The STOCK Act, Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, has come to halt after having gained momentum and barreling through both the House and the Senate earlier.

Previously, there had been talk that the bill would be on President Obama’s desk before Congress goes on Spring Break. Now the outcome is in doubt and the House version of the bill has been watered down and stripped of two amendments that gave it a little bit of teeth.

Calling on Congress to convene a conference committee to put the two amendments back in that were stripped by House Majority Eric Cantor before introducing the bill to Congress, Senators Patrick Leahy and Chuck Grassley stated, “These are two of the most important and substantive provisions in the bill,” they said. “Without them the legislation would be significantly weakened.”

The Senate voted on that bill with the two amendments intact on a 97-3 vote. When the vote on the bill came up in the House, it was presented without the provisions in place and passed on a 417-2 vote.

Grassley’s amendment, which was stripped from the House bill before being introduced for a vote, pertained to Washington Insiders who collect information or political intelligence from Washington and sell tthat information to their clients. Under the now gone amendment, such people would have to register under the lobbying disclosure law so that they can be identified, adding transparency to government and adding a level of accountability.

Leahy’s amendment would have given government prosecutors tolls to identify, investigate and prosecute any criminal conduct by politicians in Washington.

The Grassley-Leahy letter can be seen below:

March 19, 2012

The Honorable Harry Reid The Honorable Mitch McConnell
Majority Leader, United States Senate Minority Leader, United States Senate
S-221 Capitol Building S-230 Capitol Building
Washington, DC 20510 Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senators Reid and McConnell:

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act (STOCK Act) passed the Senate with two critical provisions that would improve transparency and give law enforcement more effective tools to combat corruption. One, an amendment requiring political intelligence agents to register as lobbyists, strengthens the STOCK Act by ensuring that lawmakers, congressional staff, and the American people know who is feeding information to Wall Street. The other, a carefully tailored amendment to give prosecutors new tools to identify, investigate, and prosecute criminal conduct by public officials, furthers the STOCK Act’s goals of stopping public corruption and holding public officials accountable for wrongdoing.

The Senate passed both of these amendments with strong, bipartisan support. Unfortunately, the House stripped both provisions from the STOCK Act without a vote. The Senate should act to ensure that the key improvements it made to this bill are incorporated into the final legislation that Congress passes.

We urge you to take the STOCK Act to a conference committee to resolve the differences between the Senate and House bills and to encourage the conference to restore these two key provisions.

Should you decide, instead, to have the Senate take up the House-passed version of the STOCK Act, we request the opportunity to offer these two crucial amendments so that the Senate may adopt them, again.

Taking up the House-passed bill without the opportunity for the Senate to reassert its position with respect to these provisions would be wrong. These are two of the most important and substantive provisions in the bill. Without them the legislation would be significantly weakened.

Sincerely,

PATRICK LEAHY CHARLES GRASSLEY
Chairman Ranking Republican Member

Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said last week that he has not yet figured out his next move on the act. Although Reid did not say it, sources close to him say that his first choice is to go to conference on the act. But, doing so would be time-consuming and Reid had wanted to have the bill on Obama’s desk before April recess. The ball is in Reid’s court.