President signs bill to limit STOCK Act’s web-based publication of employees’ financial information
On Monday, April 15, President Obama signed
legislation rolling back the disclosure requirements of the STOCK (Stop
Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, which would have required
creation of a searchable, sortable database for the annual financial
interest forms of 28,000 executive branch employees as well as highly
paid Congressional staff. These forms contain detailed information
about employees’ assets, outside income and gifts. Former national security officials raised security concerns about this publication requirement.
Current employees filed a lawsuit, resulting in a federal court ruling
that publishing such information on the web would violate employees’
right to privacy. “Both the court and the National Academy of Public
Administration
recognized that federal employees have a legitimate right to privacy
regarding their personal financial information,” says Kathleen Clark,
JD, government ethics expert and professor of law at Washington
University in St. Louis.
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.
Law requiring Internet posting of executive branch employees’ financial information delayed
On Dec. 7, President Barack Obama signed legislation to delay implementation of the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, which would require Internet posting of the annual financial interest forms for 28,000 executive branch employees. A law, WUSTL Congressional ethics expert Kathleen Clark says, that will not prevent Congressional insider trading.