Congress passes scaled back STOCK Act
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Updated at 2:30 p.m. ET
Congress on Thursday passed a final, scaled-down version of the STOCK Act, a bill designed to stop so-called "congressional insider trading."
The measure, which passed in the House last month, would prevent members of Congress from financial market trading based on nonpublic information they have obtained in the course of their congressional work.
The Senate voted to proceed with the bill by an overwhelming vote of 96 to 3 -- far surpassing the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster -- and then passed the bill by unanimous agreement. The three senators who voted against proceeding with the bill were Republicans Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Richard Burr of North Carolina and Charles Grassley of Iowa.
Lawmakers are already subject to insider trading laws, but some argue that current insider trading laws do not apply to nonpublic information about current or upcoming congressional activity, since members of Congress aren't technically obligated to keep that information confidential. The issue of "insider trading" in Congress came to the fore after a piece on CBS News' "60 Minutes" shed new light on the matter last year.
In order to pass both Houses of Congress, the legislation was pared back from its original form. The final bill dropped a provision passed in the Senate last month, which would have given prosecutors new tools to investigate and prosecute criminal conduct by public officials. The final version also left out a provision that would have required those employed in the burgeoning "political intelligence" industry to register with Congress in the same way that lobbyists do. In the political intelligence industry, people with access to insider information sell their knowledge of political developments to Wall Street investors, who then use it to make investment decisions.
The political intelligence provision was stripped in the House after House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said there should be more study of the issues involved. He also said the issue was outside the scope of the bill and wondered if the amendment could have negative consequences.
Rep. Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., who first introduced the STOCK Act six years ago, hailed the passage of the legislation. "With today's passage of the STOCK Act, we can move one step closer to living up to the faith and trust bestowed upon us by the American people- the citizens for whom we serve," she said in a statement. She added, however that she remains "committed in the fight to bring the political intelligence industry into the light of day."
Slaughter and Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., introduced a separate bill in February to address the political intelligence industry and the prosecution tools that were dropped from the bill that passed today.
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So it's like asking someone that "allegedly" would rob a bank if it's OK that the cops won't use fingerprints or DNA or jails. Sweet deal for them!!! MAYBE we should ask Supreme Court Judges to craft the law when it comes to congress and not the Senate or Congress?
While evidence is circumstantial it is rather obvious who is in office and who in office has monetary gain from their holdings that are supposed to be in blind trusts The odds of the type of gains received are highly illogical
Some better!
WORST PUBLIC SERVANTS EVER!
The Stock Act was stripped of anti-corruption provisions, because no one in Congress can afford to work for voters, when their real pay and future comes from campaign donors, Wall Street, untracked consultants, etc. Any one who thinks that voting out a few could change anything doesn't understand the Congress's biggest incentives. It would take overwhelming voter pressure on everyone in Congress, to compete with their sense of self preservation, their campaign donors, their consultant contacts, and their lucrative futures after supposedly serving the people.
Yet voters keep carping about whoever the partisan press fingers (brought to you by the same donors and Wall Street that run Congress). Once their paymasters say to, Congress evaded their duty: the GOP leadership in the House gutted the Stock Act, allowing no debate on amendments, behind closed doors, and the Senate abandoned their duty to do conference committee reconciliation(Republicans threatened to filibuster any appointees). This is abrogation of democracy for plutocracy, not limited to Republicans or Democrats. Wall Street and donors will stop anything that forbids looting, and pretend that deregulation creates jobs.
Seantor Snowe (R) said yesterday that the only cure for DC corruption would be transparency, and she doesn't expect to see it soon enough to want to keep working in the Senate. The Senate couldn't get even 60 of the 97 who had voted for the anti corruption provisions in the Senate bill to vote for it, once donors and Wall Street applied pressure, so Congress is working for them against Main Street, and against transparency). The gutting of the Stock Act is a beautiful example of how plutocracy supresses democracy.
Ding dong, democracy's dead, behind closed doors corruption spreads. Ding, dong, the Stock Act's guts were shred! Hi ho's and freedom's foes, spread them bribes, high and low; insider trading is now 'GO'!
It's gone where the plutos go, oh ho, oh ho ho ho, below our Congress works for them (not you, and so just sing it): Ding, dong, democracy's dead. Behind closed doors, corruption spreads. Ding, dong, democracy is dead...
Yet voters keep carping about whoever the partisan press fingers (brought to you by the same donors and Wall Street that run Congress). Once their paymasters say to, Congress evaded their duty: the GOP leadership in the House gutted the Stock Act, allowing no debate on amendments, behind closed doors, and the Senate abandoned their duty to do conference committee reconciliation(Republicans threatened to filibuster any appointees). This is abrogation of democracy for plutocracy, not limited to Republicans or Democrats. Wall Street and donors will stop anything that forbids looting, and pretend that deregulation creates jobs.
Seantor Snowe (R) said yesterday that the only cure for DC corruption would be transparency, and she doesn't expect to see it soon enough to want to keep working in the Senate. The Senate couldn't get even 60 of the 97 who had voted for the anti corruption provisions in the Senate bill to vote for it, once donors and Wall Street applied pressure, so Congress is working for them against Main Street, and against transparency). The gutting of the Stock Act is a beautiful example of how plutocracy supresses democracy.
Ding dong, democracy's dead, behind closed doors corruption spreads. Ding, dong, the Stock Act's guts were shred! Hi ho's and freedom's foes, spread them bribes, high and low; Ding, dong, democracy is dead! It's gone where the plutos go, oh ho, oh ho ho ho, below our Congress works for them (not you, and so just sing it): Ding, dong, democracy's dead. Behind closed doors, corruption spreads. Ding, dong, democracy is dead...