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SALON Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:20:00 GMT
"Send me a bill that bans insider trading by members of Congress," President Obama told the assembled members of the House and Senate in his State of the Union address last week, "and I will sign it tomorrow."
If only it were that simple.
The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act, a bill that prohibits legislators and federal officials from knowingly profiting off of nonpublic information related to impending legislation and regulatory decisions, looks certain to pass the Senate this week. On Monday, senators overwhelmingly approved a motion to cloture on S.2038 preventing the bill from being filibustered. But on Wednesday in the House of Representatives Reps. Tim Walz, D-Minn., and Louise Slaughter, D-N.Y., demanded a straight up or down vote on a different bill, HR 1148, also known as the STOCK Act. The House bill already has 271 sponsors.
And therein lies a tale of Washington. No one in Washington favors allowing Capitol Hill insiders using non-public........
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SALON Fri, 03 Feb 2012 17:07:00 GMT
Here's a quick update on the Obama administration's recent decision to sell arms to the regime in Bahrain, which has been accused of widespread human rights abuses in suppressing a protest movement in the Gulf nation.
Three senators and and 18 representatives -- all Democrats -- have signed a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton condemning the deal (and remember, the administration still isn't saying what equipment, exactly, it's sending to Bahrain). Here's the key section of the letter:
We recognize the limited nature of the sales, and we acknowledge that the Bahraini government has taken some positive steps with respect to human rights in recent months. However, it has not done enough to justify the sale of any military items or services to Bahrain. Moreover, if the Administration wishes to reward the Bahraini government for any progress, there are other methods that do not involve strengthening the Bahraini military or security forces.
Tragically, even a brief survey..
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SALON Fri, 03 Feb 2012 22:06:00 GMT
The office of Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon sent Salon the following response to Lee Fang's piece, Mon. January 30 piece, "D.C. lobbyist aids Rep. McKeon's Wife."
We believe that the factual inaccuracies in Lee Fang's piece, used as grounds for the author's personal speculations, provide for a very misleading article.
First, contrary to Fang’s false assertion that Mr. Valente donated to Patricia McKeon in an effort to circumvent maximum campaign contribution laws, Mr. Valente has not maxed out to Congressman McKeon. In fact, Mr. Valente has not contributed to Congressman McKeon’s “McKeon for Congress” campaign committee at all.
Second, contrary to Mr. Fangs inaccurate assertion that Patricia was the only state candidate to receive donations from the Fund for American Opportunity, Patricia was not in fact the only state candidate to receive a donation. If you click on the link in the article, you will see several state candidates listed on the group’s contribution report. In........
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