Cultivating the right connections is what the representatives of foreign firms spend much of their time doing.

Equally disturbing is how our elected representatives have been spending their time.

The representative will: Spend a couple of hours reviewing your type of business and its operations.

The representative who comes to help you will normally spend time taking details of your problems.

Other representatives spent hours milling around the lobby of their hotel, apparently unsure of what to do next.

Voters are at least entitled to know how representatives spend next year's generous campaign subsidy.

Senators and representatives had spent the day popping off about the dangers of downtown Washington.

On May 12, more than 200 elected representatives of Greenwich spent three hours debating next year's $279 million budget.

For example, representatives from a security business could spend time watching how people lock and unlock their doors.

Numerous representatives of the 28 Member States spent 16 months considering all the options in their quest for a reasonable consensus.