Congress is trading on your dime

In the film “Wall Street,” Gordon Gekko called information the most valuable commodity he knew of. Congress took that as a benefits package.

On September 30, the Senate voted 53-47 on a bill to limit lawmakers’ stock trading, seven votes short of the 60 needed to start debate. So the trading desk stays open.

I have spent more than three decades around other people’s money. Since 2015, I have been a designated expert witness in federal and state courts on what fiduciaries owe the people they serve. At a family office, a trustee who traded ahead of the investment committee would leave with a cardboard box and probably a subpoena.

Congress is the trustee of a government that just crossed $40 trillion in debt in August. Its members should live under the same rules we do, with no carve-outs and no riders.

The House passed the Stop Insider Trading Act, H.R. 7008, 232-198 on July 22, with 13 Democrats on board. It bars members, spouses, and dependent children from buying individual stocks. It requires public notice seven to 14 days before a sale. Chairman Bryan Steil (R-Wisc.) said it “ensures no lawmaker can profit off of insider information.” Critics note that it still lets members keep what they already own.

The bill also carries a photo ID requirement for voting. Senate Democrats called the ID language a poison pill and the trading limits too weak, so every Democrat in the upper chamber voted no. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called the bill “as ineffective as a screen door on a submarine.” Fair enough, but the vote only asked whether the Senate would begin debate.........

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