Lawmakers Look to Rein In Their Investing
By CARL HULSE
NYT
The coverage was hard-hitting and shocking to some: Members of Congress received special opportunities to get in on the ground floor of stock offerings, and were actively trading in shares of companies “whose prosperity they influence and whose conduct they help to regulate.”
Those words weren’t from this month’s “60 Minutes” piece raising questions about the Wall Street dealings of top lawmakers or a new book exploring the same issue. They appeared in the 1968 exposé “The Case Against Congress” by the muckrakers Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, who laid out dubious financial maneuvers by lawmakers seeking to enrich themselves using their powerful positions and inside knowledge.
Finger-pointing over shady stock dealing in the hallways of the House and Senate is almost as old as Congress itself — the infamous Crédit Mobilier scandal of the 1870s was partially about members of Congress cashing in on discounted railroad stock. Efforts to do something about it have never gained traction, leaving in doubt whether members of Congress and their well-informed staff advisers are subject to laws governing insider trading or free to profit from it.
(snip)
The bill she drafted with Representative Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota, would prohibit lawmakers from trading on knowledge gained from their status; prevent them from sharing that information; and establish new requirements for reporting transactions of $1,000 or more within 90 days.
(Original here.)
NYT
The coverage was hard-hitting and shocking to some: Members of Congress received special opportunities to get in on the ground floor of stock offerings, and were actively trading in shares of companies “whose prosperity they influence and whose conduct they help to regulate.”
Those words weren’t from this month’s “60 Minutes” piece raising questions about the Wall Street dealings of top lawmakers or a new book exploring the same issue. They appeared in the 1968 exposé “The Case Against Congress” by the muckrakers Drew Pearson and Jack Anderson, who laid out dubious financial maneuvers by lawmakers seeking to enrich themselves using their powerful positions and inside knowledge.
Finger-pointing over shady stock dealing in the hallways of the House and Senate is almost as old as Congress itself — the infamous Crédit Mobilier scandal of the 1870s was partially about members of Congress cashing in on discounted railroad stock. Efforts to do something about it have never gained traction, leaving in doubt whether members of Congress and their well-informed staff advisers are subject to laws governing insider trading or free to profit from it.
(snip)
The bill she drafted with Representative Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota, would prohibit lawmakers from trading on knowledge gained from their status; prevent them from sharing that information; and establish new requirements for reporting transactions of $1,000 or more within 90 days.
(Original here.)
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1 Comments:
I have not voted for Walz, a few more actions like this and I might consider.
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