Sen. Todd Young urges Congress to stop insider trading

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Sen. Todd Young said members of Congress should not be allowed to act on private information when buying or selling stock.

Young, a Republican, is a vocal supporter of the Stop Insider Trading Act, which passed the U.S. House last week but has not yet been taken up by the Senate. In an interview for All INdiana Politics, Young said the ban would be a simple way of restoring the public’s faith in Congress.

“There aren’t many institutions where trust is lower than in Congress, so let’s get our house in order,” he said. “Let’s take that easy step of ensuring that those members of Congress, all of us, who are exposed to sensitive, nonpublic and market-moving information on a daily basis aren’t acting on that information in unfair or unjust ways.”

The House’s version of the National Defense Authorization Act, approved this week, includes most of Young’s SHIPS for America Act, which would incentivize domestic shipbuilding in an effort to rebuild America’s shipyards. Young said he thinks the SHIPS for America Act has a good chance of becoming law at this point. He said the act could end up creating jobs in the industrial Midwest, including in Indiana.

“I understand that our state has already heard from some of the world’s leading shipbu...