Senate votes to limit STOCK Act’s web-based publication of employees’ financial information
On Thursday, April 11, the Senate voted to roll back
the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, limiting the
web-based publication of government employees’ personal financial
information. This action comes in response to a federal court ruling
that such publication violated employees’ right to privacy and a
critical report by the National Academy of Public Administration. “The court recognized that the federal employees have a
legitimate right to privacy regarding their personal financial
information and ruled that the federal government failed to identify a
compelling government interest that would justify posting that personal
information on the internet,” says Kathleen Clark, JD, government ethics
expert and professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis.