insider trading is the information has to gotten from the company. To know that a law will be passed and benefit, let's say big pharmas, isn't illegal but immoral. It is public knowledge that a certain bill is being discussed and how it is going and a good trader or investor can figure out which companies to trade. Why he was allowed to trade on 'company time' is another separtate question. The bottom line seems to be if someone from a specific company told him that they would specifially profit. Did the information come from the company or was it surmised that certain legislation would help this this company's shares rise. JMHO
Insider trading" is a term that most investors have heard and usually associate with illegal conduct. But the term actually includes both legal and illegal conduct. The legal version is when corporate insiders—officers, directors, and employees—buy and sell stock in their own companies. When corporate insiders trade in their own securities, they must report their trades to the SEC. For more information about this type of insider trading and the reports insiders must file, please read "Forms 3, 4, 5" in our Fast Answers databank.
Illegal insider trading refers generally to buying or selling a security, in breach of a fiduciary duty or other relationship of trust and confidence, while in possession of material, nonpublic information about the security. Insider trading violations may also include "tipping" such information, securities trading by the person "tipped," and securities trading by those who misappropriate such information.
http://www.sec.gov/answers/insider.htm