Representative Rob Bresnahan Jr. faces scrutiny for frequent stock trading that appears to benefit from his votes in Congress, raising concerns about conflicts of interest and ethics, despite his efforts to introduce legislation to ban such trading among lawmakers.
Sen. Josh Hawley called for Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's resignation during a Senate hearing, accusing her of violating the STOCK Act and misleading the committee about her stock ownership. Granholm admitted to failing to disclose stock sales and owning individual stocks despite testifying otherwise. Hawley also criticized the Department of Energy for allowing senior officials to own stocks related to the agency's work, alleging institutionalized corruption. Granholm defended the agency's ethics office and claimed that officials strictly own stocks in areas they do not influence.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has implemented a new rule requiring the tracking of stock trades by Social Security Numbers, sharing the data with 3,000 outside agencies. The rule, known as the Consolidated Audit Trail (CAT), was issued in response to the 2010 flash crash but has raised concerns about privacy and cybersecurity. Critics argue that the collection of personally identifiable information, such as account and Social Security numbers, poses a risk of exploitation by hackers. Some lawmakers have introduced legislation to halt the collection of personal information by the CAT, emphasizing the need to safeguard Americans' privacy.