Futures soar for Rep. Walz's STOCK Act
Minneapolis Star Tribune
Updated: December 6, 2011 - 10:13 PM
TV story spurs interest in bill to ban insider trading by Congress.
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WASHINGTON - Hardly anyone noticed in March when U.S. Rep. Tim Walz, a three-term Democrat from Minnesota, reintroduced a long-dormant bill to combat insider trading in Congress.
As recently as a month ago, Walz had fewer than a dozen co-sponsors. There had been no hearings, and hardly anyone outside a small cadre of Hill staffers even knew the legislation existed.
On Tuesday, the former Mankato social studies teacher was the star witness in a packed hearing on his own bill, dubbed the STOCK Act (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge). For the past three weeks, Walz's colleagues have been rushing to sign on. He is now up to 170 co-sponsors. House GOP leaders have introduced their own version of the bill, and several versions have been hatched recently in the Senate, including one by Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.
"I'm glad to hear my colleagues now have all these wonderful ideas," Walz said in a hallway between meetings. "We couldn't get an idea out of anybody before."
(More here.)
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2 Comments:
This is a good start towards curbing Congressional 'privileges' and I encourage Waltz to continue the good fight.
Congressman Walz testified at a Financial Services Committee hearing on December 6 ... with the number of co-signers who signed on 12/6 and 12/7, the tally is 202 ... including some big names like Republican Study Committee Chairman (in effect defacto TEA Party) Jim Jordan and noted anti-spending advocate Jeff Flake.
Besides the 60 Minutes program, a book has been released highlighting the investments made by Representative Spencer Bachus (R-AL). As Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Bachus probably wanted to kill the bill when Walz introduced it ... but now Republican Royce is pushing Walz's bill ... Royce lost out on getting the FS Chairmanship (even though he got the endorsement from the Wall Street Journal over Bachus) ... so Walz's last comment in the Strib story about some people using this for political gain has some merits.
I trust that you noted the comment that NO Republicans from Minnesota have signed on ... and remember that Erik Paulsen sits on the Financial Services Committee (as does Michele Bachmann).
The FS Committee should vote on Walz's bill on Dec. 14 ... but before that they will vote on more-pressing issues .... like Farm Dust ... (H.R.1633 : Farm Dust Regulation Prevention Act of 2011) ... funny thing is that Walz sits on the Ag Committee but it never was asked to hold a hearing yet the full House will vote on Farm Dust possibly as early as today.
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