Legal loopholes?



WASHINGTON
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, disagrees with Sarah Palin on whether there is proof that members of Congress are engaged in insider trading. But the independent senator from Connecticut agrees with her conclusion that legislative action on the issue is needed.

“I don’t have any evidence that there is insider trading by members of Congress,” Senator Lieberman said Tuesday at a breakfast for reporters hosted by the Monitor. But he acknowledged that in the wake of Peter Schweizer’s book, “Throw Them All Out,” and a "60 Minutes" segment on the subject, “a lot of people around the country including my constituents … think there is.”

One such person is Republican political icon Sarah Palin. In an op-ed Tuesday in USA Today, the former Alaska governor said that thanks to Mr. Schweizer's book and the "60 Minutes" story, “we have concrete proof” to explain how members of Congress “accumulate wealth at a rate astonishingly faster than the rest of Americans and have stock portfolios that outperform even the best hedge-fund managers.”

Palin charged that "the methods of unethical wealth accumulation for our permanent political class are endless."

Earlier this month, Lieberman’s committee held hearings on alleged congressional insider trading and whether members of Congress are subject to insider trading rules, which forbid the use of nonpublic information for personal gain.


“After the hearing our committee held on this subject, it was my conclusion listening to three law professors that there is a definite ambiguity in the law,” Lieberman said. At the present time, he said, “a court might not hold that a member of Congress or a staff member is covered by the insider trading laws.”

At the breakfast, Lieberman said, “I think it is very important that Congress make clear with legislative action that members of Congress and staff are covered by insider trading” laws. In her USA Today piece, Palin also called for congressional action.

Lieberman said his committee would work Wednesday on a compromise bill incorporating legislation drafted by Sen. Scott Brown (R) of Massachusetts and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) of New York. Lieberman said that after the committee works on the bill he expected to “report it out to the [Senate] floor.”

Palin called the Brown and Gillibrand legislation “particularly weak” in her USA Today article. For example, Brown’s legislation would require members of Congress to report on stock trades within 90 days. Palin would like the reporting to be immediate and would require members to place their assets in blind trusts.

Again.... there will be no prosecutions or repremands that mean anything. No fines, no job loss, no sanctions of any kind!

It will take a vote to oust these corrupt A$$holes!

No worries Soul... There's a "hearing" by a "committee" sometime next year (wink wink nudge nudge)

By BRODY MULLINS

WASHINGTON—A Senate panel on Wednesday approved legislation to explicitly prohibit members of Congress from trading on insider information and to increase disclosure about the stock-trading of members of Congress.

But the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee dropped a provision that would have created new rules and disclosure for a growing number of businesses that gather political intelligence for Wall Street traders.

"Elected office is a place for public service not private gain," said Sen. Susan Collins (R., Maine), the top supporter of the legislation.

The committee vote came a month after an episode of CBS's "60 Minutes" raised questions about financial transactions by several members of Congress. The Wall Street Journal has also written extensively on the topic.

The Senate bill makes it clear that insider-trading rules apply to Congress, something many legal experts have said was in doubt because lawmakers don't have an explicit duty to keep private the non-public information they hear in the halls of Congress. The legislation also requires lawmakers to disclose their stock trades within 30 days. Members of Congress and senior staff currently are required to make public their financial holdings and trading on an annual basis.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has said in congressional testimony that it could theoretically bring an insider-trading case against a member of Congress, but it worried that a court could overturn the case if a judge finds that lawmakers don't have such a duty.

"It was clear to me that there is a real ambiguity" in the law, said Sen. Joe Lieberman (I., Conn.),the chairman of the committee. Mr. Lieberman said the Senate should act quickly on the legislation because of "the public agitation about insider trading by members of Congress."

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D., NY.) has introduced a similar bill in the House. That bill has been endorsed by a majority of House lawmakers but hasn't yet been scheduled for a committee vote.

The Senate committee added a provision to the bill that would require the Senate for the first time to make their financial-disclosure forms available over the Internet.

But the committee dropped a section from the original version of the bill that would have required people in the political-intelligence business to disclosure their activities in the same way as lobbyists. Senators said the issue needs more study and commissioned a study of the industry by the Government Accountability Office.

A growing number of individuals are being hired by hedge funds and other investors to pick up market-moving information about pending government action that can affect the stock market.

The New York-based Integrity Research Group says there are 70 such firms that generated a total of $120 million in revenue in 2010.

Mr. Lieberman, the committee chairman, said he would hold a hearing next year on the political-intelligence industry before considering legislation on the topic.

Several senators at the committee session expressed concern about the legislation.

Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) said he worried about the potential unintended consequences of possible regulations on the political-intelligence industry. Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky said the Senate was moving too quickly and could lead to unintended consequences.

You mean ANOTHER super committee?

Of course,they work so well,especially when they are split evenly between the Parties!

It'll take more than that. Unless we can vote them ALL out at once and just start over.