STOCK Act

Floor Speech

Mrs. GILLIBRAND. Like millions of Americans all across our country, I was shocked to learn that insider trading by Members of Congress, in fact, and their families and their staff, using nonpublic information gained through their congressional work, is not clearly and expressly prohibited by law and the rules of Congress. The American people need to know that their elected leaders play by the exact same rules by which they have to play. They also deserve the right to know their lawmakers' only interest is what is best for the country, not what is best for their own financial interests.

Members of Congress, their families and staff, should not be able to gain personal profits from information they have access to that everyday middle-class American families do not. It is simply not right. Nobody should be above the rules.

I introduced a bipartisan bill in the Senate with 28 of our Senate colleagues from both sides of the aisle to close this loophole. The STOCK Act legislation is very similar to the legislation introduced by my friends in the House, Congresswoman Louise Slaughter and Congressman Tim Walz. I thank them for their longstanding dedication and leadership to this important issue. I also thank Chairman Lieberman, Ranking Member Collins, and all of the committee members for their work in acting swiftly to move this bipartisan bill out of committee with a sense of common purpose straight to the floor for a vote. I thank Leader Reid for his leadership and support in bringing up this bill before the full Senate.

Our bill, which has received the support of at least seven good government groups, covers two important principles. First, Members of Congress, their families and their staff, should be barred from buying or selling securities on the basis of knowledge gained through their congressional service or from using the knowledge to tip off someone else. The SEC and the CFTC must be empowered to investigate these cases. To provide additional teeth, such acts should also be in violation of Congress's own rules to make it clear that this activity is not only against the law but inappropriate for this body.

Second, Members should also be required to disclose major transactions within 30 days, to make information available online for their constituents to see, providing dramatically improved oversight and accountability from the current annual reporting requirements.

I am pleased the final product that passed with bipartisan support in the committee is a strong bill with teeth and includes measures such as ensuring that Members of Congress cannot tip off others with nonpublic information gained through their duties and ensured trading from this information would also be a violation of Congress's own ethics rules.

Some critics say the bill is unnecessary and is already covered under current statutes. I have spoken to experts tasked in the past with investigations of this nature and they strongly disagree. We must make it unambiguous that this kind of behavior is illegal. As my home State newspaper, the Buffalo News, notes:
The STOCK Act would ensure that it's the people's business being attended to.

President Obama said in his State of the Union Address, send this bill and he will sign it right away. We should not delay. It is time to act and take a step right now to begin restoring the trust that is broken in Congress.

I yield the floor.

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