Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Congressional Insider Trading Bill Gets a Bunch of Co-Sponsrs after 60 Minutes Airing (imagine that)

From Roll Call:
STOCK Act Goes Prime Time
It’s not every day that an obscure bill with little support or momentum gets an overnight boost. But exactly that happened in 60 short minutes Sunday night.

The ideas of increasing disclosure regarding Members’ stock trades or restricting some trades altogether seem to be gaining traction after the proposals got prime-time endorsements on “60 Minutes.”

The CBS newsmagazine took Congress to task Sunday night for condoning alleged insider trading, with anchorman Steve Kroft tailing Members outside the Capitol to ask whether they would support a specific bill that seeks to ban the practice.

“Boy, that was some coverage, wasn’t it?” said Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.), one of the bill’s primary co-sponsors. “I hope it means more sponsors, and I hope we can finally get something done here.”
Whether the rare prime-time bully pulpit will translate to a vote on the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act remains to be seen. The bill had just nine co-sponsors before the segment aired and has not had a hearing this Congress....MORE
Here's H.R. 1148

It's up to 28 co-sponsors. Previous attempts never got more than 14.