Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws th

[amigocabal]

Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms

Members of Congress trade in companies while making laws that affect those same firms


By Dan Keating, David S. Fallis, Kimberly Kindy and Scott Higham,

One-hundred-thirty members of Congress or their families have traded stocks collectively worth hundreds of millions of dollars in companies lobbying on bills that came before their committees, a practice that is permitted under current ethics rules, a Washington Post analysis has found.

The lawmakers bought and sold a total of between $85 million and $218 million in 323 companies registered to lobby on legislation that appeared before them, according to an examination of all 45,000 individual congressional stock transactions contained in computerized financial disclosure data from 2007 to 2010.


The truth about the Stock Act: A look at what the law intended to increase financial transparency in Congress does — and doesn’t — do.

At least 34 members of Congress recast their financial portfolios following phone calls or meetings with high-ranking Treasury and Fed officials during the economic crisis.

Almost one in every eight trades — 5,531 — intersected with legislation. The 130 lawmakers traded stocks or bonds in companies as bills passed through their committees or while Congress was still considering the legislation. The party affiliation of the lawmakers was almost evenly split between Democrats and Republicans, 68 to 62.

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[Blayne]

Congress can insider trade, and efforts that had bipartisan support to even only slightly curb this practice has been met by significant resistance and die in committee.