Con to the question "Should insider trading by Congress be allowed?"
Reasoning:
"Members of Congress and their staffs should not be above the law when it comes to profiting from sensitive information. The American people expect Members and staffers to work on their behalf and to represent their interests, not to increase the returns on our investments and fatten their stock portfolios. Privileging a select group of investors with confidential information about congressional activity is not only a misuse of a congressional office, it also undermines investor confidence about the fairness and integrity of the securities market."
As I have noted, buying or selling stock based on nonpublic information from Congress does not clearly run afoul of current insider trading laws. For this reason, I joined forces with Ranking Member Slaughter to introduce the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, earlier this week to put an end to this troubling practice."
Press Release, "Brian Introduces Legislation to Prohibit Insider Trading on Capitol Hill," www.baird.house.gov, Jan. 27, 2009
Experts
Individuals with JDs, PhDs, other relevant advanced degrees, and government officials with significant involvement in, or related to, insider trading issues. [Note: Experts definition varies by site]
Involvement and Affiliations:
US Representative (D-WA), 1999-present
Member, House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Member, House Committee on Science and Technology
Co-Founder and co-Chair, Congressional Career and Technical Education Caucus
Co-Chair, Democratic Caucus Task Force on Health and Medicare
Co-Founder and co-Chair, National Parks Caucus
Co-Founder, Congressional Caucus to Control and Fight Methamphetamine
Senior Democratic Whip, US House of Representatives
President, 1998 Democratic Freshman Class, US House of Representatives
Professor, Department of Psychology, Pacific Lutheran University, 1986-1998
Chair, Department of Psychology, Pacific Lutheran University, 1995-1997
