Thank you for that question.
Madam Chair, the additional burden, from a regulatory standpoint, is not a lot. Here's the issue, as I see it. If you look at the preamble of the act, you are looking for a system in which the registration of paid lobbyists does not impede free and open access to government, and you have to finely balance that. There was a time when we used to send our clients in very early when there was a transaction of some type—perhaps a merger or an acquisition—or when a client of ours wanted to change a regulation or policy. We're reluctant to do that now, because these reports are taking place in almost real time. We know that competitors of our clients are tracking all of these registrations. They're, in a sense, acquiring information about the private strategies of our clients.
In fact, we've seen a pullback, both in our advice and in the interests of our clients, in actually wanting to talk to government as much before a number of these decisions are taken. If you go into a quarterly review.... I have to tell you, I don't like contact reports; I tell you that right now. But if you have to have contact reports, I'd just as soon they be done on a quarterly basis, so that at least it's not taking place in real time.