Obama signs the Stock Act today as a result from the reporting by CBS Investigation into Politician Insider Trading. I posted the 60 Minutes Investigative report so you can see why this bill was finally passed. ~e
=========================================Congress: Trading stock on inside information?
Obama signs insider trading bill, wants more curbs on Congress
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called on Wednesday for stricter controls on lawmakers to confront "the corrosive influence" of money in Washington as he signed into law an insider trading ban he said was needed to help restore trust in the U.S. government.The Democrat, who is running for re-election in November, said the STOCK Act he signed at the White House made plain that members of Congress using non-public information to improve their personal investment portfolios were breaking the law.
Enforcement of the core stock trading disclosure provisions will begin in July.
He also called for more restrictions, saying lawmakers should not be allowed to own stocks in industries they have the power to affect and that people who bundle campaign funds for Congress should not be able to lobby elected representatives.
"The powerful shouldn't get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else," Obama said, linking the insider trading legislation to one of his key campaign themes: economic fairness.
"If we expect that to apply to our biggest corporations and to our most successful citizens, it certainly should apply to our elected officials, especially at a time when there is a deficit of trust between this city and the rest of the country," he said.
Obama has been seeking to distance himself from an unpopular and fractious Congress, where Republicans control the House of Representatives and his fellow Democrats have a majority in the Senate. He had called for a tightening of insider trading rules in his State of the Union address in January.
The STOCK Act, which passed the House in February and the Senate in March, specifies that Securities and Exchange Commission prohibitions against trading on non-public information applies to lawmakers and their staff members.
In November, a CBS "60 Minutes" show exposed questionable stock transactions by several members of Congress, including Republican House Speaker John Boehner and House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, a Republican, said the bipartisan support of the insider trading legislation "shows that we can come together and deliver results for the American people."
(Reporting By Laura MacInnis; Editing by Vicki Allen)
© Thomson Reuters 2011. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-usa-obama-congress-idUSBRE83310N20120404
Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.
This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/04/us-usa-obama-congress-idUSBRE83310N20120404
