Highly contentious legislation by Minnesota Democrat Tim Walz aimed at alleged insider trading by members of Congress will get a vote next week on the House floor, Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va, announced Thursday. The announcement came shortly after the U.S. Senate passed the STOCK Act in a 96-3 vote. The bill has been introduced in every Congress since 2006, but never got the time of day until a CBS "60 Minutes" segment last fall. Now the legislation has 280 co-sponsors in the House, including 96 Republicans. It even got a mention in President Obama's State of the Union address last week. Critics say insider trading is already against the law, whether it be by members of Congress or anyone else. But Walz and co-sponsor Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., want to explicitly ban stock trades and other financial transactions based on non-public knowledge members of Congress glean in virtue of their official positions. There is some evidence of heavy trading by members of Congress in anticipation of the much-disputed TARP (read: bank bailout) legislation during the height of the 2008 financial crisis. After much official resistance, Cantor has agreed to bring the STOCK Act to the House floor, saying "It is critical that the bill we send to the President guarantees that the same rules apply to those in the federal government as they do to everyone else." Walz said he was "pleased that Majority Leader Cantor has ended his obstruction."
