Bernie Moreno

Mr. President, Procedure · 17 wordsso I think it is important to clear up a couple of things in no particular order.Procedure Claims · 18 wordsFirst of all, I did not cosponsor the HONEST Act.¹ I was the cosponsor of the PELOSI Act, ²Positioning · 22 wordswhich was a tribute--an honor--to the Member of the House of Representatives that made grift on this job an absolute master class.Positioning Claims · 38 wordsYour Representative from Northern California came here almost five decades ago and has managed to build a $300 million net worth.³ Her Twitter account is one of the most followed accounts, as my colleague from Nebraska pointed out. Positioning · 10 wordsSo I was very proud to sponsor the PELOSI Act.Positioning Claims · 31 wordsIn fact, it is extraordinarily similar to the exact same measure my colleague from Utah and my colleague from Nebraska have proposed, as has the Presiding Officer, my colleague from Ohio. Procedure · 11 wordsSo just to clear that up. Then the next question was: ProcedureClaims · 12 wordsWell, why would you not sponsor a bill called the HONEST Act? Positioning · 7 wordsI mean--my God--how do you be anti-honest?Positioning Claims · 33 wordsWell, that bill basically bans the ownership of all assets.⁴ You can’t even own them. So if you have mutual funds, stocks, equities, investments, you have to get rid of all of that. Positioning · 15 wordsSo, basically, that would be insane. There is no other way to look at that.PositioningFalse choiceUnearned certainty Claims · 46 wordsThe Democrats put that in place during a Homeland Security meeting which went something like this. We sat down to talk about the PELOSI Act, and they gave us 15 pages of amended documents and said: ⁵Hey, we are going to vote on this right now. Procedure · 7 wordsAnd, again--I should have predicted it, honestly, ProcedurePositioning · 10 wordsbecause it was a tribute to Nancy Pelosi, who said: PositioningClaims · 34 wordsWell, you have to vote for the bill before you know what is in it. Of course, Republicans said: We are not going to vote for something we haven’t read--because, again, that is insane. Positioning · 12 wordsBut it wasn’t as insane as what is actually in that bill.Positioning Procedure · 12 wordsNow, let’s go back to what we are really doing here tonight.Procedure Promise · 21 wordsWe could pass this today. Tomorrow, the President of the United States could sign into law a ban on insider trading.⁶ Positioning · 6 wordsThis is a 100-percent zero issue.Positioning Claims · 6 wordsSometimes we talk about 80-20 issues. Positioning · 13 wordsThere is not an American citizen--well, maybe Paul Pelosi--who would be against this.Positioning Claims · 22 wordsBut all Americans want us to get this done, Unearned certaintyand it is very commonsense. My colleague from Nebraska worked diligently on this. Positioning · 5 wordsIt is a great bill.Positioning Claims · 29 wordsIt says if you own stocks when you get here, you can’t buy more--so, therefore, you can’t use the information--and you can’t sell stocks without a 7-day notice period, ⁷Reasoning · 12 wordswhich, in effect, eliminates any kind of advantage that you would have. Positioning · 6 wordsIt is a very good bill.Positioning Claims · 7 wordsIt applies to all Members of Congress.⁸ Promise · 8 wordsWe should be able to get that done. Positioning · 13 wordsWe should be able to ban insider trading without Democrats blocking that vote.Positioning The ask · 12 wordsMy colleague, I believe, from Nebraska--if the Presiding Officer could ask him; Claims · 12 wordsI want to be clear--he has asked for a vote at 60; ⁹The question · 3 wordsis that correct?