Press

PRESS

December 01, 2011

CREW’S Melanie Sloan Testifies on Congressional Insider Trading and the “STOCK Act”

Congress, Congressional Testimony, Governance & Legislation, STOCK Act, Press Releases, Melanie Sloan

Washington, D.C. – Today, the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs is holding a hearing on legislation to prohibit insider trading by members of Congress and congressional staff: the "Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act" (S. 1871 and S. 1903). Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) Executive Director Melanie Sloan is scheduled to testify before the panel on why it is critical Congress act to explicitly make such practices illegal. Ms. Sloan released the following statement:

"A huge number of Americans believe members of Congress use their positions to feather their own nests. Frankly, many of them do. Studies indicate members of Congress have a much higher rate of return on their investments than the average Joe, suggesting they may be trading on non-public information. If any of the rest of us engaged in this sort of conduct, we’d land behind bars. Members of Congress just get rich.

It’s too bad this needs to be spelled out, but there you have it: Members of Congress must be held to the same standard of conduct as everyone else. Passing a STOCK Act is a good first step."

The hearing will take place Thursday, December 1, 2011 at 2:30 PM in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, room SD-342 and can be watched live here: http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/

Click here to read CREW's written testimony.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is a non-profit legal watchdog group dedicated to holding public officials accountable for their actions. For more information, please visit www.citizensforethics.org or contact David Merchant at 202.408.5565 or dmerchant@citizensforethics.org