Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat of Colorado, is one of dozens of members of Congress to violate the disclosure provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012.
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Democratic Rep. Earl Perlmutter was late disclosing one of his wife’s stock purchases. His office blamed a “miscommunication.”
This is the second time since August 2021 that Perlmutter violated the STOCK Act‘s disclosure provisions.
Since 2021, Insider and other news organizations have found 72 lawmakers in violation of the STOCK Act.
As Congress actively debates whether to ban its members from trading stocks, yet another Democratic lawmaker has violated the disclosure provisions of an existing law designed to defend against conflicts of interest and provide public transparency.
Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat of Colorado, was about three weeks late disclosing that his wife, Nancy Perlmutter, purchased between $1,001 and $15,000 worth of stock in the Kroger Company, which operates grocery and other retail stores.
In acknowledging the late filing to Insider, Perlmutter’s congressional office said that the stock transaction from July 19 was valued at $1,387 — lawmakers are only required to report the value of trades in broad ranges — and is part of a retirement account associated with her job as a teacher.
“Due to a miscommunication Rep. Perlmutter’s accountant didn’t receive the July report until early this week. Upon receipt he immediately filed,” Danielle Radovich Piper, Perlmutter’s chief of staff, told Insider.
Stock trade disclosure from Rep. Ed Perlmutter, a Democrat from Colorado.
US House of Representatives
Perlmutter won’t be subject to a standard $200 late filing fine because the Committee on House Ethics, which oversees such matters, waves these penalties if a lawmaker files required disclosures within 30 days after missing a deadline.
This marks the second time in 13 months that Perlmutter has failed to comply with the disclosure provisions of the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012.
Insider reported in August 2021 that Perlmutter was late disclosing his wife’s stock trades in Berkshire Hathaway, billionaire Warren Buffett’s holding company, and Alibaba Group, a Chinese e-commerce company with ties to China’s Communist Party.
Under the federal STOCK ACT, members of Congress have 45 days from the date of a trade to formally disclose stock trades in a certified report to the Clerk of the House of Representatives. This law applies to lawmakers as well as their spouses and dependent children.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Widespread violations
Since 2021, Insider and other media organizations have identified 72 members of Congress — a cross-section of Republicans and Democrats, leaders and back-benchers — who’ve violated the STOCK Act’s disclosure provisions by failing to properly report their various financial trades or holdings.
Reasons for these violations range from lawmakers “being sloppy to just not caring about stock disclosure,” said Aaron Scherb of nonpartisan government reform group Common Cause.
Insider’s ongoing “Conflicted Congress” project, along with reporting from the New York Times and Sludge, have also found numerous examples of financial conflicts-of-interests among federal lawmakers.
Calls for reform have come from numerous quarters inside and outside of Congress. And this week, after months of deliberations, dickering, and delay, Democratic House leaders unveiled a bill that would ban members of Congress, as well as many other top government officials, from trading individual stocks. It would also strengthen the generally weak penalties for violating the STOCK Act.
But some good-government groups, as well as Democratic and Republican lawmakers alike who had previously floated stock-ban proposals of their own, panned the House leadership bill, which was introduced by House Committee on Administration Chairwoman Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat of California, and backed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Among their criticisms: the bill allows officials to create blind trusts they argue aren’t are truly blind.
Will Perlmutter, who is not seeking re-election in November, support the Pelosi-backed stock-ban bill?
“He is reading it as we speak, so I don’t have an answer for you on his position at this time,” said Piper, his chief of staff.
New polling from Data for Progress indicates overwhelming public support for a congressional stock ban, with more than three in four respondents indicating they’d back a bill that would “ban members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks to eliminate conflicts of interest.”
Several polls from earlier this year each indicated similar levels of support for members of Congress quitting stock trading.