Senator Baldwin Backing Effort to Make it Illegal for Sitting Legislators to Take Part in Stock Trading

Friday, February 11th, 2022 -- 11:01 AM

(Raymond Neupert, WRN) US Senator Tammy Baldwin is backing an effort to make it illegal for sitting federal legislators to take part in stock trading.

The Wisconsin Democrat says the whole idea is distasteful to her. "I don't think members of Congress should be taking the information they get through their jobs and then trading stocks to enrich themselves while making public policy."

She said that allowing lawmakers to directly profit from their jobs at the US Capitol breeds corruption. "Also means that they won't have a conflict of interest where they're trying to create policies that help a certain industry where they have stock holdings."

Proposed legislation would require that lawmakers, their spouses, and their children would have to put their stock holdings into a blind trust while in office. "It ensures that I can't use Insider information to influence their personal stock trades and make a profit."

The bipartisan effort has gotten more traction over the last several months after several high-profile members of Congress and their spouses were spotted making stock trades close to when major policy decisions were made or confidential information was revealed.

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