WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congressional members on both sides are in agreement: reforms for congressional members trading stock needs to happen. However, what kind of reforms differ among lawmakers. There’s a renewed push on the Hill about this issue.
Under current law, members of Congress are able to trade stock but are prohibited from using insider information to enrich themselves. Studies show some members outperform the market, which raises corruption suspicions. This week, members on both sides of the aisle offered different proposals to this issue.
A House panel advanced the Stop Insider Trading Act, Republican-backed bill that would allow members of congress, their spouses and dependent children to hold onto stocks they already own but prevent them from buying new ones. It also requires them to file a public notice at least seven days before they sell an existing stock.
Representative Jack Bergman (R- MI) is one of the cosponsors of this bill.
“As a member of Congress you have an obligation to be ethical and if you have inside knowledge that puts you in a position to take advantage. So, I believe if you come to congress you freeze all your investments, put them in a trust, put them somewhere you don’t have control over them and let them grow on your own. When you’re done here then go back to doing what you did beforehand, but we didn’t come here and we didn’t get sent here to get wealth on the taxpayers expense.”
“Members of congress should be focuses on their constituents, not enriching themselves,” said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D- NY). Gillibrand introduced bipartisan legislation this week, but with a different approach to the issue.
“It would stop members of congress and their immediate families from owning, buying or selling individual stocks,” said the Senator. “The bill also prohibits ownership and trading of certain other financial assets including securities, commodities and futures.”
Gillibrand’s legislation would give members 180 days to divest their current individual stock holdings, while new members would have 90 days to do so from when they are sworn in.
“If you want to serve in Congress, don’t have stocks,” said the Senator. “Theres too much fraud and corruption in Washington right now and if you want to go and make money and have a big stock portfolio then do a different job. It’s literally that simple. This is an honor and privilege to serve in congress and because congress has done so poorly in disclosing and following the rules and our regulators have done a bad job in enforcing the rules, we need a brighter line.”
