OPINION: This article contains commentary which may reflect the author’s opinion
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012, also known as the STOCK Act, was passed by Congress to define integrity in finances.
Congress passed the law a decade ago to combat insider trading and conflicts of interest among their own members and force lawmakers to be more transparent about their personal financial dealings.
A key provision of the law mandates that lawmakers publicly — and quickly — disclose any stock trade made by themselves, a spouse, or a dependent child.
But many members of Congress have not fully complied with the law.
Insider and several other news organizations have identified 71 members of Congress who’ve recently failed to properly report their financial trades as mandated.
The violations range from late filing of reports, sometimes months late, even running into multiple years, to not filing required federal reports at all.
Some Congress members have not filed multiple reports.
They offer excuses including ignorance of the law, clerical errors, and mistakes by an accountant.
Insider has chronicled this widespread nature of this phenomenon in “Conflicted Congress,” an ongoing reporting project initially published in December.
While lawmakers who violate the STOCK Act face a fine, the penalty is usually small — $200 is the standard amount — or waived by House or Senate ethics officials.
The money made on the transfer of stock could well make it worth the paying of the relatively small fine.
Here are the lawmakers discovered to have recently violated the STOCK Act — to one extent or another:
Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat from California, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, Sen. Roger Marshall, Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat from Colorado, Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, Sen. Rick Scott, a Republican from Florida, Sen. Tom Carper, a Democrat from Delaware, Sen. Bill Hagerty, a Republican from Tennessee, Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming.
Sen. Gary Peters, a Democrat from Michigan, Rep. Susie Lee, a Democrat of Nevada, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a Republican from North Carolina; Rep. Katherine Clark, a Democrat from Massachusetts; Clark, one of the highest-ranking Democrats in the House, Sen. Mark Kelly, a Democrat from Arizona.
Rep. Tom Malinowski, a Democrat from New Jersey, Rep. Pat Fallon, a Republican from Texas, Rep. Diana Harshbarger, a Republican from Tennessee, Rep. Blake Moore, a Republican from Utah, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, Rep. Mo Brooks, a Republican from Alabama, Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican from Colorado.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, a Republican from Texas, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida, Rep. Kathy Manning, a Democrat from North Carolina, Rep. Mikie Sherrill, a Democrat from New Jersey, Rep. Kevin Hern, a Republican from Oklahoma, Rep. Brian Mast, a Republican from Florida.
Rep. Brad Schneider, a Democrat from Illinois, Rep. Michael Guest, a Republican from Mississippi, Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a Democrat from New York, Rep. Lori Trahan, a Democrat from Massachusetts, Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, Rep. John Rutherford, a Republican from Florida.
Rep. Josh Gottheimer, a Democrat from New Jersey, Rep. Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, Rep. David Trone, a Democrat from Maryland, Rep. Pete Sessions, a Republican from Texas, Rep. Dan Meuser, a Republican from Pennsylvania, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez, a Democrat from Texas.
Rep. Kathy Castor, a Democrat of Florida, Rep. Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, Rep. Bill Pascrell, a Democrat of New Jersey, Rep. August Pfluger, a Republican from Texas, Rep. Brian Higgins, a Democrat from New York, Rep. Cheri Bustos, a Democrat from Illinois, Rep. Steve Chabot, a Republican from Ohio, Rep. Victoria Spartz, a Republican from Indiana, Rep. Rick Allen, a Republican from Georgia.
Rep. Kim Schrier, a Democrat from Washington, Rep. Kurt Schrader, a Democrat from Oregon, Rep. Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania, Rep. Chris Jacobs, a Republican from New York, Rep. Bobby Scott, a Democrat from Virginia, Rep. Austin Scott, a Republican from Georgia.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado, Dwight Evans, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, Rep. Tom Suozzi, a Democrat from New York, Rep. Warren Davidson, a Republican from Ohio, Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican from Texas, Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, a Republican from Tennessee, Rep. Michael Burgess, a Republican from Texas.
Rep. Cindy Axne, a Democrat from Iowa, Del. Michael San Nicolas, a Democrat from Guam, Rep. Peter Welch, a Democrat from Vermont, Rep. Jim Banks, a Republican from Indiana, Rep. Mike Garcia, a Republican from California, Rep. Rob Wittman, a Republican from Virginia.
Rep. Alan Lowenthal, a Democrat from California, Rep. Jim Hagedorn, a Republican from Minnesota, Rep. Roger Williams, a Republican from Texas.
Ethics watchdogs and even some members of Congress have called for stricter penalties or even a ban on federal lawmakers from trading individual stocks.
Even banning members of Congress from trading.
On Capitol Hill, lawmakers are now seriously debating such a ban, with a vote on a consensus bill possible for September, Yahoo News reports.
Source: The Republic Brief