Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the House amendment to S. 2038, the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, STOCK, Act, but I must share my deep disappointment with the House Republican leadership's move to weaken this legislation. As a cosponsor of the House version of the STOCK Act that has 285 bipartisan cosponsors, I strongly believe we need to restore trust in our public officials and those who work closely with them by clarifying that the same insider trading rules that everyone else must follow apply to all three branches of our government as well. The STOCK Act will prohibit Members of Congress and employees of Congress from profiting from nonpublic information they obtain via their official positions. It will also require Members of Congress to report on their stock sales. The Senate version added a provision that would require firms specializing in ``political intelligence,'' that may use information obtained from Congress to make financial transactions, to register with the House and Senate--just as lobbying firms are now required to do. House Republicans watered down this bill in the middle of the night by dropping this provision, even though it was unanimously approved by the House Judiciary Committee this past December. The measure before us today is an important first step, but once it is passed, I call on my colleagues to conference with the Senate to strengthen this legislation.…”