Mr. Hurley, in a world with all these possible ambiguities, elected officials discuss matters with lobbyists. No one in this room has not met with a lobbyist once in a while, maybe even daily. They tell us about the goings-on and the issues that are important for our constituencies and they help us in our work. We need them, but within limits.
Sometimes, someone will come to our office to talk about something but we may have questions about something else that interests us. We discuss a number of things. I understand that the recommendations seek to broaden the controls so that certain topics are disclosed when they are discussed. But how do we do that? Can we force people to tell the truth?
What happens when a member asks a lobbyist a question and the lobbyist just happens to have something to sell?