The fact they have to "consider" it is pretty scary in itself. Seems like a no-brainer to us common folk. And, I agree it has to apply to all staffers, too!

The law should be the same for all of us. If we can't trade on insider information than they can't. Why are they able to write their own bill the way they want to? I am sure they are going to put something in this bill that will allow them to get away with it. They are just trying to shut us up again, the same rules that applies to us should apply to them, period.

I would hope that the final bill has a Reagan-like "trust but verify" clause and that the penalties for ethics violations are savage - like expulsion from Congress and reversal of trades. But I suspect it will just have weasel clauses and no teeth.

"In some cases, executive branch officials are required to divest themselves of stock holdings that pose a conflict. Lawmakers don't have to do that and the Senate bill would not require it."

So the bill does not require lawmakers to divest themselves of stock they may own, which in essence could and most likely does influence how they vote on regulations affecting said organization.

If we make Judges recuse themselves from cases, then lawmakers should not be able to regulate or make laws regarding companies they own stock in.

With an approval rating lower than perverts you figure Congress and the Senate would want to get this right.

But no doubt they have already figured out a backdoor or have a private closed door meeting in the transparency of things where money and deals trade hands.

American Government the best money can buy...

Vote them all out and watch things get better, as the career politicians have completely ruined the American dream and at the same time have consistently tried to separate the nation along race, religion and class in order to stay in power.

Ethics committee hahaha that's a joke has Boxer been in front of the Ethics board yet?

Maybe because she is the chairwomen of the Ethics committee they don't apply to her and the deal she got for her husband with the Tarp funds.

Hey! Can I get an amendment added that bars politicians from making robo-calls? You know, add them to the Do-Not-Call law?

This is a smoke screen that the career politicians have already devised ways to get around.

If you want to know more about the corruption in politics, follow the money trails. See how many of our elected officials have increased their personal finances since taking office.

Look to see how many family members, former associates and friends have been given appointments to important positions in government. Look to see how many of those same people have interests in businesses and how new laws exempt them from certain government restrictions and how new laws benefit them directly.

This may look like a step in the right direction, but when the politicians police themselves little to nothing will change.

Don't expect us to applaud. This was a no brainer and shouldn't have been allowed to go on in the first place.

Get rid of the lobbyists, now!

Congress is as corrupt as they come, and the fact they pass laws and exempt themselves proves it. Congress showers themselves in lavish perks and benefits with a simple up or down vote. It is an absolute joke and an insult to every American that these clowns have to consider a bill to make something illegal for them, that is already illegal for everyone else. They all need to be kicked out of office with extreme prejudice.

I predict that the House GOP will add multiple other amendments that ban lawmakers from using info, they are privy to but is not public yet, to buy not only stocks but make land deals or business deals (other than stocks). This, in effect, will make the legislation too braod to gain majority support thus ending the hopes of such a bill being passed to the President for his signature. If this happens no GOP-er or blue dog democrap will suggest breaking the bill into separate bills... one eliminating insider trading and another eliminating land or business deals.

AMF

Isn't insider trading on non-public information already illegal? So they've been able to do that prior to this bill?

They'll just blame Obama, and the right wing media circus will say yea its his fault and all the right wingers will jump on the sinking ship. hahaha. Same old same ol.

CONSIDER ........................WTF>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Those few, those privileged few.

Give me the inside scoop. Let me make some millions.

F....rs

I don't hold out much hope for this bill. Why would they give up their millions of dollars they can earn? Besides, this is only one of the countless problems with our congress...They never have been about serving us just themselves!

The thing people seem to be missing here is that stock trading is not the only way to make money and its not the only way to hide money. I bet its a very small fraction of what Congress does to make money on top of the $178,000.00 a year they get paid.

1. land speculation.

Harry Reid is famous for his land deals. Imagine if you owned a couple thousand acres of West Texas property then you manage to pass legislation giving millions of dollars in grants and all of a suddenly the value of that land jumps Ten Fold?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40565987/ns/business-going_green/t/wind-their-backs-powerful-democrats-help-chinese-energy-firm-chase-stimulus-money/#.TytzFcitJ2B

Top Democratic fundraisers and lobbyists with links to the White House are behind a proposed wind farm in Texas that stands to get $450 million in stimulus money, even though a Chinese company would operate the farm and its turbines would be built in China.

The farm’s backers also have close ties with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who, at the height of his hard-fought re-election bid this fall, helped blunt congressional criticism over stimulus dollars possibly going to create jobs in China by endorsing a proposal by the Chinese company to build a factory in his home state. Although his campaign received thousands of dollars in donations from the wind farm’s backers and Reid stood on stage with them at a campaign event they hosted, his office declined to answer any questions about the wind farm’s organizers or their plans for Nevada.

The wind farm, first announced more than a year ago, would consist of 300 2-megawatt wind turbines, each perched atop a 26-story-tall steel tower and spinning three blades — each half the length of a football field. The farm would span three counties and 36,000 acres in West Texas land best known for its oil.

Why would anyone even speculate that Reid would do anything like that? He's a U.S. Senator and the Majority leader controlling the Senate.

Because he has been caught at it three times now and in the LV Coyote Springs incident he tried to get the Federal Government to pick up the 10 million dollar tab for moving the Power line corridor,got an endangered species "Habitat" moved, and managed to block the EPA enforcing there rules.

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=1758

Although neither Sen. Reid nor Leif Reid intervened on his behalf, according to Sen. Reid, the Bureau of Land Management gave Whittemore clear title to 10,000-acre rent-free lease constituting the Desert Tortoise Preserve in the middle of the site, in exchange for 10,000 acres on the eastern edge of the 5-mile by 13-mile tract. Local officials of the Interior Department objected to this minor “boundary adjustment” of the preserve, but were overruled by Washington. The Desert Tortoises, it turns out, were willing to move to the Mormon Mountains.

The federal power corridor was a bigger problem. But after Sen. Reid inserted a measure into a federal land bill opening up the property across the highway for the corridor, then repeatedly inserted a provision into bills to move the corridor across the highway, that pesky 15-square-mile corridor just disappeared. At first, this was to be a gift from the government to Mr. Whittemore, but after a minor stink was raised, Whittemore offered to pay $160,000 for the 15-square-mile improvement. Eventually, he was forced to pay the $10.4 million that government appraisers said the change was actually worth.

But that was still a bargain, since together the federal changes to the corridor and the Desert (and Mountain) Tortoise habitat freed up more than 20,000 acres of highway-accessible Reid Estate for a development that will eventually include 159,000 homes, 16 golf courses (several by Jack Nicklaus), and all the associated strip malls this new city will require. I suggest they call it “Tortuga Hills.”

But there was one last obstacle to clear. The EPA suddenly decided that bulldozing desert streambeds, as proposed, might be bad for the streambed environment. A flurry of calls from Sen. Reid arranged meetings between the EPA, Whittemore and Leif Reid. Nevada’s junior senator, Republican John Ensign, was enlisted in the cause, clearing the way for the senior senator, Harry Reid, to also become more directly involved in talking to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson. Can you guess what the outcome was? That’s right—the system worked. The Harry Reid Real Estate Investment System, that is. The project proceeded with minimal changes.

There are other examples, as well. But you can see how this simple investment system, accessible by every citizen (no mater how unconnected), works to create millions and millions of dollars of new government-unleashed wealth for its practitioners

How successful is the system for its inventor, Sen. Harry Reid? So successful he doesn’t even remember how much land he owns anymore! He’s constantly “remembering” old parcels just before the ethics committee asks about them. Such oversight is often the result of “clerical errors”—just like Sen. Reid accidentally paying personal obligations with campaign funds was the result of “clerical errors.” “Clerical errors” are soon to be added as “Step 4” of the system: “What to claim upon getting caught using the system.”

Then theres #2, and #3. Selling your influence, your vote, and hiding money in Subchapter "S" Corporations

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2011/oct/10/pelosis-disclosure-belated-in-husbands-land-deal/

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s husband, a real estate developer and investment banker, stands to make millions of dollars in a previously undisclosed residential real estate project in California as a partner with the father of a woman Mrs. Pelosi helped become ambassador to Hungary, records show.

Paul F. Pelosi’s investment in Russell Ranch is worth at least $5 million and possibly as much as $25 million in a deal put together by his friend and longtime business associate, Angelo Tsakopoulos, patriarch of a multimillion-dollar real estate development firm, according to Mrs. Pelosi’s latest personal-disclosure statement.

Mr. Pelosi said in an email from his wife’s spokesman that initially he invested between $1 million and $5 million in the project a dozen years ago, although its value has shot up recently as the undeveloped land moves closer to being annexed by a nearby city. He said the Russell Ranch investment had increased in value less than 5 percent per year over the last dozen years.

Despite his involvement in the project dating back to the late 1990s, Mrs. Pelosi first listed the investment in May 2010 on her federal financial-disclosure forms covering the couple’s finances during 2009. The forms are required annually and are supposed to identify assets she and her husband have that are worth more than $1,000.

The first Russell Ranch listing came a month after The Washington Times raised questions about business dealings between Mr. Pelosi and Mr. Tsakopoulos and Mrs. Pelosi’s successful efforts to help his daughter, Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis, become ambassador. For 2009, Mrs. Pelosi reported that the Russell Ranch investment was worth between $1 million and $5 million. The next year, she listed the value as between $5 million and $25 million.

Nadeam Elshami, spokesman for Mrs. Pelosi, said the California Democrat did not have to list the Russell Ranch investment because it was held in the name of another company her husband owns, Forty-Five Belden Corp., which is a Subchapter S corporation and taxes it owes are paid by the shareholders rather than the corporation.

While federal officials usually have to list the underlying assets of their privately held companies that hold investments, the House does not require such disclosures for Subchapter S corporations

Asked why she listed the project now if she was not required to do so, the spokesman said Mr. and Mrs. Pelosi “voluntarily decided to list it separately for clarity and transparency purposes.” Noting that the couple has been friends with Mr. Tsakopoulos and Mrs. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis “for more than 25 years,” he said there was no attempt to hide the asset - calling any such claim “ridiculous” and “false.”

But a government watchdog said that even if it was not legally required, Mrs. Pelosi should have voluntarily disclosed the Russell Ranch investment earlier, at least by the time she was helping Mrs. Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis become an ambassador in November 2009. Mrs. Pelosi promised upon her election as House speaker in 2007 to lead “the most honest, most open, most ethical Congress in history.”

If the elected Representatives of the United States were serious about ending the corruption in the United States government and politics then they should be passing legislation that bans all types of, Influence selling, Land Speculation, corporation type loop holes, etc.

We are paying our Federal Representatives $178,000.00 a year just in salary and then there's all the other perks and benefits, travel expenses, staffs, offices, expense accounts, etc.

If $178,000.00 a year plus bennies isn't enough for them then don't run for Public office and stay in the private sector.

Oh that's right you would go to jail, and get all your assets confiscated for doing what you get away with doing as a Congressman. Its not about the $178,000.00 dollar salary its the millions of dollars you can make breaking laws everyone else is bound by, influencing legislation, etc.. without fear of punishment.

The STOCK bill is a pathetic joke on the American people to try and appease the masses without actually taking away Congress's ability to make millions.

With members of Congress convinced their political survival depends on their image, the House is wasting no time in considering a Senate-passed bill that would ban insider trading by lawmakers and thousands of executive branch officials. Stock trades would have to be posted online within 30 days.

Yeah members, that is what is really the most important for America, YOUR IMAGE. NOT!!!!! Get rid of politicians all together. Put in place highly trained and educated career law makers (not these yahoes that beg for your vote every 4 years only to screw you in the rear but career law makers) and We the People get to vote line items into reality or not.

Well said and I agree they are disgraced fools. The problem is they will probably be re-elected. The voters need to wake up and demand more from the political class.

It is about time they are finally deciding to ban something that is AGAINST THE LAW and would land anyone else in jail. This is a perfect example of how corrupt the government really is they thorw us a bone so hopefully we keep quiet about all the other ways they are stealing from us. How about going one better and passing alaw that says government officials are subject to all the laws we are.

armurray, he'll choose the one that makes him look best and offends fewer of his voters/supporters

I agree, but will that mean he'll back the Republican plan from the House? That would be an interesting pickle for him...

Not backing legislation because it is proposed by one party or another is precisely part of what's wrong today. Obama could step up and take the high road instead of giving Republicans more reasons to oppose him. Someone needs to take the first step and we need to pay attention and value our politicians as people over representatives of a particular party.

If we could get away from this partisan nonsense I think that we'd come to terms with who is really working for or against the people.

east coast - I agree to the identification for the problem.

With the approval rating of all politicians in the toilet.

In my opinion it would be easier to vote them all out.

@east-coast - Obama has taken the "high-road" and tried compromise so much during the last 3 years that he has riled his own base.

From The Wall Street Journal-

"President Barack Obama, in a last-ditch bid for a bipartisan "grand bargain" on the budget, threw his weight Tuesday behind a $3.7 trillion deficit-reduction plan unveiled by six Republican and Democratic senators.

The senators backing the new proposal say 74% of the deficit reduction would come from spending cuts and 26% from new taxes."

This is one example of this president trying to do what is best for the country. And we know how this went don't we?

it's only illegal for us little people, nothing is illegal if you are a memeber of congress, they are above the law. And remember your tax dollars go to give these career criminals LIFE TIME MEDICAL BENIFITS and PENSIONS WORTH MILLIONS, even after they move on to a more lucrative job in the "private" sector working for Monsanto or some other evil corporation they screwed the American people over for. Isnt America a great country? and if you say no then the propaganda machine will tell you to leave if you don't LOVE getting raped and robbed by the people who you elect to SERVE you.

The only people to make money during the recession are the 535 that make up the Congress and Senate, as well as Fannie and Freddie and banks that wrapped up bad housing debt in derivatives and sold it off. Then they bet against it and the public.

All need to be replaced. Both sides....

And if the electorate does not vote the way the state votes then they too should be ousted.

Curious that all 28,000 - 300,000 executive employees are included in this bill. Do they ALLLLL have access to those closed door committee meetings where politicians pick up those insider trading tips?? And why the big difference in the amount of employees that the bill effects? Don't they even know how many employees they have in the executive branch? Yikes, these folks just keep digging and digging.

It's not everyday you see you're in place of your. So kudos.

Well MSNBC, I like to comment in the business section, but for some reason there are no discussions. I know nothing bout politics. Let the discussions begin, please.

You have posted some very sound thoughts but let's take it one step further..........

"We The People................"

Somehow, that statement has become lost because of politicians. A very simple way to address the issue and actually give the term true meaning would be as follows.......

No bill goes into law until the people have voted on it. Be it city, county, state or federal; no new law goes into effect until the people vote on it. Once a bill has been authored and passed by any committee, the house, senate; president; whatever, it then goes before the people it directly effects to be voted on before it can become law. It would only be at that time that "We The People" would be truly represented.

Rememeber these scum bags make the rules. We need term limites to really stop the gangrene in Washington D.C.

Two repubs, one democrat

Good reply, Ellis. I was thinking that they could really buy some good will with this one by adding the payroll tax extension on to it for the rest of the year, but sadly, I think your suggestion seems more the more likely scenario given the antics of the GOTea in the last year.