Senate drops tougher D.C. insider trading bill

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46801691/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/

WASHINGTON — Senate leaders on Tuesday abandoned their own, stronger version of legislation to explicitly prohibit members of Congress and other government officials from making investments on insider information. They agreed to accept a scaled down House version instead.

Both chambers overwhelmingly passed different versions of the legislation designed to approve Congress' image, but the Senate included two provisions that were stripped out by the House.

One would have required registration and public reports — similar to those filed by lobbyists — by anyone selling inside information learned from Congress.

The second was designed to strengthen criminal laws in public corruption cases, raise maximum penalties and restore tools used by prosecutors in such cases that were limited by the Supreme Court.