Congressional Insider Trading Finally Might Become Illegal

Looks like your U.S. senators may soon be voting on a measure that would make it illegal for them to use their voting powers to influence the financial fortunes of companies for which they are stockholders. Hmmmm… Interesting.

In other news,  your U.S. senators are currently totally allowed to use their voting powers to influence the financial fortunes of companies for which they are stockholders…

Senator Brown tells [the Washington Post's Greg Sargent] he is introducing a measure in the Senate today that would require all Senators to divest themselves of any stocks in companies that are impacted by their actions as a Senator…

"Members of the House and Senate should not be voting on issues that affect their financial investments," Brown told [Sargent]. "We have the privilege of holding these jobs. There should be no perception that we're benefitting. We need to show the public we mean business."

This seems like a no-brainer, right? I mean, what kind of shameless self-serving tool of corporate America would even lift their pinky and risk looking like they're trying to obstruct such an undeniably reasonable and necessary law?

Late last year, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) effectively halted Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus's (R-Ala.) plans to move the measure through his panel… And even though Bachus wanted to move forward with a markup, a majority of Republicans on his panel have not formally backed the measure.

Oh, right.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images News/Getty Images

Tags: Eric Cantor, Money, Senate, Sherrod Brown, STOCK Act