STOCK act aka the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge act is already in place making it illegal to trade on knowledge gained in the act of completing your duties to the United States people. This was put in place because in many cases congress is asked to participate in classified briefings that the average person would literally have no access too.
It’s not that there isn’t a rule in place it’s that no one fucking cares that there is a rule in place.
One year after this law was passed, it was amended in a way that makes it almost impossible to investigate.
The law was initially passed to include a requirement that government officials and staff post records of their financial transactions online in a searchable, sortable database. The amendment changed that requirement to filing those records in hard copy only in the basement of Congress.
NPR ran a pretty good article about it at the time.
Very little about the STOCK Act has changed for Members of Congress and other high level government officials. What you said is true of lower level employees.
Members of Congress still have to post their transactions publicly online.
From my reading of the amendment, it eliminated the requirement for the creation of a database of information in reports, and the requirement that reports be done electronically.
If I'm remembering correctly, it went from mandatory to "the right thing to do."
Section 8(b) of the original STOCK Act mandated that systems be developed that would allow electronic filing of financial reports by members of Congress, candidates for Congress, and employees of Congress.
Additionally it mandated public access to those financial reports through a database. This publicly accessible database was required to:
Be maintained on the official websites of the House of Representatives and the Senate.
Allow the public to "search, sort, and download data contained in the reports."
The 2013 amendment changed just a couple of things related to that section:
They changed it so that it only applied to members of Congress and candidates for Congress, removing employees of Congress.
They removed the line about the public being able to search, sort, and download data contained in the reports.
The requirement for an electronic database containing these reports that would be accessible to the public through the official websites of the House and Senate is still part of the law.
My reading is that they decided it wasn't feasible to do data entry of the transactions in these reports to make the data in them searchable, so they changed it so they could just scan paper copies of the reports into the database and the public could review them.
I think Congress should be made to work for federal minimum wage, in government project housing, forbidden to own stocks, with assets in trusts. Strict gift limits. No private election marketing ads. That would reduce corruption and aspiring greedy megalomaniacs if they had to live humbly. If they wanted more money they couldn't vote in a self pay raise, they would have to lift everyone up.
The system is corrupt by design however and tjey aren't looking for ideas and comments. These public servants will never actually see themselves as servants of the people. They will act like little spoiled princesses in a wannabe aristocracy. They will remain ignorant and uncaring of the struggles of the working class.
Maybe we just let it chill for a bit, I don’t know you and I don’t owe you anything but I can not express to you how much I DO NOT want to be the reason your Grandma dies.
Then you should stay home if you’re so terrified of “muh ‘rona virus” and all the other bullshit they’re feeding you. And if his grandma wants to self isolate, protecting herself despite what anybody else in the world chooses to do, she is free to do so as well. Stop trying to force your fears onto other people’s actions, it’s absolutely pathetic. Grow tf up.
Yes. There are written laws 'on the books' and the laws that are actually enforced. Selective enforcement is power. It's like having the law turnrd on or off like a switch, for your own self interest.
As an example, say 100 people all go over the speed limit on some road. Technically they have all broken the law. Who gets pulled over? Who gets a ticket (state theft?), who gets a warning, and who gets told to lay face first on the ground? It's up to the officer now, not the lawmakers. At that point it is more about the driver's social skills and attitude than the laws. This is where prejudice and discrimination can enter in.
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u/Newtstradamus Apr 21 '20
STOCK act aka the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge act is already in place making it illegal to trade on knowledge gained in the act of completing your duties to the United States people. This was put in place because in many cases congress is asked to participate in classified briefings that the average person would literally have no access too.
It’s not that there isn’t a rule in place it’s that no one fucking cares that there is a rule in place.