As commissioner masterson mentioned, the panel we have here is called election efficiency and integrity, improving the Voter Experience but most of this panel i think will be focussed on data and the importance of data and how we use it in the Elections Community. We have a great panel here for you. You have biographies in front of you. My staff has provided some abbreviated biographies which ill read and then well start hearing from the panel. Ive asked each of them to speak for about five minutes or so from their perspective on this panel and then i have some questions for them. And then we will go to questions from you. So before i get started, i want to thank you all for being here. Really excited to kick off the 2018 elections. Its hard to believe its already 2018. Were kicking off the elections but officials have already started working on this. The day after their last election. So i know those of you who are Election Officials, this is not a kick off for you. As others have sai
Improving the Voter Experience, but most of the panel i think will be focused on data and the importance of data and how we use it in the Elections Community. Weve got a great panel here for you. You have biographies in front of you, but my staff has provided some abbreviated biographies which i will read and we will start hearing from the panel. Ive asked each to speak for about five minutes or so from their perspective on this panel, and then i have some questions for them and then we will go to questions from you. Before get started, though, i want to thank you all for being here. Im really excited to kick off the 2018 elections. Its hard to believe its already 2018. Were kicking off the elections, but Election Officials have already started working on this the day after their last election. I know those of you who are Election Officials in the audience, this is not a kickoff for you. As others have said, its just the kickoff in january, but you all have been working on this electio
Front of us. We have talked before about Monetary Policy and i havent been a fan as a banker before i was in congress of going beyond the feds initial Interest Rate policies i felt like qe 1, 2 and 3 didnt produce the gdp effects or job increases that perhaps fed policy makers at the time thought. I have also been concerned that as we go back and look backwards now since 2008 that fed officials really have always been a little reluctant to talk about some of the unintended consequences of that, such as distorting the price mechanism in our economy, depressing cap rates for commercial real estate or running up equity prices which i think are a result when you have that, we have flooded from qe 2 into our economy, affecting price earnings, multiples, et cetera today i havent heard any discussion, we talked about the Balance Sheet, we talked about setting Interest Rates but i want to talk a little bit about the money multiplier aspect in your toolbox we flooded the system with reserves bu
Clara county specifically when we did one of our peers and we had people at hss look at it again could correct me if im wrong but they want to the new period of collective bargaining adjustably increased with a offered. It stayed fairly stable for a while. Our understanding is gone up in the hope it will continue to go up. So theyre just being more right now. It was more of we need to is that correct . That is correct. But they also formalize the county plan could Santa Clara County employees could elect to be part of the Santa Clara County health plan. I think its called valley health. Yes. The county was subsidizing it. The county stop subsidizing it. Yes sir i will make sure im clear. Some counties like la offers an account like 50 different plans and some are like five. These are not weighted. These are not weighted averages based on how many people actually elect what looks like a cadillac plan or something week its just an average of 15 that is the algorithm until we go through t
To address our concerns and the priorities of democrats on this side of the dais. I remain confident we can find a way to have a positive and strongly bipartisan markup of mr. Lighthizer. And ill wrap up by saying my sense is this place cant have enough comity. Thats comity with a t. And i thank you for your efforts to work with us. I look forward to our hearing, of course. I thank you for your efforts. Its been a pleasure to work with you in the past. I look forward to working with you in the future. I think we make a good team. Well continue with our hearing on taxrelated matters. Every year, a committee holds a meeting on the tax Filing Season. It provides us with an opportunity to discuss and examine the operations of the Internal Revenue service the Agency Charged with implementing our tax code and collecting taxes from workers and employers. With each passing year, taxpayers face new challenges as they file their tax returns. Including, but not limited to protecting their private