Birmingham, Ala (WIAT)  6th District Congressman Spencer Bachus has gained increased national attention since a Republican House majority put him in the chair of the House Financial Services Committee.  Sunday night he got attention in a 60 Minutes investigation of whether Congressional leaders used what amounts to insider information in their private financial transactions.  60 Minutes acknowledged that such transactions are legal under current law but questioned why members of Congress get a free pass on use of information not available to the general public.

Here's an excerpt from the 60 Minutes story reported by Steve Kroft.  

While Congressman Bachus was publicly trying to keep the economy from cratering, he was privately betting that it would, buying option funds that would go up in value if the market went down. He would make a variety of trades and profited at a time when most Americans were losing their shirts.

Congressman Bachus declined to talk to us, so we went to his office and ran into his Press Secretary Tim Johnson.

(CBS News)
Kroft: Look we're not alleging that Congressman Bachus has violated any laws. All...the only thing we're interested in talking to him is about his trades.

Tim Johnson: Ok...Ok that's a fair enough request.

What we got was a statement from Congressman Bachus' office that he never trades on non-public information, or financial services stock. However, his financial disclosure forms seem to indicate otherwise. Bachus made money trading General Electric stock during the crisis, and a third of GE's business is in financial services.

You can see the entire 60 Minutes story including watching the video by clicking here.


The 60 Minutes report cut across party lines questioning financial dealings by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as her successor, John Boehner.