mccormick leads gbta's growth and globalization initiatives. previously, he served as managing partner of hudson crossing llc, a travel industry advisory business. mccormick has also served as president of biztravel.com and vice president of global supply relations for rosenbluth international. you are recognized for five minutes for an opening statement. >> thank you, chairman katko, ranking member watson coleman and members of the subcommittee. we appreciate the opportunity to testify today. i'm michael mccormick, executive director and chief operating officer of the global business travel association, a role i've been in since 2009. gbta is the world's premier business travel and trades association headquartered here in alexandria with operations on six continents. we have over 9,500 managers and manage over $345 billion worth of global business travel and meeting expenditures annually. gbta has 38 chapters and affiliates across this country and operations around the world. i want to thank chairman katko for the time he recently spent in our

gbta is prepared to support new legislation to prohibit the practice. as we saw in the summer of 2016, t.s.a. precheck cannot be the sole answer to long security lines. in gbta's opinion, accurate travel forecast, well thought out policies and solid analysis of historical data, like other own business travel index, are key to t.s.a.'s ability to adequately staff checkpoints. our most frequent findings show u.s. origin business for travel is expected to accelerate significantly in 2018, advancing 6.1%, followed by roughly 7% growth in 2019 and 2020. business travel gains have not reached this level since 2011. also in these findings is an unusually high impact of many global uncertainties. the global economic policy uncertainty index, which began in 1997, has hit an all-time 20-year high. we are at a time of conflicting and sometimes seemingly contradictory views on how the business travel marketplace is trending and what the future holds. on one hand, as lower corporate taxes are pushed forward and business regulations are rolled back, some would argue