Weekly Spotlight: Stop the Trades
On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on legislation that would ban members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependents from trading stocks
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On Wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators reached a deal on legislation that would ban members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependents from trading stocks. The bill, if passed, would direct lawmakers to stop buying any new stocks immediately and to require lawmakers to divest from certain assets.
We’re pleased to see lawmakers take up this important issue, as we’ve been pushing for a stock trading ban for members of Congress. We shouldn’t have to wonder whether our leaders are working for us or working to line their own pockets.
We’re hoping to see this bill come up in committee this summer, and we’ll be pushing them to send it to the Senate floor for a full vote. In the meantime, you can sign up for alerts to receive steps you can take to make sure we stop the trades.
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QUOTE OF THE WEEK
“It’s very important for the Justice Department and the Defense Department to protect our contracting system, and to ensure the people we have at the senior-most levels aren’t thinking about lining their pockets or their future employer’s pockets.”
Scott Amey, General Counsel, in the Washington Post
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“I think that this is a trend that we just generally see. There’s a new technology that can be useful in a positive way, but in the rush to deploy it for efficiency’s sake, or being on the cutting edge, a lot of a conversation and necessary policymaking around protecting civil rights, civil liberties, and privacy rights gets cut from the entire conversation.”
Don Bell, Policy Counsel, The Constitution Project, on KUNC
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