House Dems pressure GOP leaders to bring up insider-trading bill

House Democrats are pushing GOP leaders to bring up the Democrats’ version of legislation barring insider trading by members of Congress.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) applauded the Senate for passing its version of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, but emphasized that House Democrats would prefer to bring their bill to the floor.

“We would like to go to the conference table ... so we have the best possible bill going forward,” Pelosi said. “If [House GOP leaders] bring up the Senate bill, that would be a good thing, too, [but] we think it’s better to bring up the House bill.”

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday on the House floor that he plans to next week bring up the Senate bill, which not only bans such financial moves, but also includes further ethics and transparency reforms. Cantor added that he wished to see the bill strengthened before passing it, without delving into specifics.

“We are going to take up the Senate bill … and we intend to strengthen that bill, and do so in a way that we can get the bill to the president,” he said.

He added that the House version of the bill is actually a weaker version.

But Democrats contended that the original bill banning insider trading authored by Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) and Tim Walz (D-Minn.) is the proper course for the House. They also cautioned against a slew of further amendments that could prove unpalatable to the Senate, or water down the original bill.

“We sit on the edge of making this work,” Walz said. “Don’t [propose] something that can’t pass the Senate.”

Slaughter added: “I’m concerend that they might dilute it in some way.”

Even as the Senate was advancing toward passage Thursday night, House Democrats were gathering signatures for a discharge petition that would force their version of the bill to the floor for a vote. As of Friday, 169 of the 218 required signatures had been gathered.

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