Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), newly elected Chairman of the Joint Economic Committee, released a statement following the committee’s formation and leadership election:

WASHINGTON - Today, the Joint Economic Committee’s Social Capital Project released a brief highlighting the health of social capital in Utah.

Utah has consistently been recognized for its unique and robust community life. But the Social Capital Project has taken this a step further and quantified some of the factors that go into that distinction. The study, titled “The Wealth of Strong Families, Communities, and Congregations: Utah as a Case Study in Social Capital,” also explores the role of religion as an influence on social capital, highlighting distinctive features of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that may contribute to the strength of family and community in the stat

WASHINGTON – Today, Joint Economic Committee Chairman-designate Mike Lee (R-UT) sent letters to the Congressional Budget Office and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services asking for clarification on whether the agencies take the growing lack of social support among senior citizens into account while formulating their healthcare cost projections for federal and state governments. The letters also ask the agencies to explain their current policy in light of a recent JEC report about declining social support among the elderly.

With the economy growing robustly for the first time in a decade, wage growth picking up, and inflation near the Fed’s 2 percent target, the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady seems prudent. I believe that Chairman Powell is on the right track to normalize monetary policy and to enable the full long-term growth effects of tax and regulatory reforms to be realized.