Insider trading technicality lets members of Congress profit millions

This is an undisputed fact on Capitol Hill

Members of Congress use non-public information that only they have to make incredibly profitable stock trades

It makes some lawmakers sick of the place. Everybody talks about this place being a dadgum swamp

It's not a swamp. A swamp is something cool God created. It filters water, animal life lives and flourishes around it

This is a sewer. This is created by man, and it needs to stop

It's natural to say if someone is making stock trades with non-public information

isn't that insider trading? Thanks to an SEC technicality, it's not. But bipartisan rank-and-file members are pushing to make that illegal

It's well known that one of the most prolific traders on Capitol Hill is Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi

Thanks to some extraordinarily well-timed investments by her venture capitalist husband, The family is worth an estimated $278 million

That why one of the bills to ban stock trades and ownership is called the Pelosi Act She got access to information just like other members of Congress that the public doesn And technically that not insider trading

So it probably isn't illegal, but it ought to be. And we ought to ban it

Hulley is correct. Even if members of Congress are making stock trades with information they obtained because of their position

that's probably not insider trading. The SEC defines an insider as company officers, directors, or 10% stockholders

or anyone who possesses inside information because of their relationship with the company

It also applies to people who get a tip. The trade must also be based on material, non-public information

That includes changes to forecasted earnings, loan defaults, mergers and acquisitions, and new product announcements, to name a few

Members of Congress get a lot of information we don't get, but it doesn't necessarily relate to specific companies

It has details on industries, the economy, and intelligence about world events

It still far more intel than the average American and even some stockbrokers have but based on that SEC definition of an insider they technically on the outside And if they get information that pertains to a specific company it often has to do with official government actions like a new contract

But although that's hard to find, and they certainly learn it first, it's public

When members are making decisions for how to vote on a bill, we should be thinking about what's best for the American people, not what is best for our investment accounts

and members of Congress have access to all kinds of inside information

that the average member of the public does not. So the opportunity for corruption is unacceptable

Members in the House and Senate are both continuing their push to get a stock trading bill approved

There's the Pelosi Act and the Restore Trust in Congress Act, which prohibits members of Congress and their families from owning or trading stocks and other securities

Neither of these bills have gotten beyond the first steps of the legislative process

Congresswoman Sarah Jacobs stated Congress and their families from owning and trading individual stocks then every member should too Jacobs is worth an estimated million thanks to her billionaire grandfather

who founded the tech company Qualcomm. By the way, this is the argument against a congressional

stock trading ban. This is a free market and people, we are a free market economy

they should be able to participate in that. Pelosi has since come out in support of stronger

ethics rules regarding stock trading in Congress, as long as it also applies to the president and

vice president. It's worth noting that Congress tried to stop this practice in 2012 when it

approved the Stock Act. They passed rules to prohibit members of Congress from making trades

based on information they receive on the job. Experts say it appears to have failed to stop

investments that may present a conflict of interest. But it does require disclosures for

trades over $1,000, and that has helped the public see exactly how entangled some members are in the

markets. I'm Ray Bogan for Straight Arrow News. For more unbiased reporting straight from our

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