On the recordFebruary 2, 2012
This is a good government amendment. Similar to the underlying piece of legislation, it is a good government amendment. The manager is going to tell you it ought to be studied a little bit longer. We have gone for far too long not having enough transparency in government. What my amendment does is it takes these people whom you call political intelligence professionals and has them register just like every lobbyist registers, so it is totally transparent when these people come around to get information from you that they sell to hedge funds. You will know who they are. You don't know that now, and transparency in government is very important if you want accountability. For the Senators and their staffs who have to abide by these laws, they want to make sure they are not doing anything unethical. They have to know who these people are. They can come around and ask us questions. I don't know how many times each of us has maybe been caught up in this. You give them information, and they have information that people don't have on Wall Street and they sell it. We ought to know what we are being used for, and this gives identity to these people. So I want these people registered like lobbyists. The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Franken). The Senator from Connecticut.
