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Congressional Insider Trading Bill Clears House

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Posted on Feb 9, 2012
TalkMediaNews (CC-BY)

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor ushered the measure through to passage Thursday.

Looks like that request President Obama made, in last month’s State of the Union address, to send him a bill to sign that would restrict members of Congress from taking financial liberties in their own investment activities wasn’t just a passing reference to score points with the public.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives passed a modified version of a bill that would hold congresspeople accountable for information they might pick up on the job that could be used to inflate their financial portfolios. Next stop: the Senate, where the measure might run into some resistance from lawmakers seeking more stringent standards.  —KA

Los Angeles Times:

The legislation is the most ambitious effort in years to clamp down on the personal business dealings of lawmakers, and was beefed up to cover executive branch appointees and employees.
 
[...] “It is unacceptable for anyone, any elected official, or their staff, to profit from information that is not available to the public,” said Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), the majority leader who led passage of the House version. It was overwhelmingly approved Thursday 417-2.

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vector56's avatar

By vector56, February 10, 2012 at 10:03 pm Link to this comment

I am no attorney, nor have I played one on TV; but I have a gut feeling that this new Insider-trader Law is a back door way to cover the rear ends of Law makers who have already engaged is insider trading. Insider trading was illegal for Congress people as well as the rest of us; so why make a new law? I’ll bet you dollars-to-donuts somewhere deep in this new law there is a “retro-active immunity” clause for all Congress people who have violated this law to date. This is just a theory based on past patterns; TARP, Retro-active immunity for the Telecoms; the latest “back door bail out for the Banks for Robo Signing; .....

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By tom, February 10, 2012 at 12:19 pm Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

cantor is no hero he took out many provisions out of that bill that held wallstreet and insiders at the whitehouse he pprotected his rich puppetmasters

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thecrow's avatar

By thecrow, February 10, 2012 at 7:21 am Link to this comment

“financial liberties”

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2011/11/11/pulverized-to-near-power/

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By Bacilo de Koch, February 9, 2012 at 4:15 pm Link to this comment

Fear not, the Senate will screw it up.

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By gerard, February 9, 2012 at 4:13 pm Link to this comment

They are beginning to get the message—yes?
Those who say Occupy has done little or nothing aren’t paying attention. Interesting caveat over
members who “broker political intelligence”—whatever that includes or doesn’t include. How to
get rid of lobbying without getting rid of lobbying?

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