House Passes Bill Banning Insider Trading by Members of Congress

[No Elephants]

Unbelievable that it is completely legal for the entire Executive branch and members of Congres to do things that are considerable worse than things for which the D of imprisoned Martha Stewart. PSMA (public servants, my ass).

Good for Rep. Slaughter, Pres. Obama and--wait for it--Senator Graasley(!!!).

The 417-to-2 vote occurred less than three weeks after President Obama demanded such action in his State of the Union address. The Senate approved a similar bill by a vote of 96 to 3 on Feb. 2.

The lopsided votes concealed deep disagreements over details of the legislation, which now goes back to the Senate. The two chambers could try to work out their differences in a conference committee or through informal negotiations.

House Republican leaders eliminated a provision of the Senate-passed bill that would, for the first time, regulate firms that collect “political intelligence” for hedge funds, private equity funds and other investors. Under the Senate bill, such firms would have to register and report their activities, as lobbyists do. In place of this requirement, the House calls for a study of whether to require the registration of people who collect political intelligence for the use of investors.

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Representative Louise M. Slaughter, Democrat of New York, who has been pushing ethics legislation since 2006, said, “It appears that the House Republican leadership could not stomach pressure from the political intelligence community, which is unregulated and unseen and operates in the dark.”

Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who wrote the proposed disclosure requirement, denounced “the chutzpah” of House Republican leaders, who he said had “wiped out any chance of meaningful transparency for the political intelligence industry.” He said he would fight to restore the requirement.

<snip>


The bill would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. It makes clear that the insider trading ban in federal law applies to members of Congress and their aides and to officials in the executive and judicial branches of the federal government.

Moreover, the bill requires members of Congress to disclose the purchase or sale of stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other securities within 30 to 45 days of transactions. The information would be posted on the Web.

A similar disclosure requirement would apply to thousands of federal employees in the executive branch, including the White House, cabinet departments and independent agencies.

The House added a provision to prohibit members of Congress and executive branch officials from receiving special access to initial public stock offerings because of their positions. Republicans said the provision was inspired by an investment in the initial public offering by Visa Inc. in 2008 by Ms. Pelosi, who was then the speaker of the House.

The legislation, as passed by both houses, would deny federal pensions to members of Congress who are convicted of felonies involving public corruption. It would also require lawmakers to disclose the terms of mortgages on their homes.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/10/us/politics/house-passes-bill-banning-insider-trading-by-members-of-congress.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

Senators of both parties wrote the Senate bill. House Democrats said that they were not consulted about the House bill.


And here is the thing: Do you vote for a bill, even though you consider it inadequate, or do you vote it down in the hopes that you get a better bill?

[Enthusiast]

1. It looks to me like

there is nothing to prevent members of congress from passing on pertinent information to a compatriot.

[No Elephants]

2. Members of Congress, like the rich, are very different from you and me.

And even from wealthy Martha Stewart.