House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-7th, says he will bring to the House floor next week a measure intended to block members of Congress, their staffers and executive branch officials from using insider information for financial gain.
"It's necessary for us to reinforce the notion that we are here by will of the people and it is very important that the public trust is maintained," he said in an interview today.
"And any suggestion of impropriety, I think, raises the question of whether we're doing everything we can to demonstrate we're abiding by the trust people have in us."
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK, Act passed the Senate on Thursday on a bipartisan 96-3 vote, and appears to have broad support in the House as well. Sens. Mark R. Warner and Jim Webb, both Virginia Democrats, voted for the ban.
Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-3rd, said this week that he is a co-sponsor on a House version of the measure.
"I assumed that we were covered by insider trading laws because we do have access to nonpublic information," Scott said, adding that certain issues would also be covered by ethics laws.
Cantor said the bill increases transparency; the Senate-passed legislation requires that stock trades be posted online within 30 days.
Cantor said he's still looking over what the Senate passed, and "we're looking to see ways to strengthen the bill."
"The bill is meant to ensure that the public understands that we in elected office are going to abide by the trust that they have given us, that we operate under the same laws that they do, and that no member of Congress or anyone in a position of trust is going to be using insider information or nonpublic information for their own benefit," he said.
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The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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