According to legislative proposals made by members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, federal judges will be required to report stock transactions in excess of $1,000 within 45 days and publish their financial disclosure forms online.
According to congressional assistants, the two bills, jointly drafted by the Democrats and Republicans, were proposed as soon as Monday in response to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, which found that 131 federal judges were involved in the trial of their reports. The case of stock companies violated federal law.
The House Judiciary Committee is also considering a series of new accountability rules for the judiciary. The committee has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday to review the violations of federal judges’ stock holdings reported in the “Wall Street Journal” report, and will question the chairman of the Federal Judiciary’s Ethics Committee and the professor of judicial ethics.
Narrower bills in the House of Representatives and Senate will increase reporting requirements for judges who frequently trade stocks. The Wall Street Journal’s investigation found that 61 judges not only hold stocks in the companies of their litigants in court, but accounts held by judges or their family members also trade stocks in the course of the litigation.
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