association-list

Any time the spokesper­son for a com­pany asserts, in a con­gres­sional hear­ing or via a lob­by­ist, that a new reg­u­la­tion would “destroy” or oth­er­wise neg­a­tively impact their busi­ness, there should be a con­se­quence. They should have to prove, using real data to be made public, how and by how much this reg­u­la­tion would impact their busi­ness. There­after, their books would be audited to ascer­tain that they’re telling the truth, and the audit’s find­ings will be made public as part of the con­gres­sional record. Speak­ers who’re proven to have lied or dis­torted the sit­u­a­tion would then have their tes­ti­mony struck from the record.

Alter­na­tively, one could make this a stan­dard gate­way for send­ing com­pany offi­cers or others to com­ment on new reg­u­la­tion, with only the grant­ing or denial of per­mis­sion to com­ment as part of the public record.