From The Hill:
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) says Republicans will revive and expand a bill banning insider trading by members of Congress in the first months of 2012, after he slowed the bill’s progress earlier this month.
The legislation, known as the STOCK Act, had gained momentum after a “60 Minutes” report raised questions about whether lawmakers were personally profiting from the insider information they gleaned from their jobs in the Capitol.
Cantor had reportedly forced the GOP chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, Rep. Spencer Bachus (Ala.), to postpone a planned committee vote on the bill earlier this month over concerns that it was advancing too quickly. The majority leader is the subject of his own forthcoming “60 Minutes” profile, and he told CBS News that the House would advance and “build on” the bill in the new year.
“We wanna make sure that the public understands we abhor that kind of conduct,” Cantor told CBS. “We’re gonna build on the STOCK Act and bring forward a measure that actually deals with all of it so we can take care of any suggestion that a member of Congress somehow uses his or her official position to affect their own personal enrichment.”
Pressed on how he would expand the legislation, Cantor mentioned not just prohibiting insider stock trading but also preventing insider real estate deals.
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