Senators traded in tobacco stocks while sitting on health committee

Two high-ranking lawmakers on the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions disclosed that they or their families traded in tobacco company stock while they were on the committee. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) reported purchasing at least $15,000 worth of stock in Philip Morris International. Sen. Patty Murray's (D-WA) husband owned an account whose manager bought and sold approximately $1,000 worth of stock in Reynolds American while Murray was the top Democrat on the committee. The revelations come in the wake of the resignation of Brenda Fitzgerald, who left her post as the director of CDC after a report that she bought and sold tobacco company stock while in that job. While executive branch employees are forbidden to work on issues in which they have a financial interest, such rules do not apply to members of Congress. Lawmakers are allowed to write and vote on bills that would impact themselves financially, although they have to disclose their financial positions — along with the holdings of their spouse and dependent children — and report when assets are bought or sold. According to a Murray aide, "the disclosure form shows the liquidation of an account managed by a broker without guidance." Murray and her husband neither knew about the purchase nor specifically approved it, according to the aide.