Congress makes it nearly impossible to investigate whether its aides are violating financial conflic

[Bigun]

Congress makes it nearly impossible to investigate whether its aides are violating financial conflict-of-interest laws. We went and did it anyway.

To promptly access staffers' financial records, you have to trek to the US Capitol.
We found many staffers violating the STOCK Act. Several refused to explain why.
The lack of transparency isn't a bug, it's a feature, legal experts say.

In August, three Insider political reporters endeavored to obtain public records about the personal finances of top congressional staffers.

These records aren't supposed to be some state secret. They're mandated by a law called the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. In theory, any American should have reasonable access to them.

But they don't.

This is a story about how Congress makes it nearly impossible to obtain and understand information designed to defend against conflicts of interest — and how over the last five months we went and did it anyway.

KIMBERLY LEONARD: Theoretically, you can call to obtain copies of congressional staffers' personal financial disclosures. For Senate records, they're $0.20 per page. But when we tried, our calls either went to voicemail or we were asked to fill out forms to retrieve these records — a process that could take weeks. To obtain these records without an indeterminate wait or great expense, or without playing phone tag with the Office of Public Records, you have to physically go to Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. This information is only readily accessible via computers located in windowless rooms in the House Cannon Building basement and the Senate Hart Building.

CAMILA DECHALUS: Some may wonder, why does that matter? Why did we spend countless hours...

excerpt, rest at link above