WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Rep. Louise Slaughter said she fought for six hard years to pass the Stop Trading On Congressional Knowledge, or STOCK Act, so whether or not Rep. Chris Collins technically violated the law, she said he certainly wasn't in the spirit of it.
"The ethics part of it bothers me," said Slaughter, D-25th District. "He was in a position of trust, sent down by his district to do what he could do to benefit his district, the state of New York and the United States of America."
In a 2014 financial disclosure form, Collins, R-27th District, indicated he had not purchased shares as part of an Initial Public Offering, despite have participating in an IPO for Australian pharmaceutical company Innate Immunotherapeutics. Collins he did not break any rules because it was foreign stock.
"An IPO is an IPO and certainly we never had the idea that we'd have to distinguish between IPOs, domestic and foreign," Slaughter said.
She and Sen. Al Franken, D-Minnesota, are introducing legislation that would, among other things, close that perceived loophole.
"She should mind her own business. She doesn't know what she's talking about," said Collins, who also said Congressional ethics rules are very clear and he's abided by all of them during his time in office.
"Louise Slaughter, it's just totally political, much like Senator (Charles) Schumer, he's the other one, thinking they can mis-portray an issue that's totally ethical, a company that I've been involved in for over 11 years," Collins said.
He maintained he didn't do anything wrong in purchasing or recommending the stock to any of his colleagues, including current Health Secretary Tom Price. Collins rejected Slaughter's assertion he authored legislation with the company in mind.
"What I did was fought for speedier drug development for any and all diseases," he said. "There was no thought to my company."
Slaughter, the longtime Rochester-area congresswoman, believes its clear what happened. She has no qualms with calling out her neighboring representative.
"It doesn't matter to me where he's from," Slaughter said. "That did not weigh heavily in that I would forgive this because he's from Buffalo."
She said she's not sure yet what kind of support the legislation will have.