For me it's 3), although I'm no public policy expert. Why wouldn't they discuss a potentially great idea with the chief decision maker?
Like when the engineer and statistician W. Edwards Deming suggested improvements in manufacturing, but US manufacturers ignored him.
>Why were Deming's views on quality control initially ignored in the United States?
>Following World War II, Deming was largely ignored in the productivity-crazed United States. ... The message Deming made to the United States was that productivity without quality was a dead end. He attempted to teach engineers his philosophy, but the companies they worked for were focused on other things.