Sen. Susan Collins helped pass a 2012 law affirming that members of Congress are not exempt from insider-trading laws and requiring them to disclose their stock and other investment trades more promptly. But an ad from a pro-Democrat group falsely claims that the Republican senator “doesn’t think” that insider trading “should be illegal.”
The TV ad from Majority Forward, an issue advocacy organization, goes on to say that Collins, who is running for reelection in Maine, “is trying to keep it so senators can get rich playing the stock market.” And a spokesperson for the group criticized the effectiveness of the 2012 law, telling us in a statement that Collins is “blocking the only thing that would actually work” to stop Congress from profiting on insider information – “a ban on members trading individual stocks.”
It’s true that Collins does not support a complete ban on stock trading by representatives and senators. A spokesperson for her Senate campaign told us that she believes they should still be able to maintain a stock portfolio “managed by an outside advisor who makes the decisions independently and without consultation with the member.”
But that’s not the same as thinking that insider trading should be legal.
