December 6, 2011

Dear Friend,

Today the House of Representatives held its first hearing on the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act,  which would prevent Congressional insider trading.  I’m proud to have been a cosponsor of this bill since May. I was the first person from Iowa and the fourth in the House of Representatives to cosponsor this important legislation.

You may have heard or read about this bill, which addresses a problem that is reprehensible and has gone on for far too long. Currently, it is legal for Members of Congress to profit from trading stocks that are directly affected by pending government policy. If anyone outside of Congress were to do this same thing, it would be considered insider trading. This is absolutely wrong; Members of Congress should be held to the same rules as everybody else and should not be able to unfairly profit from information that they received as part of their job.

As soon as I found out about this loophole in May, I cosponsored the STOCK Act.  This bill would prohibit the purchase or sale of securities and commodities futures by a Member of Congress, their staff, or federal employees who have insider information about related legislative action.  It would require all of their financial transactions to be disclosed.

You may have seen recent stories discussing the Congressional insider trading loophole. While the STOCK Act now has over 100 cosponsors in the House of Representatives, only 9 other colleagues and I saw fit to cosponsor this bill before these stories came to light. I received a lot of questions about this issue and the STOCK Act in my most recent telephone town hall, and I want you to know that I take this issue very seriously and will continue to work to ensure that this bill becomes law and that these outrageous special privileges are ended.

Your Congressman,

Dave Loebsack
Iowa’s Second District