House Majority Leader Eric Cantor says he?ll push for broad action early next year to crack down on alleged congressional corruption and make sure lawmakers don?t profit from inside information.
In an interview excerpt released Friday, Cantor says the measure will expand on the STOCK Act ? legislation explicitly banning congressional insider trading that?s rapidly gained traction on both sides of Capitol Hill since a ?60 Minutes? report in November highlighted the practice.
Continue Reading?We want to make sure the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,? Cantor said in the interview, also on ?60 Minutes,? which will air Sunday.
Last week, Cantor pressured House Financial Services Committee Chairman Spencer Bachus to abruptly cancel a committee markup on the STOCK Act. Cantor, the House?s No. 2 Republican, privately told Bachus ? who had been a major target of the ?60 Minutes? probe ? that he should not have moved forward on the bill without clearing it with GOP leaders in the lower chamber.
House Democratic backers of the STOCK Act ? who were thrilled to see committee action on the legislation, Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) in particular ? were left peeved by Cantor?s behind-the-scenes moves to halt the bill from moving forward, and wrote a letter to Cantor asking him to reconsider.
In the ?60 Minutes? interview, Cantor gave some hints as to how the broader package would build on the STOCK Act, which focuses on stock trades. For example, Cantor said government officials with access to inside information could unfairly profit from land sales.
?It is to expand the notion that somehow it?s only stock purchases and trading that is somehow the only thing that could potentially go wrong,? he said.
The measure could come as early as the first couple of months of 2012, Cantor indicated.
Little known before the news investigation, the STOCK Act ? short for ?Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act? ? has now grown to 237 co-sponsors in the House. In the upper chamber, its companion legislation cleared a Senate panel earlier this week.
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