I noted the other day that the version of the STOCK Act introduced by Senator Kristen Gillibrand was bizarrely worded and, read literally, would do almost nothing to regulate Congressional insider trading. John Carney picked up on the theme but now is reporting that:
I may have jumped the gun Wednesday by claiming Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was attempting to gut the proposed bill to ban insider trading by members of Congress.
The language in the version of the bill the New York Democrat proposed would have definitely made the law highly ineffective. It would actually greenlighted insider trading by Senators and House members, so long as they didn't bring in a co-conspirator.
But Gillibrand's people tell me this is not the intent at all. A spokesman for Gillibrand told me they added language to the bill that was meant to make it a violation for a lawmaker to tip off others about pending legislation. The language was intended to make the restrictions on insider trading based on non-public political information tighter, the person said. The language in the bill itself was simply a technical error that didn't reflect the intent of Gillibrand.
Fair enough. Kudos to Gillibrand for acknowledging the problem with her bill. Now we'll just have to wait and see the new language to make sure the problem's fixed.
Unfortunately, of course, fixing that problem still leaves the Act's other flaws unresolved.
