Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) celebrates passage of the STOCK Act:
“We are entrusted with a profound responsibility by the American people to look out for their best interests, and nothing else, certainly not our own financial interests,” said Senator Gillibrand, the first member of Congress to post her official daily schedule, all earmark requests and personal financial disclosure online. “Today, we took the first step toward restoring the trust that’s been lost in Washington by ensuring that members of Congress play by the exact same rules as everyday Americans.”
The press release details the main provisions of the bill. I had the privilege of working with the Senator's staff on the bill and was extremely impressed by them. Indeed, if I lived in NY, I'd break my no voting for Democrats rule and vote for Senator Gillibrand as thanks for the tremendous work she and her staff put into the bill.
Kudos also to Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) and his staff, who also worked really hard to make this day--which I never thought would come--happen. Senator Brown is also taking a well-deserved victory lap:
I became the first Senator to address the problem and introduce the STOCK Act.
In the past few months, my bill gathered bipartisan support, and even President Obama said he would help me push the Senate leadership to move things forward. Now, I’m proud to say that the STOCK Act has passed the United States Senate.
Here’s what the bill does: it makes the law clear by banning members of Congress and staff from engaging in insider trading and using public office for personal gain. It also demands that personal financial transactions are filed more frequently, and available online.
Bottom line, members of Congress have to live by the same laws everyone else.
Time to send a few bucks to Brown's reelection campaign as thanks.
Now we just have to convince House Majority Leader Eric Cantor that members of Congress, as Senator Brown aptly puts it, ought to "have to live by the same laws everyone else."
