynote speaker, i am not the keynote speaker. I promise you. We had about 30 minutes of comments and i thought everybody would find it fascinating but he didnt think so, so we will pass on that. I will make a few comments. First let me welcome you. I will make three comments. First, ai and the hamilton project, most likely have different views on a lot of subjects did to influencepeddling data with phonology and analogies and projections handed seems to be the obligation of appointed and elected officials to detect the intellectual integrity of the data. And nelson think it is the responsibility of the of media and the financial analyst and the policy organizations to hold the political system accountable for maintaining intellectual integrity of our data and that is the point of today and with that i will turn the podium over. [applause] that families must navigate the complexities of the new technologies and innovative business practices. To have reliable information of informed choices. The agencies provide an important source of this information. Collecting data for the common good when James Madison argued the commercial and manufacturing would allow congress to represent the interests of its citizens. If you can read on the screen instead of conjecture. To be well understood by a the public for which Government Data is collected. Like dedicated careerist Civil Servants onefifth of 1 the Data Collection is rigorous to be conducted with procedures and operate in a transparent fashion to be constantly corrected and revisions are made that the highest quality data is available. To refine and improve the measures theyre politically independent the they are few in number with limited access to the data but the entire culture is organized around protecting the security there all the handle on the staff by indeed to know basis and that confidentiality against individual respondents. The highlights a portion of government statistics of the economy and Public Policy. It is useful to businesses and policy makers. And in this era of big data to forecast sales but the firms own data is not enough with great value that is complemented that is collected by the government. And as a result of the businesses data that is consistent to allow comparisons in the titular to provide information of range of information of the economic activity. To make extensive use to decide when and where that target reports using data to taylor product mixes and advertising. The date data can be used to understand where they could be found that shows the number of the engineers with talk highlights of others in be also see their share of the elderly in the local area. To provide detailed information across local areas. The lead distribution of the h. B. One be set and the bureau of Economic Analysis of the total imports and exports we can break this down to show the u. S. Energy exports overtime that the u. S. Relied on the net imports that the Domestic Production of energy shot up that was previously unavailable to congress and the rose sharply the Energy Information administration shows by the year 2026. That sector has seen a sharp increase since the year 2000 and policymakers with the International Trade agreements by sector and federal data is made by the policy makers to evaluate Public Policy. Is there a backup . So i will live to the next an employer rate. [laughter] you can follow along in your book those bureau of labor statistics of the unemployed rate and the Participation Rate that is the number of people without a job from those in the labor force produces a number of alternatives and one of these measures to discourage workers for those who have parttime work from fulltime work and then to be substantially higher. And often used with the recent decline in labor Participation Rates. Also the increasing share that is critically important. Researchers have used uh data of the perot were policies with a womans employment they have also used it to understand the increase the participation of the Disability Insurance program. Family is gain insight especially around major life defense with a major field of study or across occupations to be useful. But to be sure there are important shortcomings we could strengthen that Data Collection with major limitations on the share the we also do aboard job to collect information also of great concern is the increasing rates of under reporting of certain behavior. And the administrative and across federal agencies and with the efficiencies of the agencys. In with policymakers across that philosophical expect trump to recognize and to join in the conversation on twitter also for our twitter chat. The with the of vital role. [applause] this is a topic that is a favorite of mine as a math major in college but we are going to talk about this topic and we also want to invite you as it is my understanding please some bright your questions down. So unmasking each of the panelist as a go down the line those accounts from the academic background with the importance of this data so for your opening remarks depending on the expertise of why this is good and right we should have faith. There are very few things talking about statistics and i am delighted with brookings to put this together. And we cannot take that for granted but i will mention four things and the first is the accuracy of the data to figure of how to do that right. And to do research with those agencies and to be constantly involved. With the actual collection but critical that includes not appearing to benefit any particular group. Like the gdp data to make assure and the worsted goes into the hottest singles chart person can file a story. Of the highly important one. And with the public availability. So you can go wind to do Different Things with that. And then to Say Something looks funny. And then look at those government agencies. And added hasted be fighting against accuracy. And then to say right up front. And then they are far from perfect. And we need to do a better job. And to that extent of the credibility. And to retract the economy in with those statistics to appreciate with these expenditures. With the Unemployment Rate the cpi of the Social Security check in the states percapita it mandate and a promise you people do not want that to change and that requires the update is in the early housing information if not hundreds of billions of dollars and that accuracy to the matters but britain into statutory law and to keep this data that is support important so i will stop there. But all the to give you a context so the largest privatesector employer in the country so that is critical for the larger economy as a whole. And theres only one of the location that is important because of their own data for those who are trying to understand in the final statistic is that for us as the first employer for many people well was meeting about teen unemployment. And to get the meadows first jobs and so from our perspective to many parts of the business as the association which i can better understand what is happening from the economic perspective. And then looking at retail sales with those Employment Trends in many different types to determine with the expenditure pattern meeting those demographics and then to understand the product selection. We have been working non the last three years using Government Data to fill that narrative to better understand what is happening so to understand every year with forecasts holidays spending and that is critical because there is a lack of bias and adds credibility and that is what to expect the the coming months also to help the established the economy and it also helps us to understand what is happening where the shift could be occurring because of their are a number of different ways both large and small retailers. So want simple and useful way if you want to invested day country it is important for the statistics one of my a colleagues went to the Central Bank Governor and then to say what would you like it to be . [laughter] and those illustrated to tell you very importantly that we are a hedge fund and which country do we want to invest . From those Data Collection issues . Into still had of the number of issues into or give those that are the most challenge to barrault costs in the Financial Markets and a cross of board for what is actually going on in this country and to remember that tremendous data. And may have of lot of issues elsewhere where we start to discuss in a number of the emerging markets. So if you take the 41k lead other problems with of policy makers so this is of problem for investors to of a Significant Impact on the returns that you get. So i do think these countries will do the right things in that is critical in the global perspective for those not doing their right. And then to think without for a one k. This is all very important about the narrative is this Company Investing in a good product or the right product . With the health care or transfer station so was it is the data showing . It is absolutely critical to be the lowest of any premium that all of the Financial Market to open and uh door this is a just wall street and then the fact of even have this debate at all. Im not a producer of data but i am making consumer. And to be out there and available that come from others so this morning we have new employment insurance and uh big drop the zero lowest level and is two decades as low as this. That is uh havent from the chairman of the economic advisers to have the ongoing uptodate not just the president s brother senior members. Such field of pulse of the economy. And i could not do that with the data from the government agencies. From the National Bureau and one of the most useful things that i did for access to the daily data. And to take that from the federal the d. A. To make that available and with that ongoing inventory. And to come now to. That is for a much better informed group of researchers that for nothing for free and also teach a course at harvard this large group of the undergraduates so when day, not to be at number or to and to encourage them to god to the website to go with this same type of data but i remind them to be very careful to interpret the data. For what they seem to be. Soon to talk about in detail is the real growth rates of gdp and personal income and productivity the agencys to do to collect data following a very strict protocol. And to the real output there are Serious Problems but i will come back to that later in the discussion. Son to talk about those shortcomings so with those challenges listing a couple of things if you agree with this and what is the most important . And did has plummeted if uc the 888 number then you know,. And with those in institutions and declines and then from the census so also seems that data that we are collecting and then a lesson this in their interest to do. Is useful for society to have that would be damaging for facebook and google interest. Third with astrid of entire lecture all society that the data is made that but to be more into the mainstream claiming that they just make up their employment. And now we have the of president who make statements about data whether about voting reflections or the unemployed rate with the general strains of anti intellectualism. So how can you trust anything . We have really squeeze despite that protecting a ready over the age of 65 to do with budget cuts and now protecting nonmilitary. In die was led invite any of you to disagree or to add an item. So what are the stories with the bureau corrects when of the head of the Weather Bureau somebody said i dont understand and done understand you can get this on the weather channel. [laughter] so why do i need anybody corrects me know where it comes from. So from that lack of understanding with the enormous numbers of ways. But i completely agree that the advent of big data from the private sector as well with very High Frequency data and the ability to integrate to find out to make that publicly is the accessible. That is an interesting question as well. Is it so small that it is not so much like Scientific Research your do you actually worry whether we will have the funds to collect . There will be a tendency. I the every part of every receiver of Government Funds with the National Endowment of the nih and all of these what the economists will tend to call the public good and my benefiting from it and us tendency to prompt them all to gather. The ready sees that as an individual service. To ramp up tens of millions of dollars. Where it has to be ramping up and that is exactly the point of big budget cuts of the discretionary side in past to have some exceptions to that. It does care proprietary information so that really is private information in this engine side information so lot of people in hedge funds looking and satellite images to figure out is the industry really as strong . And use this as an indicator in with this proprietary information to certain they say this is a good idea the this is no longer a public good to say that just comes with thatll all cluster problems and then to get more information on what is going . With the real separation between your members. Yes and to the point of accuracy looking at what is happening now retailers can tell you by the second how things are going. So yes there is some disparity with the large retailers of infrastructure can understand and some disparity with how quickly we received Government Data as a complement and give the scale. If there is an increase this is interesting trend to recognize and for Small Businesses they do value Government Data but from our perspective a lot of the retailers have access and to leverage the data to level of Playing Field so from our perspective we are concerned and that is funding. It was significant in states like beckys and in pennsylvania and elsewhere. Its a really big deal right now for in the long term ill confess im pretty optimistic. Were in a transition in which polling has to move from your phone ringing at home. But we are all carrying around these things and someone will be able to figure out and the government can survey people that will be at least as good, and my being certain of a fuzzyear headed opt miss here about that . A fuzzyear headed opt miss about that . We are concerned about nonresponse as well. I also think theres this challenge of needing to evolve the way that the population is evolving and collect information differently than in past about Different Things, and i think to your point about of course we have how Many American family dont have a home phone and how too you look at cell phones and email and texting. Broadly looking at dat and how to collect it, we have to think differently, and i think sometimes that lends itself so more difficult decisions of we have never done it this way or make sure we hey accurate data and i think understanding tackling the nonresponse issue is critical. Its also true that we have to move away from thinking about the survey is the only way you do this, but a surveys are increasingly difficult and the merging of survey data and of administrative data is important. The main problem is knowing what your total sample frame looks like and why do we use houses because houses dont move. I can tell you if you have a response from every house, but phones come and good and people and if you really have difficulty when you try to think creatively about how to do this differently, knowing what is your same sample looking like but you have relatively complete samples. One problem with nonresponse is that we want to know what the nonrespondents would have said that hey had they said something. So what do the statisticattal agencies can compute otherwise we dont bet a gate picture of the hole if dont know how much imputation is going on and howing a security i imagine most users of data dont realize that when there is a missing answer, where the respondent doesnt want to say how many weeks they worked last year, because they cant remember. Youre not trying to hide anything. Or what their income was in the previous year. Something is imputed to it and that may introduce error, bias, confusion, and its important for that to get more attention. One of the hardest things nor Polling Industry is there is no more randomization in many ways. For a long time the Polling Industry says i says we have to use phone numbers. You cant randomize email addresses but you can randomize phone numbers its not that meaningful you. Cant randomize who actually responds and so there are no theres no more perfect answer and its got be a mix of things just as you were saying. What we have is we weight it theres so much room for error to creep into that process. My colleague, nate cohen, had a piece where he dug into the microdat of a survey and realize third was one africanamerican trump supporter in a poll that was moving the numbers, because that supporter was eighted so weighted so heavily. So, before we open it up to everyone here i want to invite each of you to pound the table a little bit. What is a specific statistic dont all have to do this what is the specific statistic you have concerns about its accuracy. I know you have some thoughts. Several things. You can think. Gdp and productivity and thats already a lot of concern going into this and when we discuss, we have had a productivity slowdown or say, gdp has been weak for a while, will revisions go from one minute to the other. So the way we thought about the narrative can change when revisions come around. Thats not an easy path to change, how gdp is done, but you walk around with a certain story and tase is what is going on for activities weaking are growth is weak. Man we have been measuring it the wrong way and you can have issues how gdp is measured, what is productivity and things going into the thoughts about the right way to measure. So we have issues. One thing in particular that has more attention, more recently, if we need to go back and say that exports are certainly Something Else that needs to be an subtracted. Then you open up a door to if we can do that we can discuss any statistic. Its possible the election bias of who is answering the phone but many of these imputations to get some different calculation if you say that the sample was different than what we had and cant be somewhat dramatic in some cases but the end of the day we are somewhat worried about the recent noises of what does the trade balance exactly show. Would you be okay if in was change but it is still possible to do comparisons or is a big change dangerous. The United Nations has clerk standards and we cant just say that those are the 190 countries in the world, they dont understand it. We can do any the u. S. Much better0. Emerge markets say if the u. S. Doesnt have to follow the standards, why die have as the president of some emerging market to follow those standards. Marty. I am concerned what happens when we go from nominal gdp to real gdp and its not about the recent numbers. Im not concerned about the problem of why we have had a slowdown in productivity in the last few years. Thats a deep problem, its an important problem, and i dont have a solution to it. What im concerned about is that over the long run, the way in which the government as a technical matter goes from nominal gdp and nominal incomes and real income leads to serious underestimates and i think that has a significant effect on how people view the way the economy is going, and what the future holds, and it has political as well as just economic effect. What do i mean . When you look the surveys that ask people, how is your family done for the last five years or over the last decade . The general answer is, pretty well. Of course not everybody but most people say theyre better off than five or ten years ago. But when you look at the official statistics, they dont say that. The official statistics say that we have had no increase in real income for the middle over the last two decades. So when people asked not asked how are you doing the question is how is the country doing, its terribly. They dont know how the countries is doing. All they know is what the read in press or hear from politicians and that reflects the official statistics, and the official statistics say we have had let than one and a half persons growth per capita income per year over the last 20 years, and if theres been a shift of some of that income toward the higher part of the income distribution, then as the economic report of the president said a couple of years ago the middle didnt see anything improvement at all in its real income. I dont believe that and so ive been studying what the bls and the bea do too estimate that, and i think they try to do the best job they can, but they have a very faulty methodology for doing it. And two ways. One is, what do they do about quality change . When a putt product changes, how do they decide how much better the product is, how much more real value there is in it . And they dont have a good way of doing it. What they end up doing is looking the cost of product change from one year to the next. The cost but not the value to the consumer or the user. And the basic rule is, not 100 of all products but in general, the basic rule is if it doesnt cost more, it isnt a better product. We all know that is not right. Then when it comes to new products, new drugs, new technology, they dont even try to capture the benefits to the public to users, of the new products. So, i think were underestimating that number that roughly 11 2 per capita Income Growth of the last couple of decades that number could be twice as large, three timeses large. We dont have a good fix on that. And thats not just a u. S. Problem. That is a problem for every industrial country. If you look the imf suggested statistical methods, they are what basically the bls, the bea do in the united states. So were all in this same situation of understating how well were actually doing, and i think that contributes to antiglobalization, i think it contributes to a kind of antibusiness. I think its an unfortunate thing dont know how to fix the problem but we have too change the perception about what were seeing in those reports. I agree. Thats vital issue. One thing before we i have a specific example. I think its important from retail and economy perspective. Talked about Consumer Spending at 70 part of gdp and when the attended of commerce reports Monthly Retail sales you see a lot of conversation about what is happening in the industry, with the consumer where is the Consumer Spending, how is that happening . And anyone who follows the Retail Industry or anybody who shops knows that the consumer is shopping differently. And one of the challenge wes have with the department of commerce data they always categorize retail sales built where the sale occurs, not the type of retailer is who selling that product. Walmart this, largest retailer in world in the u. S. When walmart reports sales they report sale bits store and in their ecommerce channel. When the department of commerce releases the Monthly Sales thester sale goes into the discount retailer category. Commerce going into ecommerce and thats challenge because theres a big narrative, are stores dying . Are the purr pay retailers going to overtake the traditional brick and Mortar Stores and ought of the ten cities have traditional stows, walmart, macys, home depot and they now their consumers are going there but if you look the department of Congress Data you see an inaccurate reflex how the reflection how the consumer is shopping but a thats take macys store sales and put in Department Store and the macy ecome sales and putting it in the ecommerce category if you look at Department Store sales you would say, well, the Department Store sector is struggling, but ecommerce, thats where we need to invest. Go to amazon. Macyry is says i dont care where you shop, whether dot calm or us. Dotcome we need to under how to reflect the changing Consumer Spending behavior with what is happening today to better understand what is happening with the ecommerce, to better understand what happening with the consumer. Thats fascinating. Didnt know that. Ill add my own. Huge gaps in dat about Higher Education. Its remarkable what we dont know about Higher Education, its an important economic growth. Taxpayer funs it to a great degree of. If you have kid going to college some want to know what is learn at any college, good luck. If you want to know what the Graduation Rate is difficult. The way we calculate the graduation late is flawed. So i just think Higher Education is an area where we have been way too willing to just say particular hi given that Higher Education is so comfortable with data, we trust that everything is hunky dory. The obamaed Administration Made progress. And one little advertisement. The best bees of at that time da from a team of research evers who used tax returns to tell us about an economic portrait of who goes to what colleges. John freedman at brown, other researchers, and that data that we couldnt have had before, and so one thing that is i think really important is in yeah of big data the government continues to allow researchers access to data like that because it leads to enormously important findings. Most of the big thing wes have learn about unequal and mobility in this country have come from private researchers getting access to public data. For that to happen does mean that people have to trust your ability to match data and then keep the individuals private. To lose the match so nobody can track individuals thats one thing that stops data improvements because people dont trust it. Goes back to how to communicate about this and how to be careful. Privacy concerns are obviously real but dont want to go so far that we ill try to go through the questions. Some great questions. One is Derrick Baker reddy oh, would you improve the delivery of Government Data . Current live its spread across web sites and not easy to find, which i dead on should we have a centralized thing . How can we make it easier for people to get data from the different web sites . As you know, the moment the solution to that is there are various private companies, data stream, reuters, have basically said, its incredibly confusing, you can get everything here and they are selling nothing else than Government Data. For a lot of money. And its very expensive. I that it very well and you can call them to fix it. It is confusing and cant just respond just google it. The npr gives it away for nothing. Maybe thats anticompetitive but for nothing is a good price and anybody who wants it goes to nbr. Org ask looks for data releases and signs up and then every day they get the daily releases and then they also have access to this list of all of the data. If you want to go back and see what has happened a week ago or a month ago to some statistic, its all there and easily searchable. I see a number of people from onb in room and i think this is one of the responsibilities of the statisticat office in onb to try to get more of the agencies to release the dat in similar formats and similar searchable tools so theres more consistency. All of the agencies bls this best of putting it online. So anybody from bls here, thank you. If you look the way you can look threw the Unemployment Rate or data and its easy. Please expand on the challenges facing data. The ramifications ramificationse politicalization of data. How to protect the integrate of data. Second question, the assault on data isnt knew but perhaps the ferocity of it is. This calls for a new data defense strategy. How must the federal Stats Community reconfigure its approach to be successful at keeping Data Collection and analysis intact and thriving in the Public Sector . I dont think this is anything that us unique to data. Were at a moment in time where Public Institutions and the concept of public goods is under very strong attack and its not just that people are suspicious of data and no longer want to think about data as common good you see the same thing in my area of Public Institutions where i am told youre not a public goods. They should pay their full freight. I dont think you solve the data problem without in some sense changing that larger dynamic in general, and i wish i had an answer to how to do it but we need more people in leadership positions talking about the value of Public Institutions and of common good type products. You can just dont hear that from almost any leaders right now. Getting your answer then to this question would be, no should private sector users of Government Data be asked to pay nor the dat . Almost impossible to do that. If you want to make the data publicly available, its very hard to segment the markets. Almost impossible. Are there particular statistics that you are worried gee affected by funding cuts . I guess the acf, which has been under attack for quite a while, and is our only source of small area details Demographic Data and income data and if we use the acf i dont know how local governments make decisions. What should be changed about the 2020 census . What would be add to the census we dont have there now. Its remarkable we dont ask about religion. I dont find that remarkable at all. A very strong opposition to having an inventory of who are the muslims and who are the baptists and the jews in the population so i dont you think its good we dont ask about religion. I thick its better we dont. Part of the core separation of church and state. I 0 would go further than that. I would i see that argue. More strongly today than six months ago. Talk about doing it and i think it was in the Current Population survey but not the census and it was on an Advisory Panel and didnt like it then. Cps is a voluntary participation unlike the census and it was argued you can ask about religion in that but shouldnt ask about it in the census but i think they dropped it from the cps as way. Few does phenomenal work on religion. There is a question we have on the census, almost as controversial, which is the race and ethnicity questions and i think we do this categories are incredibly gross, they dont characterize the way lot of people think about themselves very well. And i will also tell you that taking on the question of what should the categories be is one of the hottest political questions. People can mark multiple category but that continues to be a very poor indication for many people about how they themselves identify or race or ethnicity, particularly as the population is changing. Then we publish volumes down by ethnicity which strikes me as a waste of money especially where you can get this online already but we take that at a reason to do everything bit hispanic and nonhispanic. Any prospect of being able to see better into the past . Once when i was on a reporting a story on salt lake city, i went to the Family Research center, kept by the church of Later Day Saints which is a phenomenal resource. I know much of it is now online and i looked up the old censuses of my wifes family and mine and theyre chilling. Used to be taken by hand so youre looking im looking at hand writing of someone who spoke to my wifes great grandfather, its remarkable, and beckor, you think theres a prospect in the future much more of that would be online and could you imagine a time where it would be linked from parents to children which would allow a much richer study of the history of american that has already happened. A number of researchers bev digitized i dont know that they last year is old census dont release the dat until 70 years afterwards but we digitized the data until we hit that point, and there are researchers who have gone in and looked a 1880 the names of the children and tried to link them into the 1900s and look at changes in location and migration as well as changes in economic status. Great work in economic history on that. Very do able ant the data is digitized. Thats a limitation many people dont realize, their snapshots in time and the studies we have following people have been last question, and eachoff how have to answer this. Taking off of what marty does. What is your favorite public data set . You do not have to were going to use a flexible description of favorite. Not your alltime number one but one you look to you like to look up. An underrated data. I would have to Say Something like the weight of gdp. That would not be my favorite. I would say the employment report. Thats measured measured well compared to other things namely independence and accounts. The unemployment report tells you about wages and how many people got a job and what the unemployment raise and we can agree or disagree use to use three or six for the definitions but has a wealth of information what is the state of the business civil and insight cycle and insightful and do we have full employment . The timed for the federal raising rates . Slowing down in number of hours worked . You can get so many answers to so many questions. An advertising pitch for looking the employment report. Its outstanding. First friday of every month with the exception decide s on we the 12th of the month is in this month its the next week rather than on this coming friday. So theres no question that my faith rid re Favorite Reef licees the annual income and poverty statistic. And this is really gives you all of the detail by different demographics and race and ethnic groups groups and you name it how to cut the data, by educational leaflets what is happening to economic well beg in the country wellbeing in the country. Comes out in september. If a a snapshot. So if you want to know you can start putting it together. You can only do that if you have price numbers to deflate by. And thats where we get in trouble with the gdp, the real incomes and all that, if we are not adequately adjusting the price statistics over time for Quality Improvements and for new goods. So, i think over time we dont get the compare sons right. I agree with that. What you care about is relative changes and see whether income goes up in more than one category regardless of price change. Thats right. Marty, your lest is their price deflaters. Do you have a favorite. I agree the employment report is the most interesting thing. You, too. Yes, employment reports. Join me in thanking our panel. [applause] [inaudible conversations] a house youre sight hearing on the tsa misconduct. The Senate Commerce committee looks as new Wireless Technology and the allocation of wireless spectrum and a discussion about Early Childhood education at meeting of the National Governors association. Today the acting head of the Transportation Security Administration testified about allegations that the tsa retaliated against department whistleblowers. Committee members accused the tsa of not cooperating with an investigation by the office of special counsel. Well mary from homeland securitys Inspector General and the head of the office of special counsel. Jason chaffetz oversees the hearing