A version of Rep. Louise Slaughter’s Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act, which is aimed at ending insider trading in Congress, is on its way to President Obama’s desk for his signature.
The Senate approved the legislation by a voice vote of 96-3 Thursday afternoon.
Slaughter first introduced the measure six years ago, but it failed to gain traction until the CBS show 60 Minutes aired a piece on it last fall. Hundreds of sponsors soon signed on and the bill passed in the House overwhelmingly last month.
At the same time, Slaughter lamented the removal of regulations for so-called political intelligence from the House bill.
President Barack Obama, in his most recent State of the Union speech, urged lawmakers to pass the law and said he would sign it "tomorrow."
In a statement, Rep. Slaughter said:
“Six years ago, almost to the day, I first learned that Members of Congress and their staffs could make money trading on information they receive in their service to the American people and introduced legislation that would make such an abhorrent practice illegal. Today, we’ve passed one of the most bipartisan bills in this Congress and I’m proud that my colleagues have joined me to make clear that the practice of insider trading in Congress needs to be outlawed once and for all,” said Slaughter. “This has been a long and turbulent debate, but one that we needed to have to serve our constituents. It is a fight I’m proud to have waged.”
“Despite the fact that not all of the provisions I first proposed will soon become law, today I’m delighted,” said Slaughter. “I’ve learned that you’re never truly defeated in a legislature until you give up. It took me 13 years to pass a bill that prevents you from being discriminated against based on your genetic makeup so six years to help clean up Congress is pretty good. I remain committed in the fight to bring the political intelligence industry into the light of day.
“With today’s passage of the STOCK Act, we can move one step closer to living up to the faith and trust bestowed upon us by the American people- the citizens for whom we serve.”
Click the play button above to hear a report on the STOCK Act on Thursday's edition of NPR's All Things Considered.