BILL SPADEA: The STOCK Act And Congress’ War On Sunlight

Congressional leadership sure has a funny way of deciding which transparency fights matter.

As POLITICO reported, the congressional leadership class is now scrambling behind closed doors to slow-walk or water down a bipartisan overhaul of the STOCK Act.

This bill, endorsed by President Trump, would stop decisionmakers from being able to trade on insider information and thereby make legislative and regulatory decisions based upon what makes them the most profit.

Republican Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee called the struggle with leadership over this bill a “fist fight,” which is odd considering how Johnson and his minions like to talk a big game about transparency. I guess they think sunlight is only dangerous when it shines on them.

For decades, congressional leaders have treated financial transparency as something for the little people — the rank-and-file members, the regulated industries, the private companies they love to haul into hearings — but not something that should restrain leadership itself. They control the ethics process, the committees, the flow of classified briefings, and the rules governing disclosure. And when reform gets close, leadership’s instinct is always to kill it quietly.

Last year, Paul Pelosi sold more than 2,000 shares of Visa stock, timing the sale just before the Biden Justice Department filed its antitrust lawsuit against the company. The optics were terrible: one of the most powerful political families in America unloading shares right before a major enforcement action.