Limits on Lobbyists (Policy Proposal #4)

Proposed Policy

A) Absolutely nothing can be paid for by a lobbyist, corporation, or individual. No trips, not even lunch! If it is an important subject, the government can pay the bill!

B) Lobbyist can provide good research. However, that should be the limit of their function.

C) All lobby business must be conducted on-site at the Washington DC offices in a public forum. All information given to politicians from a lobbyist must be immediately made available to the public for review.

What would this accomplish?

A) We remove the “conflict of interest” that does not allow politicians to act in our best interest. No corporate influence, no special interest influence…none-zip!

B) We need to redefine the purpose of lobbyist. It should be about providing good research and not about influence.

C) By allowing the public to access the lobbyist research presentation we can dispel any misconceptions, statements, or factual errors early in the process. The politicians must have the facts from all sides to make good decisions.

Commentary

This should eliminate the gray areas where special interests have been leveraging undue influence. Perhaps more objective thought will be given to context of the research provided by a lobby group by both the elected official and the lobbyist.