Obama Signs STOCK Act To Ban Insider Trading By Congress - East Idaho News
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Obama Signs STOCK Act To Ban Insider Trading By Congress

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Getty 040412 CongressStockMarketiStock?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1333566665063iStockphoto/Thinsktock(WASHINGTON) — Surrounded by a group of bipartisan lawmakers, President Obama on Wednesday signed the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, banning insider trading on Capitol Hill.

“The idea that everybody plays by the same rules is one of our most cherished American values,” the president said at the White House signing ceremony. “It’s the notion that the powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else… If we expect that to apply to our biggest corporations and to our most successful citizens, it certainly should apply to our elected officials.”

Any lawmaker who attempts to gain an unfair advantage in the market through the use of nonpublic information will now be breaking the law as a result of the STOCK Act.

While the president lauded the legislation, he made clear “our work isn’t done.”

“There’s obviously more that we can do to close the deficit of trust and limit the corrosive influence of money in politics.  We should limit any elected official from owning stocks in industries that they have the power to impact.  We should make sure people who bundle campaign contributions for Congress can’t lobby Congress, and vice versa,” he said.

Obama thanked the members of Congress who worked together to make the law a reality, saying “it shows that when an idea is right that we can still accomplish something on behalf of the American people and to make our government and our country stronger.”  

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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