point of view. We do not require—we pro-
pose we not require the registration of any
elected or appointed official of this State
appearing in his ordinary course of duties.
Similarly any elected or appointed official
of this State, when advocating his own
views, would not be required to register. Let
us give an example.
If, say, the County Attorney of my
county, Montgomery County, came down to
present Montgomery County's views, I do
not think he should be required to register.
On the other hand, if the county association
or the association of counties chose him as
their spokesman to present their views on
a particular subject before the Convention,
then he too would at least have to register
and indicate the fact that he spoke for
others apart from himself.
Now in section 2 [Appendix A] we deal
with the time of registration, and I will not
go over the details of it. Within ten days
after a person has been engaged to lobby,
or to advocate, he should register. There
will be times, however, that a person will
have already contacted a delegate or done
some work and without having registered,
in which case he must do so within three
days.
In section 3 [Appendix A], we set forth
the information that would be required on
the registration form. Hopefully these
forms would be available not only in the
secretary's office, but in the possession of
each committee chairman. When a witness
came to testify before a committee, if he
were within one of the categories embraced
in the regulation, he would fill out the form.
We have also provided that the information
required under the proposed regulation
could be supplied by mail.
On the question of failure to comply, as
I indicated in the beginning, we really do
not have any club, or deterrent. All we
could do is bar a person from further ap-
pearances before the Convention, if he ne-
glected to abide by the regulation. This
would be done after notice and opportunity
for hearing before the Rules Committee.
The Rules Committee would recommend to
the Convention. The Convention would de-
cide whether or not such a person should be
penalized by being denied the privilege from
appearing at further sessions of the Com-
mittee or the Convention, either to the end
of the Convention or for a limited time.
I might add this point that seems relevant
here. Delegate Morgan, who did appear be-
fore our Committee, recommended that we
exempt from the applicability of the regu- |
lation those witnesses who were invited by
a committee to appear.
The Committee considered this at some
length. There seems to be a dash of fairness
in support of that proposal. On the other
hand, it seems to us if we granted this ex-
emption, in view of the promiscuity with
which invitations have been extended to
putative witnesses, we would be making a
toothless regulation. Let us not extract the
gums. It seems to us if we yielded on that
point we would really have nothing, because
it would be a very simple matter to get an
invitation and no one would have to register
unless he did not know anybody at the Con-
vention and would not be favored with an
invitation.
We require reports, as set forth in sec-
tion 5, periodically. I will not go over the
details. They do not seem burdensome. If a
man comes down once and is reimbursed
for his expenditures and represents the
views of others all he would have to do is
report that once. There is another slightly
troublesome problem that I believe Delegate
Burdette, who appeared before our commit-
tee, raised. We are requiring, after the Con-
vention has gone, that the final report be
filed with the Secretary of State. We would
be delighted to require that it be filed with
the Secretary of the Convention, but I as-
sume that once the Convention adjourns, he
shall go home with the rest of us and there-
fore will no longer have any official status.
The Secretary of State, however, will. If
you read the Enabling Act, I think the
provisions make it reasonably clear, if not
explicitly, that the various officers of this
State shall cooperate with the Convention.
I would assume that the Secretary of State
would cooperate to the extent of receiving
those reports. They have no putative im-
pact. If they are perjurious or inaccurate,
what have you, in the end as in the begin-
ning. the only club or inducement to a full
and fair report would be publicity, identifi-
cation and disclosure reinforced by the in-
trepid representatives of this State.
Another section that prohibits contingent
compensation is section 7 [Appendix]. How-
ever, I will offer an amendment approved
by the committee, suggested by Delegate
Morgan, and approved by the committee
after the report has formally been moved
for adoption.
At the present time we prohibit compen-
sation, which is contingent, and I am read-
ing now from page 4 of the proposed regu-
lation, "in whole or in part, upon the adop-
tion or defeat of any matter or proposal
and no person shall accept any such em- |
