STOCK Act of 2012 to be renamed in honor of late Congresswoman Louise Slaughter
Washington, D.C. -- U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand today announced that the Senate has passed legislation to rename the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act of 2012 after the late Representative Dorothy Louise McIntosh Slaughter.
Schumer and Gillibrand said that since this bill, introduced by Rep. Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam, Montgomery County), passed the House last month and has now been passed by the Senate it is expected to be signed into law shortly. It is headed to the President Trump's desk for signature.
The STOCK Act prohibits members from using nonpublic information to make a profit. In other words, it outlaws insider trading in Congress.
Congresswomen Slaughter was a tireless fighter for Congressional ethics and integrity and was the original author of the STOCK Act. In 2012, Senator Gillibrand wrote the Senate version of the STOCK Act and was the lead champion in passing the bill through the chamber.
“Congresswoman Slaughter never stopped fighting for advancements in women’s rights, government ethics, medical research, Upstate economic revival and so much more, and is deserving of this great honor," Schumer said. "As the first Chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules, Louise Slaughter represented her Rochester constituents with passion, integrity and honor.
"The renaming of the landmark STOCK Act after Congresswoman Slaughter, which she authored and shepherded to passage, is a fitting way to commemorate her permanent status as a champion of democracy and integrity and undoubtedly one of the true trailblazers in Congress.”
Senator Gillibrand, who championed the STOCK Act in the Senate, said: “Congresswoman Louise Slaughter exemplified the very best of our elected leaders. She was kind, she was honorable, and she always believed in doing what was right on behalf of her constituents and her country.
"We worked very hard together to make sure that all members of Congress could be held to the highest standards. She first introduced the STOCK Act in 2006 and didn’t give up until it was signed into law. She was proud to see the bill that she championed to prevent corruption in Congress become law, and it is only fitting that we rename the legislation in her honor.”
Representative Louise Slaughter served in the United States House of Representatives for 30 years in New York’s 30th, 28th, and 25th districts. From 2007 to 2011, she served as the first Chairwoman of the House Committee on Rules. Prior to her time in the House of Representatives, Slaughter spent four years representing New York’s 130th District in the State Assembly.
Slaughter’s tenure in Congress was filled with a number of landmark achievements in the issue areas of women’s rights, medical research, government ethics, and many more. In 1993, Slaughter secured the very first $500 million in National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding to research breast cancer. In 1994, Slaughter passed the Violence Against Women Act, and was an original author of the legislation.
In 2006, Slaughter introduced the STOCK Act to the House of Representatives. She spent years pushing for this critical legislation, and in 2012 it passed the House by a 417-2 vote, and the Senate by a 96-3 vote.
(Editor's Note: Democrat Louise Slaughter was the elected representative of New York's 30th Congressional District from Jan. 3, 1987 to Jan. 3, 1993, which contained all of Genesee County at that time. It was eliminated following the 2000 U.S. Census. Genesee County is now in the 27th Congressional District. The Kentucky native died in March at age 88.)
(For more information on the life and career of Louise Slaughter, click here.)
