Alan Grayson campaign blasts Patrick Murphy for crossing aisle on financial markets bill

The U.S. Senate campaign of U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson blasted his opponent U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy for crossing the aisle to vote in favor of a bill that would ease reporting restrictions on securities sales.

Murphy was one of 24 Democrats (along with U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham, D-Tallahassee) to vote yea on H.B. 1675, which was approved by the House of Representatives 265-159 Wednesday. Grayson voted nay.

The bill, entitled “Encouraging Employee Ownership Act of 2015,” would double, to $10 million annually, the minimum threshold for disclosure reporting on annual aggregate sales of a security.

Grayson’s campaign used the occasion to blast Murphy for joining Republicans in allowing financial institutions to avoid oversight.

“Congressman Murphy is offering Big Business his voting card,” Grayson’s political director Mario Piscatella stated in a news release issued by the campaign. “Patrick Murphy can’t help himself. Whenever House Republicans throw special breaks at Wall Street or the Chamber of Commerce, Murphy forgets he’s a Democrat who should be fighting for Main Street.”

According to Consumer Action, a group which opposed HR 1675, the bill would “soften regulatory oversight on the companies selling you investment opportunities.”

“This one really hits below the belt because it would take one of the least expensive and easiest to understand investments—exchange-traded funds—and make it more difficult to get the information you need to invest wisely,” the consumer advocacy group stated.

Scott Powers

Scott Powers is an Orlando-based political journalist with 30+ years’ experience, mostly at newspapers such as the Orlando Sentinel and the Columbus Dispatch. He covers local, state and federal politics and space news across much of Central Florida. His career earned numerous journalism awards for stories ranging from the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster to presidential elections to misplaced nuclear waste. He and his wife Connie have three grown children. Besides them, he’s into mystery and suspense books and movies, rock, blues, basketball, baseball, writing unpublished novels, and being amused. Email him at [email protected].



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