Senior Executives Association members have issued letters of concern to Congress regarding legislation meant to combat insider trading by government officials based on political intelligence, GovExec reports.
SEA President Carol Bonosaro and General Counsel William Bransford filed their complaints in regard to the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act, signed by President Obama merely two weeks ago.
Bonosaro and Bransford told the House Oversight and Government Reform and the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committees that they believe the law is detrimental to career senior executives.
They claimed the law would create difficulty retaining senior executives and scientific professionals.
They specifically note section six of the law, requiring executives to file a report of financial transactions within 30 days.
This measure would create a database of financial disclosure reports compiled by the Office of Government Ethics of all executive branch employees, the SEA leaders said.
SEA opposed the bill before it was passed and the SEA leaders suggest the requirements make it easy for senior executives to either forget or not have time to file information about their financial transactions in the given time period.
The leaders said senior executives may not receive the necessary documentation to report their financial actions in the specified window.
In addition, the law requires federal workers to disclose information about their spouses’ and dependencies’ finance, which could be accessed by the public if they file a request.
The SEA leaders suggest this will harm members’ ability to effectively plan retirement.
Another concern is that the database makes employees vulnerable to identity theft.
Sen. Joe Lieberman, (I-Conn.), chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was among the few representatives responding to the SEA’s concerns.
Lieberman said he was concerned certain provisions were overboard and said he is open to examining the bill more closely.
