I want to knowledge the people in houston and those suffering from hurricane harvey. I wish them on behalf of the chamber all the safety and swift as possible recovery from what they are dealing with. The economy is in its 9th year of expansion which is fairly notable. That makes of the third longest in the modern era. By next spring, we we will have tied for second. Curiously, despite the length of the recovery and expansion, we seem to be now possibly heading into aperiod of acceleration. Normally as the expansion goes along, the economy slows but we may have something of an acceleration. The reason for that is somewhat in this chart. If you look to the far left side of november, there is that little dip that corresponds to theperiod before the election and then we have the election and surprising many people, the market has taken off since then, so far a 16 increase, often called the trump bump. Whether President Trump gets the credit for this, historians will determine but that increase in the stock market coincides with the election of President Trump. Why might the economy react that way . The reason i think that you could give is that with the election of donald trump, we had the promise now that Hillary Clintons foot would not be replacing a rock obamas foot on the regulatory break. One thing President Trump was able to do at the beginning of the administration is bring a strong stop to the regulatory outpourings that were underway under president obama. Those regulatory outpourings had a distinct Chilling Effect on Economic Growth. We saw in the Second Quarter that the economy accelerated up to 3 . You dont want to make too much out of a single quarter but thats a promising figure. Its a strong and balanced representation of the economy. There is some hope that that will continue for a while. It will not go on indefinitely, however. Ellen blinder, the former fed vice chair recently wrote an article in which he observed that economies and their expansions dont and it just because they get tired. They dont come to a conclusion just because you have run out of string. They end because something happens. Thats what we will see again. Sometimes, its bad lock, a major war or some economic shock in the world that will trigger a recession. Sometimes there is a bubble developing in the economy and it finally pops. We had the. Com bubble at the end of the bill Clinton Administration and it popped and we had a recession. Prior to that, a recession and George H W Bushs term when the real estate bubble popped. Of course, we have a great global recession when the Financial Markets in the housing popped together. As dr. Blinder observed, we dont have those obvious bubbles in the economy. One thing people might point to is that bond prices are extremely early high because Interest Rates are referring early low and continue to be and have been for some time and appeared likely to be for some time. That is an area of concern. Its been going on for some time. One area where we have to be concerned is in bad policy. The most immediate thing we have to worry about right now is the debt limit. The debt limit is coming due sometime at the end of september early october. We dont know exact we went at which point the treasury will not have the resources necessary to pay all the bills. And we will have a technical default at the very least. Nobody knows how terrible the outcome of such an event will be but it will almost certainly be quite terrible. Thats the example of bad policy thats easy to avoid. We just need to raise the debt limit and that was and thats with the chamber has been calling on the congress and the president to do. It will not be easy but it simply has to be done. If we avoid that and similar examples of bad policy, then the economy should continue to do well. We have the opportunity, even at this late date to do things that would make the economy even stronger. Taking the photos the regulatory break is an obvious example of that. We recently had a big victory on that score 8 in the001 ruling which is a perfect example of taking the foot off the regulatory break. Understand that its not just the regulations themselves and their direct cost but its what it does to the psychology of the Business Community as it things about investing Going Forward. That is the overwhelming effect of the Regulatory Environment, what it does to business psychology and investment. Now that the break is off, if that will have an affect, we will see it first in an acceleration in Business Investment. Other areas where policy can make a huge differences in infrastructure bill. We all know infrastructure needs more funding. Its not in a good state. Additional funding for infrastructure for smart projects would make the economy more efficient and thats a make an economy grow more rapidly. Expanding free trade is another area where we can expand economic efficiency and thats how you make an economy grow more rapidly. Right now, the big deal is comprehensive tax reform. This is the one policy area where congress and the president can buy for make the biggest difference in terms of accelerating Economic Growth in the u. S. Economy, comprehensive tax reform built around lower tax rates, expensing for businesses, a more internationally Competitive International tax system. These are the core ingredients and of congress can get those things done, we will have a much stronger economy for a long period of time. No one should think of the failure to do tax reform means of the economy will go long on the same path weve had recently. If we dont have tax reform sometime this year or early next year, a lot of Business Investment that has been predicated on getting tax reform done will have been poorly made. Business investment will likely contract significantly and we will have a significant period of economic weakness, in my opinion. How week we dont know but is not something you want to run. Its not a risk you want to run. This is not just about if youd do it, things are much better. In the long run, they would be. Its also a matter if you dont attack to form done, youre likely to have a much weaker economy in the latter half of 2018 and the immediate future thereafter. This is why the u. S. Chamber president said failure is not an option on tax reform. Turning to the labor markets, we are in the happy position of finally approaching full employment. It should have happened in 2012 or so. We are a few years late but are finally approaching full employment. The unappointed rate has been at 5 or below since 2015, august of 2015. 5 or so is generally regarded as a proximate and full employment. Were not quite at full employment yet. The way you can tell that is in the last year, we had job growth of 2. 2 million jobs or 180,000 per month. When we are at full employment and the labor force is growing with population, we will have closer to 75,0001 is a thousand jobs. That will be assigned a we are at full employment if the economy is otherwise growing is expected and job growth slows to about 100,000 or so honoring the bases, now you will be at full employment so we are not quite there yet. Another sign of the growth of employment the shows significant steady growth, another sign of how tight labor markets are in one respect is that initial unemployment claims are amazingly low right now. They are running about 250,000 25,000 240,000, excuse me, per week. Thats an externally low number and anything below 350400 suggests expansion. Curious things are going on in the American Labor market. Well never spectacular, we have had solid job growth throughout this expansion. Job growth that exceeded what you would otherwise expect given the other elements of expansion in the economy. On the other hand, we have not had much real wage growth. Wages popped up as you can see here look at that gray bark around 2009 when the recession was. Curiously, real wages popped up in the middle of the recession. What was that all about . We had six months of deflation. If you think about real wages, youve got the nominal wages as the numerator and the price level as the denominator and when you have deflation, even if nominal wages are flat, you get a big jump in real wages. After that, they were stagnant. It fell for a bit and was not until about 2013 that they finally started to rise and did not rise rapidly but consistently year after year. What we expect now that we are getting close to full employment is that we will open the last chapter of the labor market story coming out of the great global recession. We are still dealing in effect with the consequences of that recession. First it was the expansion of employment where you are at full employment and it translates from that into faster real wage growth. That is what we should see Going Forward. Faster real wage growth as employers have to bid more for workers, its an interesting thing. We have heard for months, for years in fact, the story from employers that they cannot find the workers they need. We have had workers without jobs and jobs without workers. Heart that was the skills mitch mast mismatch. Employers and workers have to adjust to what employers are working for an employers have to adjust what they can hire to the workforce is available. That has been a factor but another factor has been that employers were not able to find the employees they were looking for at the wages they expected to pay. As labor markets continue to tighten and employers get increasingly desperate for workers, what you will see as employers will have to revise their expectations of what they were going to pay. The workers they are going to be hiring, their wage increases will percolate through the rest of the labor force. That is a reason why think you will see acceleration in real wage growth Going Forward. Thats great for families and great for Household Incomes. It does have consequences for the rest of the economy, however. For one thing, is real wages start to rise significantly, employers will be looking for opportunities to use more capital unless labor, basic economics. One factor production gets more expensive and you look at the other. The other thing the consequence of this is that Household Incomes will maintain strong growth in the aggregate. Even as labor employment growth slows, you will have an acceleration in wages. But those two factors together and you can sustain the growth in Household Income which is great for maintaining personal consumption. You really want those things to Work Together to maintain personal consumption in the economy and keep Economic Growth going. The consequence however is going to be more pressure on business profits. A lot of businesses have been doing very well in this expansion. Some of them have just been eating out profits along the way as they face higher labor they have been ekeing out higher labor costs. One of the odd things that happens when you get to this part of the business cycle, this part of an expansion is you start seeing an increase in business failures because rising wages become more expensive than the employers can bear and you start seeing an increase in business failures. This is actually a sign of health. The workers will have to find new jobs and the labor market will be tight and they should be an to find new jobs but this is another part of the chapter of the story of the expansion coming out of the great global recession. Its the fact that you will get a slowdown in job growth, and acceleration of real wages and of both of those things occur, youll probably see an increase in business failure rate which will surprisingly and perhaps counterintuitively be a sign of economic strength, not weakness. It does not mean we are sliding toward a recession. It means we are starting to move resources to where they can be used most productively which again is another source of Economic Growth. The bottom line is we are very close to full employment finally. The economy is doing quite well. We are benefiting from a synchronized Global Expansion for the first time in many years. Almost all the Major Economic centers in the Global Economy are doing reasonably well. That means they are all supporting one another. We are all stronger if were all stronger. It means or wages should be rising. And what we have to do right now is make sure this continues. If we want to see this increase in real wages that im talking about, we have to keep the rest of the economy going which means avoiding unforced errors and policy like the debt limit and doing what we can do such things like infrastructure, texas reform, and trade and make sure we get the opponent the economy the policy supported me. If we do those things, especially the tax reform, Congress Passes tax reform and gets a bill to the president s desk in my timely basis, sometimes preferably this year, the economy should continue to do very well for a long time. As ellen blinder pointed out, expansions dont and because they get tired. Dont end because they get tired. We have to maker there is good strength and good policy so they the expansion continues for long time. Im looking forward to setting a record for the longest expansion in history, thank you. Its time to take my millions out of my passport savings account. This is a time of year when thats me, randall johnson, the time of year when the management gets to labor day and typically the unions kick it off with comments about employers along the lines of employers are not doing enough for their employees, they are bashing their employees and therefore they need to join the unions and the reason the membership rate is continuing to climb and not go up despite the fact that unions are overly aggressive in union campaigns. As part of my job to take five minutes and set the record straight. Lets take a look at how our employers treated employees and take some of the views of employees. These are numbers are all good news so they rarely get reported. They are all hard data we have picked from straightforward governmental agencies. It tells quite a story so 9. 9 trillion in total compensation, wages and salaries accounted for a chilean dollars. Employers spent approximate 1. 9 trillion in Employee Benefits or 19 of total compensation. I think its worth noting. And health benefits, health care is a huge it gets a lot of attention on capitol hill and the private markets but we lose track of that in the employerbased system. 177. 5 million americans received their Health Insurance employmentbased coverage. That includes state and local governments as some people might say state and local governments in the private sector, we have 150 million americans receiving their employerbased coverage through employers. Retirement benefits we have a retiree crisis in this country. Social Security Problems are coming up and people need to say more but employers are doing their bit on this. Private employers spent 242 point billion debt to under 42 point billion dollars. Eb retirement plans, 42 million participants. 2014, defined conservation plans covered 94. 6 million participants. That includes active participants and retirees. 89 of employees are eligible to participate in what is defined conservation plans but it does not meet its universal coverage but every employee has access to the 401 k plans but thats an impressive figure. Everyone knows about health care and pension benefits but also in the area of Life Insurance benefits. Paid leave or the absence of that gets attention on capitol hill. I think people need to look at the data straight out of the bls. Paid leave is one of the most Common Benefits offered to employees, over three fourths of employees in the private sector including parttime workers, receive paid time off. 91 of all fulltime workers have access to paid vacation days. Is a less generous in Smaller Companies . These people know their employees and try to work on an ad hoc basis to make accommodations for their employees even if they dont have access to paid vacation days. Is a less generous in Smaller Companies . Happen to have a formal policy. Life insurance is offered to over half of employees in private industry. You might say that ok, thats a lot of data that what will employees think . Here is a recent survey. Approximately 49 of American Workers are very satisfied with their current job and another 30 are somewhat satisfied meaning 79 are either very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their job. Most people feel secure in their job. 80 are either not likely are not too likely to think they will lose their jobs. Thats from october 6, 2016. Even better, august, 2017, a gallup poll shows 95 percent of adults employed full or parttime are totally satisfied with the physical safety conditions of the workforce. 95 of coworkers and 95 with the flex ability of the hours. These statistics only tell part of the story but i think the surveys are very important for you to be aware of when you hear contrary stories from those who paint a dire picture of the workforce. Why are Union Memberships always in decline . Eight years of the Obama Administration running the nlrb. One of the reasons is Union Benefits and a provided by federal or state statutes. Thats true. Another reason is there still remains a problem of union corruption. Sometimes you are on the road and you cannot swing a cat without running into some story about union corruption. The labor department, labormanagement standards are in this area. In 2016, 93 indictments and 87 convictions. Former Union Employees sentenced to home incarceration for embezzlement, Union Officers and embezzling union funds, Union Employees sentenced to prison for larceny of over 154000 and union funds. Embezzling over 350,000 of union funds. I point these out and i can go on one more case, the kansas city star, where it involved the Union Boilermakers where it went on and on about how they pretend to revise their procedures internally and two years later, they were spending the union dues money on lavish hotels, parties, etc. I bring this up because when you talk about the Union Movement, the union site so many workers want to join the union but they rarely discussed the fact the you as an employee have to Pay Union Dues or you will get fired in nonright to work states. Those union dues you have to pay or you get fired and often those union dues wind up getting embezzled by corrupt union officials, etc. Its a story not told about the Union Movement enemies to be focused on. Its not like you can join a union in a nonright to work state that will not pay dues. The dues are used and often misused. I want to point out the bullet about the Public Sector for a decade, the alarming trend of the number of employees in the Public Sector that belongs to a union is approaching that in the private sector. What we have here is a phenomenon of employees in the Public Sector aligning with politicians who will a for bigger spending programs to keep those same employees employed, and those will be paid for by workers in the private sector. This has been a growing issue for over the last 15 years. These show that its becoming a worse and worse situation. Goingte sector is to get eaten up by Public Sector spending. Really quick here, the powerpoint i went to a minimalist approach here. Policy priority, you have papers here on your table real quickly. Jd mentioned, we have had successes and rolling back obamacare regulation. Europe several resolutions, some material on your pick her there. The ocean reunion walk around. Multiple and bouquet interpretations for independent contractors. Lastly, the new one, just revealed the cup of days ago. Laser ceo recording requirements, which have gotten much attention in the press. Its one to know the title vii these were sent back under the paperwork reduction act. I emphasize the word reduction. Is how eeocs justified under the Obama Administration. So this was the old form. This has been on the books for a long time. Eeoc said this under the paperwork reduction reduction , reduction act. This is a new form. Im not quite sure how this is a reduction in paper. The trumpder administration, wrecking and that the prior Dutch Administration under obama failed to work for the reduction act and they may properly exercise the responsibility. This is what we underestimated by eeoc the benefits are overestimated. Authority cises this is one of the few laws they can enforce. Its been like this since the reagan days. Said, weped in and will do our job, and they sent it back to eeoc. Thats what that was all about. Pretty simple. It was a victory for logic and common sense. Between the blacklisting a ceo many things in the Business Community, 1. 52 . 5 billion 2. 7 billion was the fee. All of this money could be used more productively. Going forward, their overtime regulations. Whatever is looking at the National Relations or employer issue. Theres a couple of pieces of legislation on capitol hill, which we strongly support, hr 441. For the last administration did we will survey our members you have policy papers in front of you, which i recommend for your perusal tonight. Theyre also on our website with great length. Even underlying documentation look at this last night. I think you will find them interesting. Health care look. We are going to let the dust is settled. We are to euro we will do next. Come back and restore the Cost Reduction payment. You likely this is a form of higher premiums. Most of the initiatives are important to the increases in premiums i wont say eliminate increases, this is health care. They would otherwise occur. As far as order other priorities are in the documents, you said we are focusing on attention to tax reform we are not giving up on health care. We will let the dust settle and see where it goes. Retirement policy but each regulation we will be heavily a whole them. It hurts the ability of Small Businesses to provide retirement hoist employees. Live a lot going on in terms of retirement also regulations. These are ideas we think we can work with congress on a bike are some basis to get done. Thats something on our website. Want to conclude with and dont have a policy paper on immigration. Its a controversial area and we are trying to figure out where our interests aligned with the trumpet illustration. I will reassert that theres no question that immigration is a whole is an economic benefits of this country. The study some that are endless. That does not mean and thats when he to discuss marriagebased immigration principles. There may be some room we cannot got family immigration. Immigration across the board within some limitations is a benefit to this country look for a Major Chamber white paper coming out in september to reassert these principles with updated resources. Let me say on this point that is immigration was a benefit to this country you wouldnt have cities like st. Louis, detroit, philadelphia, and others actively reaching out to immigrants. These individuals, in the view of those that run the cities, reactivate the economies in those cities. Theyre are not seen as a burden on social where fr social Welfare Services etc. Where mayors have to run cities and meet the bottom line they are actively recruiting immigrants to revitalize economies. That is the best summary of the role of immigration. There are other things going on. I think that we are all aware that the president may repeal daca in the next few or five days. We hope he doesnt. I cannot defend the legal principles of which daca was issued, it is quite complex, but the legal space was unclear. Sensible, but unclear. These people are embedded in the workforce. It seems to us to pull the rug out from under them at this point, when Congress Needs to focus on other issues, would be the wrong thing to do. The same thing with temporary protective status programs which we hear that the Administration Made be considering terminating soon. These programs, millions of workers are embedded in the workforce and we hope the administration moves cautiously in that area. H one visas, to keep post occupant posted on that. It is a program that needs to be revised with greater numbers. It also needs to include certain protections for American Workers to improve the program and we will be working with senator hatch. Immigration is a tough issue with a lot of emotionalism involved. The chambers position has been cleared since 2000 and one, before i had gray hair. We will continue to work with that and find where we can Work Together and with our allies on capitol hill. Now we will open it up for questions. I just ask that you give your name and outlet before you ask your question. Reuters. I wanted to ask you what you think withdrawing from nafta would do to the u. S. Economy. You talk about expansions that could push the u. S. Into a recession. Broadly would you think the Economic Impacts could be. The impacts would clearly be harmful in two different ways. Obviously expanding trade so that we can do best what we do best, and others can do best with they do best, and we are all better off. If you withdraw from nafta, quickly or slowly over time, announcing it at some future date, you are moving in the wrong direction. Specific, it is harmful. General, would be harmful. The president ran on trade policies that were deeply concerning to the Business Community. Since then, his administration has been working through how to manifest those views into actual policy. So far they have been fairly benign. On the other hand, withdrawn from nafta would be a completely different character and suggest that the direction of trade policy is the wrong way to go for the health of the american economy. There is specific questions of livestrong from nafta and all of the Business Investment and relationships predicated on nafta that would be gone. Then there is the broader theme of the harm that would be done to the trade agenda and the direction of trade policy Going Forward, the implications of trade policy Going Forward speaks to the broader psychology within the economy. Like i mentioned in the Regulatory Environment where you have a heavy Regulatory Environment it doesnt affect only those affected by the regulations, but the environment in general for Business Investment. A tax related question. You mentioned the dynamic the economy might contract or weaken if tax reform isnt passed later in this year or early next year. I was wondering if you could define that dynamic further and discuss where businesses should be more cautious taking investments businesses are making those judgments on their own. I wont tell them if they should invest more or less. It is clear that a lot of Business Investment is predicated on certain policy outcomes. With uncertainty attached. You dont know what the outcome is going to be, even if you knew for certain that tax reform would be signed into law later this year or early next year, you dont know what is in it. There is a vast uncertainty about not only the context of tax reform. Given that, there is a presumption because theyre such an overwhelming need to pass tax reform, because we are so far out of line with International Tax rates and the International Tax system, speaking from the business side, that that need is so great that the presumption is it has to get done and probably will get done. Businesses are investing on that basis. If it turned out tax reform didnt happen, there will be a fundamental shift in how businesses are thinking. This is the big shot. We have a better shot at tax reform now than in 30 years by far. If it doesnt happen now, the prospect of it happening in the next two years wont be as good, one would presume. You would presume the current tax system would stay in place that includes the International Tax regime. American businesses and International Businesses will think very differently about the u. S. Economy. That translates into a reduction in Business Investment in this country. How much . No way to know. It could be enough to weaken the economy. How far . No way to know. The washington examiner. One area where your interests with organized labor overlap is with the socalled cadillac tax with the Affordable Care act. What are the odds for any type of reform before that goes into effect, or did that ship sail when Health Reform crashed in congress . The insurance reimbursement areas, Health Insurance, cadillac tax, is the top three. We have an unholy alliance with the unions. They are right down the street and we talk on the cadillac tax and strategy. It is at the forefront of the employer community. It re remains a top priority in the chamber right up there with medical device tax. Bloomberg. Im curious whether or not eta taxes like that will end up in tax reform. 2018, do you see a path for this . It is a long is it a long tax reform, a standalone push . I will have to defer so i can keep my job. Those guys on the hill, and i spent 10 years on the hill, these are tax issues. They will not be walled off on the debate. It is important, from my view, to certainly preserve the existing treatment of Employee Health care benefits, they are nontaxable. That is a big issue among Many Republican thinkers. Certainly, the tax incentives for savings, definedbenefit or defined contribution, i dont think we are drawing any lines in the sand. The presumption was that these provisions would be dealt with as part of health care reform. Now we dont know where they will be dealt with. There is a strong desire to deal with them. They have not been walled off from tax reform, but the folks i merely focused on tax reform would prefer not to have more things added to their plate and a task made more complicated. All things are on the table because the outlines of tax reform are yet unknown to the rest of us. Apparently they are somewhat known to individuals in the house and Senate Leadership and the white house, but not far enough along to reveal them and let us know what theyre up to. Again, the presumption is they would be dealt separately, but you cannot rule out they would be included as part of tax reform. You mentioned about the Dust Settling on health care, what do you recommend for the bipartisan effort coming up for csrs, and you see the Health Effort being piecemeal rather than another attempt at a big package . We will have to sort through where we will be on that. There is an old saying about the easiest part is the train leaving the station and the luggage is left behind. We are sorting our way through that one and consorting with our members appropriately. The hill. Just curious about what your thoughts were about the speech President Trump gave yesterday on tax reform, and what you think the administration and Congress Needs to come out with more specifics on tax reform. First, we appreciate that the president is foursquare behind tax reform. That was his most compelling statement yet. There is no doubt where his views that we need to get tax reform done. We very much appreciate that. We learned, once again, over the eight years of the Obama Administration that tax reform is impossible without the president s strong support. President obama was not particularly interested in tax reform. Despite a lot of work by a lot of people it never got into the batters box. At least with President Trump, we know that the president is deeply interested and his administration is working closely with the house and Senate Leadership to come up with the broad outline so we start off on the same page. That is essential as we dont have that much time to legislate the bill. When should they come out with more specifics . That depends on context. There are a lot of things going on between the spending bill, the debt bill, a budget resolution. If you come out with too many specifics to early it will sit there for a while. That makes it very difficult. It is easier for people to focus on the negatives as opposed to the positives. The timing will depend on how soon they think they will be able to have a markup in the house ways and means committee. That is your spot on the calendar you are looking for. When will ways and and means be able to mark up a chairmans mark . Then you have a sense of when they should come out with more detail. That will depend on Everything Else that is happening. Congress will have a full plate for the next month. The washington post. This is a question for randy. You talked about the regulatory underbrush cleared out in the past. Can you talk about remaining priorities that you feel like the chamber has, and in terms of the twoforone regulations that we have not seen put into practice yet. Can you shed light on how you think that might be affecting policies Going Forward . The first part of your question, we still have to finish the appeal. The overtime has not been revisited to request a request for information. Of course, we have the court case making its way through the fifth circuit. We have to get overtime done. There is a stay of the osha rulemaking, recordkeeping, which would require employers to report to osha about the injury and illness is rate to post those on the internet. In terms of being unfiltered information. We are in court on that. Those are three there. Obviously, are they going to get staffed up any agencies . Secretary acosta is doing a great job. I spent three years at the avail. At d of l. You have to get the right people in place. We need to get more businessfriendly people to those organizations. It is not just regulations, it is case law. Getting cases up to the board, reverse Specialty Health care. D. R. Horton. The regulatory side, they would like a new board revisit. Not saying they will, but we would like to see them put that on the plate. With farreaching things, there is a lot of interest in revisiting things like inside sales exemption. I have been through these wars before on labor issues. These sort of boundaries you have to figure out what is doable. There are only 52 votes in the senate. What is doable besides beating our head against the wall . I was in in 1995 and we were beating our head against the wall. A lot of us have learned a lesson. Lets go forward with those that are well rationalized. Those of you who might be on cspan should join the chamber if they are not members and help develop our policy. We have subcommittees in each and im using those to develop our recommendations Going Forward. Investment news. Could you elaborate on the chambers clan strategy on the judiciary rolled this fall. You said you would put a lot of resources and it. Could you quantify that . And what are you trying to accomplish that regulation is going in your direction with this year and a half delay . I never care to prejudge where rulemaking will wind up. Secretary acosta will make his decision based on the record, but we expect the 18month delay to come out soon. Just going on the press reporters that omb is an extension and will go through rulemaking on what a new reg should look like. There is a lot in the fifth circuit. I dont want to prejudge and make statements that might come back to haunt me. We will make our case through surveys of our members on how it is impacting members in the financial area. And employers trying to use Financial Advisors to provide advice to their employers, and is it making it more difficult for them to do that . We have a survey going on, requesting legal underpinnings of the regulation in many ways, the mandatory arbitration that is in there that is woefully illegal. In the implied private cause with action in their we think is not sustainable. There is a variety of things going on and we will participate in the rulemaking to make our case known. I wanted to ask about the joint employer. The house is looking like they will take up the legislation. Im wondering if you have any sense on if the legislation stands any chance of getting to the senate, or if there might be a way i know a legislative solution is favored by many members of the Business Community. I am familiar with the bill. Let me read you how the minority viewed the decision. The majority say it is impermissibly vague and will have adverse consequences. The test is ambiguous providing no guidance as to how employers can provide without being viewed as joint employers. It is a 30 page dissent, meticulously dismembering the majority opinion and explaining why it is unworkable. There is bipartisan interest. Among joint employers, one of our Top Priorities and the bill in the house has bipartisan support last time i looked, a handful of democrats, a handful of democrats on a labor issue is unusual we will move it to the house among a lot of labor issues i think we have a shot in the senate. It might take compromising in the end, but there was a lot of angst over the decision and how the plaintiff lawyers have applied it in cases. There is a lot of push behind this. It could be that a case could move to the National LaborRelations Board that will take the wind out of the sails of the legislation, but we would be happy with that. Despite what people think about the senate and labor issues, i think this has a decent shot of getting through to the president. It is so eminently reasonable. Any other questions . One last question. Bloomberg. I know the form were stayed, but i was wondering what a more reasonable version with the click and what we could see in the for seeable there is an ee01 form one on the books. The dilemma is sometimes, when it came out, what i had a vision of was pushing a big vacuum cleaner gobbling up a lot of information, then not knowing what to do with it. That is what the expansion form was all about. Maybe they find something cool to do with it. I dont know the answer to that is. It has to be within the statutory mandate to enforce the laws, not just gobble up a bunch of information to see what they could do with it. I think maybe the agency would be better served to think about promoting pay equity through things like statutory safe harbor for employers that voluntarily pay Equity Analysis that cant be discovered in litigation, a deterrent for employers doing their own pay Equity Analysis. There is actually some amendments to the equal pay act and the occupational defense that we have not talked to republicans about. The defense makes it slightly harder for employers to defend wagebased decisions. The form itself i am ducking the answer because i dont know what a suitable alternative would be. I would urge people who want to dig into that look at title 71, the paperwork deduction act that has been on the books for long time. Just traditionally ignored under the past administration, which was overruled by political people in the white house like mallory gerrit. On that note, we will wrap up. Please let us know if you have questions. You can get in touch with the chambers press office. Thank you for attending. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [indistinct chatter] today, barack obama accepts an award