A bicameral congressional bill was introduced on Feb. 9 to ban elected officials from trading individual stocks and strengthen disclosure rules to prevent insider trading. Called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act 2.0, the bill was brought forward by California Rep. Katie Porter, a Democrat, and New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a Democrat, who authored the original STOCK Act which was passed in 2012. The STOCK Act 2.0 would specifically ban various elected officials from trading individual stocks, with civil penalties of 10 percent of the investment value if an individual violates the ban. “Few Americans trust that our government is working for them, and that’s a real problem for our democracy,” Porter said in a statement. “By strengthening disclosure requirements and banning top officials from trading stocks, we can help restore faith in our government. The American people deserve to have confidence that those in power are working …