Second Time Caught Violating Federal Law
OC Register:
Former U.S. House Rep. Harley Rouda missed federally mandated deadlines for reporting that his wife traded six shares of Amazon and Tesla stocks while he was in office last year.
The Democrat from Laguna Beach, who hopes to reclaim the 48th District seat from Rep. Michelle Steel in 2022, said through a spokesperson that he didn’t learn about the trades until after he’d left office. Rouda included the missed transactions — which were valued at less than $45,000 total and didn’t appear to generate much profit for the Rouda family — in a 23-page financial disclosure report he filed in May.
But the reporting error comes at a time when more attention is being paid to stock dealings by members of Congress, particularly after some members were accused of profiting on information about the pandemic that was not initially shared with the public. There also is a growing push for Congress members to divest themselves of all individual stocks while in office.
“They are supposed to know the rules,” said Craig Holman, a campaign finance reform lobbyist for the think tank Public Citizen who helped write the stock trading transparency law…
“Business Insider first reported Rouda did not disclose the trades within the required 45-day window…
“Still, it’s the latest example of a Congress member apparently violating the transparency requirement of the STOCK Act…”
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Rep. Michelle Steel represents California’s 48th Congressional District, which covers most of the Orange County coast and includes all or parts of Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach, Seal Beach, Midway City, Fountain Valley, Aliso Viejo, Santa Ana, Garden Grove, Laguna Niguel, and Westminster. Michelle Steel is a first generation Korean-American who believes in the promise of America and has worked as a tax-fighter in Southern California for decades. She was elected to Congress in November 2020 and sits on the House Committees on Education and Labor and Transportation and Infrastructure in the 117th Congress.
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