Politco:Congressional aides risk conflicts with stock trades
A POLITICO review of federal disclosures for 2015 and 2016 found that some senior aides regularly buy and sell individual stocks that present potential conflicts of interest with their work. A smaller number of staffers trade in companies that lobby Congress and the committees that employ them. In all, approximately 450 aides have bought or sold a stock of more than $1,001 in value since May 2015.
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“There’s little excuse for these barriers, especially in the digital age," said Larry Noble, senior director at the Campaign Legal Center.
“When you have to go to an agency or to Congress to have a document printed out, and you put your name down — all that is to deter people from doing it,” said Noble. “All that was outrageous 25 years ago. That’s not the way the world works anymore.”