Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012

Floor Speech

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Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, as a cosponsor of the original House STOCK Act, H.R. 1148, I commend my colleagues Tim Walz and Louise Slaughter for their leadership on this issue and will support the version of the legislation we are being asked to vote on today so that we can send it to conference and finalize a stronger product for the American people.

While there is broad, bipartisan agreement that Members of Congress, their staff and executive branch officials should not be profiting from non-public information, there are other steps we can and should take to promote transparency and protect the integrity of government. For example, the Senate-passed bill and the original House version of the STOCK Act would require public registration for the ``political intelligence'' industry. That requirement was stripped from today's legislation.

Madam Speaker, while I believe this particular version of the STOCK Act can clearly be strengthened, I will support it to move the process forward.

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