http://www.louise.house.gov/index.php?op...Itemid=139

Quote:On January 26, 2009, Congresswoman Slaughter and Congressman Baird introduced HR 1148, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act. The STOCK Act prohibits, by SEC rule, any members of Congress, Congressional staff, or Executive Agency employee from buying or selling stocks, bonds, or commodities based on nonpublic information they obtain because of their status.

The STOCK Act also prohibits anyone outside of Congress or the Executive Branch from making investment decisions on nonpublic information received from a Member of Congress, Congressional staff, or Executive Branch employee.

The legislation prohibits, by House Rule, Members or staff from disclosing material nonpublic information to individuals or firms if they believe that information will be used to inform stock trading decisions.

The STOCK Act requires Members of Congress and staff (those subject to financial disclosure requirements) to report the purchase, sale, or exchange of any stock, bond, or commodity transaction exceeding $1,000 within 90 days. Stocks in blind trust or mutual funds would be exempt from reporting.

Finally, the legislation requires firms that specialize in "political intelligence" to register with the House and Senate, as lobbying firms are required to do.

In the final months of 2011, the STOCK received an sudden surge of support from Members of Congress after a report by 60 Minutes about possible insider trading by Members of Congress. On December 6, 2011, Rep. Slaughter testified at a hearing by the House Financial Services Committee regaring the STOCK Act.

On December 7, 2011, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor indefinitely postponed a scheduled markup of the legislation. The bill currently has 235 co-sponsors- 153 Democrats and 82 Republicans. A bill needs 218 votes for passage by the House of Representatives.

I wonder why he postponed it? I wouldn't read too much into this...yet.

I hope this gets moving again soon. We need this.

Doesn't sound like this will do anything other than aid in purely partisan attacks.

Well.. he's making it pretty easy to attack one side. Even die-hard conservatives should be questioning him on this issue.

Unless he plans to replace it with something stronger, this makes no sense.

(01-25-2012 04:41 PM)ImMoreAwesomeThanYou Wrote:  I wonder why he postponed it? I wouldn't read too much into this...yet.

Maybe he is waiting for Harry Reid to pass a budget 1002 days and counting.

Cantor on Stock Act

Quote:House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he’ll push for broad action early next year to crack down on alleged congressional corruption and make sure lawmakers don’t profit from inside information.

In an interview excerpt released Friday, Cantor says the measure will expand on the STOCK Act – legislation explicitly banning congressional insider trading that’s rapidly gained traction on both sides of Capitol Hill since a “60 Minutes” report in November highlighted the practice.

We'll see if they take it up again as he said they would. They need to. And I like that he wants to expand it past just stock trades to include land deals. Though I'm sure Harry Reid won't like that.