In the news:
Originally published Thursday, February 9, 2012 at 5:58 PM
House passes insider-information ethics bill, but drops key section
Democrats said House Republican leaders weakened the bill by stripping out a provision that would regulate firms that collect "political intelligence" for hedge funds, private equity firms and other investors.
Tribune Washington bureau
The day in D.C.
Giffords' seat: Ron Barber, a former aide to Gabrielle Giffords who was wounded in the shooting that nearly took her life, on Thursday announced his candidacy for a special election to replace the Arizona Democrat in Congress.Payroll tax: Congressional Republicans said negotiations over extending a 2-percentage-point payroll-tax cut were going so poorly that it was possible the tax break — along with added unemployment benefits — could expire at the end of the month.
Pipeline audit: An internal audit cleared the State Department of major missteps and conflicts of interest in its environmental review of the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline, but faulted the agency for its lack of scientific expertise and for not adequately considering alternate routes.
Seattle Times news services
WASHINGTON — The House passed an ethics bill that bans lawmakers from using insider information for personal gain, but Republican leaders came under criticism for softening the legislation in a way that some view as beneficial to Wall Street investors.
Democrats joined Republicans to give the bill overwhelming support — it passed 417-2 — as lawmakers have been eager to show voters they are holding themselves to tough ethical standards. The Senate also gave nearly unanimous approval to a different version of the bill last week.
The legislation prohibits lawmakers and executive-branch officials from using information they learn on the job, if it is not known publicly, in their personal financial transactions.
But the decision by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., to exclude a provision that sought to monitor the flow of "political intelligence" — a relatively newly defined practice of selling Washington information largely to financial investors — puts the legislation on an uncertain path. The Senate bill would require those who broker in political intelligence to register much the way lobbyists must do.
GOP leaders stood by their decision to eject the provision, which had been added to the Senate bill by Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa. House Republicans instead opted to have the issue studied.
Grassley called House GOP leadership's "extremely disappointing." The different versions of the bills must be resolved if they are to become law, an uncertain prospect.
The votes against the bill were cast by Reps. John Campbell of California and Rob Woodall of Georgia, both Republicans.
The overwhelming support for the bills came after news reports, including a "60 Minutes" episode, drew attention to lawmakers' personal financial activities.
Material from The New York Times is included in this report.
