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Floor Speech
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Mr. RICKETTS. Mr. President, people generally in this country--and Nebraskans in particular--expect when they send their elected officials to Washington, DC, that they are going to serve the communities. Sadly, that belief that we are coming here is undermined by some of our policies that we have.
For example, 80 percent of Americans believe that Congress does not do a good job of keeping the inside information that we have separate from our finances. Consequently, the approval rating of Congress is about 17 percent.
And it is not just the polling that shows that we have got a problem; so does history. We can look on social media and see that regularly, publishing the trades of Members of this body is something people try to profit off of.
In fact, the former Speaker's trades were published quite regularly. And as crazy as it sounds, that became a legitimate investment strategy because it was making people money.
We also had a former member of the Senate Intelligence Committee who sold about $1.5 million in stock in 2020 that occurred right before the market tanked because of the COVID pandemic.
Even the appearance of impropriety undermines the credibility of the House and the Senate, that it gives the--even if we give the perception that we are using inside information to benefit financially, it undermines the public's trust in our democracy and may depress people from wanting to vote, keep them home, and it certainly undermines the faith they have in our institutions.
I have a solution. My Stop Insider Trading Act. My Stop Insider Trading Act would go beyond our current disclosure laws. What it would say is that if you become elected to the Congress--either the House or the Senate--that you would not be allowed to buy any more stocks.
Now, if you owned it already, you would be allowed to keep those. But if you wanted to sell those, you would have to give 7 to 14 days' notice so that the public would be able to see what you intended to do and be able to take appropriate action well ahead of what you would be able to do.
So you would not be able to take advantage of any inside information ahead of what the public had. You would not be able to sell until the public knew well in advance, and, of course, you would be prohibited from buying stocks as well.
My bill also has real teeth in it, a minimum of a $2,000 fine or 10 percent of the cost of the proceeds.
So, for example, if you went and sold a stock after getting elected, without giving the proper notice, and say it was a million-dollar transaction, you would have to pay a $100,000 fine. In addition, you would have to forfeit all of the profits. The Stop Insider Trading Act has real teeth in it to back up the policy.
By making sure that Members of Congress cannot buy stock on inside information and would have to notify the public if they wish to sell any stock well in advance of their actually being able to do that, we can help restore the faith of the American people that we are keeping separate the inside information that we get for very good reasons from our finances.
Let's be clear, no Member of the House or Senate should benefit from inside information. They should not be allowed to profit from it. This is supposed to be a public service, and we need to take steps to restore the credibility with the American people.
The Stop Insider Trading Act is the solution to be able to help restore that credibility, to let the American people know that we are not financially benefiting from inside information. It would apply to not only Members of the House and Senate but their spouses and their dependent children as well.
The President has called on us to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act. The Vice President just last week, in addressing House Republicans, said we need to pass the Stop Insider Trading Act. It is time for Congress to act on this important piece of legislation that will help restore people's faith in their institutions.
I call on my colleagues to support this bill and send it to the President's desk.
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