End Citizens United Action Fund is calling for new reforms that prohibit members of Congress from owning stocks following news that Senators Kelly Loeffler and Richard Burr appeared to use official, non-public information about the novel coronavirus to sell millions of dollars in stocks before financial markets tanked. Loeffler even purchased stocks of IT companies that specialize in teleworking software, which is likely to have wider use during the pandemic.
Members of Congress often have access to insider information, or they introduce legislation that impacts stock prices, and currently, they could use that information to get rich and/or prevent profit losses. The bipartisan Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, which was passed in 2012 by President Obama, was aimed at preventing insider trading in Congress. The potential insider trading by Senators ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the weaknesses and challenges of enforcement under the STOCK Act, and the need to implement stronger reforms to prevent it from happening again.
“While American families are struggling to figure out how to pay bills and stay afloat during this crisis, some members of Congress, such as Senators Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler, appear to be using official insider information to protect their million-dollar investments. It’s a disgusting and shameful display of Washington corruption that highlights the need to implement stronger ethics rules,” said Tiffany Muller, president of End Citizens United Action Fund. “Banning members of Congress from owning individual stocks would at a minimum prevent the appearance of impropriety and at a maximum stop this kind of corruption. During this time of crisis, our elected officials should be doing everything they can to assist the American people, not use insider information for profit.”
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