Washington, Jan. 14 -- Representative Norma J. Torres issued the following press release:
Today, during the committee markup in the Committee on House Administration, Congresswoman Norma Torres offered an amendment to strengthen the Stop Insider Trading Act by eliminating a major loophole that still allows Members of Congress to maintain a financial stake in the stock market and use insider information for personal profit.
The amendment would strike language that permits Members to keep stocks they own upon entering Congress and reinvest dividends from those holdings back into the market. Allowing continued stock trading through dividend reinvestment undermines the core purpose of a stock trading ban: to prevent members from enriching the...