0:00
We have an opportunity here today to do
0:03
something that the public has wanted us
0:05
to do for decades. And that is to ban
0:07
members of Congress from profiting on
0:10
information that frankly only members of
0:12
Congress have in the buying and selling
0:14
of stock. 86% of Americans say that
0:17
members of Congress should not be able
0:19
to buy and sell shares of stock,
0:22
individual stock, while they are members
0:24
of this body. And they are absolutely
0:26
correct. And the reason is, you can see
0:28
it. There was just another ethics
0:29
referral in the House last week. We've
0:31
seen the former speaker of the House
0:33
make millions of dollars in profits.
0:35
We've seen members of both parties, I'm
0:37
sad to say, be investigated for their
0:40
stock trades. And the reason for all of
0:42
this is is that quite frankly, members
0:43
of this body are privy to information
0:45
that the normal person just is not. Now,
0:47
is that insider trading? It is not under
0:50
the laws. Sometimes people say, "Well,
0:52
we already have insider trading laws. We
0:53
don't need a stock ban." Well, the
0:55
information that members of Congress are
0:56
privy to is technically not covered by
0:58
the insider trading laws, but nobody
1:00
really believes that the information
1:02
that we get isn't valuable. It is quite
1:04
valuable, which is why back during CO,
1:06
you saw members of Congress of both
1:09
parties engage in a flurry of stock
1:12
trading right after they were getting CO
1:14
briefings. Were members of the public
1:15
getting those briefings? They were not.
1:17
Were members of the public privy to the
1:19
kind of information that was being given
1:20
to members of Congress? No, they were
1:22
not. And so when you look at what
1:24
members of Congress are privy to, what
1:26
they are able to trade on, the access
1:28
that they have, it's just qualitatively
1:30
different than your average Joe or Jane.
1:33
Which is why we ought to put into place
1:36
common sense guard rails that say if you
1:39
want to be a member of Congress, you can
1:40
put your you want to you want to save,
1:42
great. You can buy mutual funds. You can
1:44
buy broadly diversified investment
1:46
vehicles. You should not be able to buy
1:48
and trade individual stock shares in
1:50
which frankly we have an interest in the
1:52
work that we do. We have information
1:54
that no other people get, no other
1:56
members of the public have. This bill
1:57
would finally redress that. Uh it is in
2:00
substance identical to the bill that the
2:02
committee passed last year and uh I
2:06
believe it is a huge step forward in
2:07
finally addressing this problem. I urge
