CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS – CONGRESSIONAL AFFAIRS
Feb. 8, 2012 – 10:20 p.m.
After Expected House Passage, Future of Insider-Trading Bill Uncertain
By Richard E. Cohen, CQ Staff
The House is expected Thursday to summon broad bipartisan support for a revised Senate-passed bill to ban insider trading, despite rebukes from some senators after their provisions were stricken from the version House Majority Leader
House leaders are expected to send the amended bill (
The House is considering the measure under expedited procedures known as suspension of the rules, which require a two-thirds vote for passage and preclude amendments or other procedural votes. The Senate passed its version, 96-3, on Feb. 2.
Supporters of a sweeping House alternative (
“We have to move the bill forward,” said Rep.
House Minority Leader
Supporters of the drive to clarify prohibitions against insider trading on confidential information by lawmakers and aides said they feared the bill would die if it does not win House approval Thursday.
The bill bans lawmakers and senior aides from buying or selling stocks or other securities based on non-public information. It also applies to executive and judicial branch officials and their senior staff. The House version requires lawmakers and other covered officials to report any stock or securities transaction within 45 days of when the transaction occurs and adds new provisions barring lawmakers and other covered officials from participating in initial stock offerings on a favored basis.
Pushing for a Conference
Reid has not disclosed his plans for dealing with the measure, though he and Minority Leader
Leaders of good-government groups urged the Senate to convene a conference committee. Common Cause President Bob Edgar said that the House version is “significantly weaker than the Senate bill” and called for “open and transparent” steps to restore provisions “removed during the secret process” spearheaded by Cantor, R-Va.
Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, said that Leahy’s amendment provided tools that were vital to prosecutors in anti-corruption cases. She said that Cantor was responding to pressure from the Heritage Foundation about “over-criminalization of politics,” criminal defense lawyers and members of Congress “who think that they can remove the provision from the bill and get away with it.”
Slaughter said the primary need for a conference committee is to restore Grassley’s disclosure requirements. “Insider trading is political intelligence. That’s why [the consultants] want to talk to” lawmakers, she said.
After Expected House Passage, Future of Insider-Trading Bill Uncertain
Still, Cantor appears to have out-maneuvered his foes with his handling of his version. They were initially unhappy when he demanded that Financial Services Chairman
With strong support outside of Washington for the measure, Cantor has been able to count on broad-based GOP backing of the bill even as some senior Republicans voiced concern with its potential impact on First Amendment rights.
Cantor also deprived Democrats of their chief weapon — trying to alter the bill — when he set up House consideration under suspension of the rules, which gives the Speaker the prerogative to determine whether to recognize a bill’s sponsor to call up the measure on the House floor and prevents consideration of other options.
Decisions on whether to convene a conference committee typically are made following consultations among the leaders of each chamber. But the expected House passage likely will require Reid to decide whether to offend the bill’s strong supporters by sending it immediately to President Obama, or to delay the decision and face weeks — or months — of potentially contentious negotiations over the good-government issues.
“Reid has to make the call, and we’re just fine with that,” said a House Republican aide who has worked on the bill.
It remains unclear how the Senate will proceed if the House passes the bill. “You can never guess what the other body will do,” said Rep.