“It’s the notion that the powerful shouldn’t get to create one set of rules for themselves and another set of rules for everybody else,” Obama said on Wednesday.
He was referencing a bill introduced this week into legislation that will make it illegal for members of congress, federal workers, and the president himself from using information gained on the job to trade stocks or benefit in any other way. In fact, lawmakers will now have to make public any investments they make within 45 days, and some members of Congress will be required to disclose the terms of personal mortgages.
The STOCK Act, or Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge, means public officials will be on more even ground with the general public.
“If we expect that to apply to our biggest corporations and our most successful citizens, it certainly should apply to our elected officials,” Obama said.
The act comes after the Office of Congressional Ethics began investigating particular representatives who made numerous trades after the 2008 financial collapse and subsequent $700 billion economic bailout.