REP. JAMES LEACH (R-IA)
- On January 15, 1993, Rep. Leach purchased between 1,000 and 15,000 dollars worth of stock in General Electric.
Ten days earlier (on January 5, 1993), two bills were introduced in the House (and referred to Rep. Leach's House Banking Committee) that would interest General Electric.
The first bill was H.R. 59: DEPOSITORY INSTITUTION BURDEN RELIEF ACT...To increase the amount of credit available to fuel economic growth by reducing the regulatory burden imposed upon depository institutions (Referred to the House Banking Committee).
The second bill was H.R. 99: RESOLUTION TRUST CORPORATION FUNDING ACT...To remove the limitation on the availability of funds previously appropriated to the Resolution Trust Corporation and to provide additional resources for the Resolution Trust Corporation (Referred to the House Banking Committee).
General Electric has a subsidiary known as General Electric Capital Corp. GECC is comprised of personal credit institutions, business credit institutions and mortgage bankers/loan correspondents, among other financial businesses. And over the last few years, General Electric Capital Corp. has been one of the most aggressive financial institutions in terms of buying bank assets from the RTC!
- Also on January 15, Rep. Leach purchased between 1,000 and 15,000 dollars worth of stock in Merck (the giant pharmaceutical firm).
Ten days earlier (on January 5, 1993), a bill was introduced in the House that would clearly interest Merck. The bill was H.R. 4: NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH REVITALIZATION ACT...To amend the Public Health Service Act to revise and extend the programs of the National Institutes of Health (referred to House Energy and Commerce).
As you know, NIH is an entity near-and-dear to pharmaceutical firms...lots of research funding for new drugs, etc...! Merck, of course, would be very interested in any legislation that changed NIH.
VOTE NOTES: On March 11, 1993, Rep. Leach went against his Republican collegues, and voted AYE on H.R. 4. The tally was 283-131 (Democrats: 226-16) (Republicans: 57-115).
NOTES: Rep. Leach is the ranking minority member on the House Banking Committee; he is # 2 on the House Banking Subcommittee on Financial Institutions Supervision, Regulation and Insurance.