Maine Representative Jared Golden
Most of us learn from an early age that there are consequences to breaking the rules. Bring home failing grades, and you don’t get to play sports. Keep getting speeding tickets, and you lose your driver’s license, and so on. You’d think, then, that if anyone understood the consequences of rule breaking, it would be our elected officials who actually make the rules for everyone to follow. Truth is the rule makers are often the worst rule-breakers. Case in point, the federal STOCK Act.
Congressmen have always been allowed to own stocks, and to make financial investments, but increasingly, a number of folks on Capitol Hill have increased their wealth by having access to information that the rest of us didn’t have. That’s why in 2012, Congress passed the STOCK Act, making it illegal for a representative or senator to buy or sell stocks based on insider information they had acquired from classified or confidential briefings. All but two senators voted for the Act (one of the hold-outs was Richard Burr, and we now have a good idea why), but the bi-partisan effort proved to be largely cosmetic.
According to a recent investigation by Insider, “at least 54 current members of Congress and almost 200 congressional staffers have violated the law by failing to disclose their transactions on time.” The investigation also concluded that “the law’s enforcement is uneven and inconsistent.” Moreover, that same report found that congressmen had violated the STOCK Act hundreds of times just in the past two years, primarily related to the pandemic. Insider reported that at least “75 federal lawmakers held shares of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer in 2020” as they were preparing to vote to authorize more than $10 billion “to help drug companies develop and distribute vaccines.”
Not surprisingly, a move is now afoot by some of our more ethical representatives to pass legislation that would ban congressmen, senators, their family members, and staff from even owning stocks. On January 24, Representative Jared Golden of Maine, sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, urging them to bring to the House floor either the “Ban Conflicted Trading Act”, or the “TRUST in Congress Act”.
Meanwhile, some in the upper chamber are not only urging support for Golden’s proposal but want to make sure it has teeth. Just last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, said she supports a hefty consequence to rule breaking. Her idea is to fine elected officials $50,000 for every violation of the new law.
Thus far over two dozen House members have already signed off on Golden’s proposal, but there hasn’t exactly been a stampede of support. Speaking with Yahoo Finance, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained the obvious. “It’s not really a mystery to me why it’s difficult to pass. […] I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a majority of members of Congress [who] hold and trade individual stock.”
Nevertheless, Representative Golden is adamant about the need for reform. In his letter to Pelosi, Golden wrote, “Perhaps this means some of our colleagues will miss out on lucrative investment opportunities. We don’t care. We came to Congress to serve our country, not turn a quick buck.”
There’s no doubt that if Golden’s bill passes, and if the law is properly enforced, we might be able to curb corruption in the halls of Congress, but those are big “ifs”. Until then, we must hope that our elected officials spend more time making rules than breaking them.
February 15, 2022 @ 12:07 am
No Stocks for Congress?
Maine Representative Jared Golden
Most of us learn from an early age that there are consequences to breaking the rules. Bring home failing grades, and you don’t get to play sports. Keep getting speeding tickets, and you lose your driver’s license, and so on. You’d think, then, that if anyone understood the consequences of rule breaking, it would be our elected officials who actually make the rules for everyone to follow. Truth is the rule makers are often the worst rule-breakers. Case in point, the federal STOCK Act.
Congressmen have always been allowed to own stocks, and to make financial investments, but increasingly, a number of folks on Capitol Hill have increased their wealth by having access to information that the rest of us didn’t have. That’s why in 2012, Congress passed the STOCK Act, making it illegal for a representative or senator to buy or sell stocks based on insider information they had acquired from classified or confidential briefings. All but two senators voted for the Act (one of the hold-outs was Richard Burr, and we now have a good idea why), but the bi-partisan effort proved to be largely cosmetic.
According to a recent investigation by Insider, “at least 54 current members of Congress and almost 200 congressional staffers have violated the law by failing to disclose their transactions on time.” The investigation also concluded that “the law’s enforcement is uneven and inconsistent.” Moreover, that same report found that congressmen had violated the STOCK Act hundreds of times just in the past two years, primarily related to the pandemic. Insider reported that at least “75 federal lawmakers held shares of Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, or Pfizer in 2020” as they were preparing to vote to authorize more than $10 billion “to help drug companies develop and distribute vaccines.”
Not surprisingly, a move is now afoot by some of our more ethical representatives to pass legislation that would ban congressmen, senators, their family members, and staff from even owning stocks. On January 24, Representative Jared Golden of Maine, sent a letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, urging them to bring to the House floor either the “Ban Conflicted Trading Act”, or the “TRUST in Congress Act”.
Meanwhile, some in the upper chamber are not only urging support for Golden’s proposal but want to make sure it has teeth. Just last week, Senator Elizabeth Warren, for example, said she supports a hefty consequence to rule breaking. Her idea is to fine elected officials $50,000 for every violation of the new law.
Thus far over two dozen House members have already signed off on Golden’s proposal, but there hasn’t exactly been a stampede of support. Speaking with Yahoo Finance, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez explained the obvious. “It’s not really a mystery to me why it’s difficult to pass. […] I wouldn’t be surprised if it was a majority of members of Congress [who] hold and trade individual stock.”
Nevertheless, Representative Golden is adamant about the need for reform. In his letter to Pelosi, Golden wrote, “Perhaps this means some of our colleagues will miss out on lucrative investment opportunities. We don’t care. We came to Congress to serve our country, not turn a quick buck.”
There’s no doubt that if Golden’s bill passes, and if the law is properly enforced, we might be able to curb corruption in the halls of Congress, but those are big “ifs”. Until then, we must hope that our elected officials spend more time making rules than breaking them.