A Senate committee passed legislation today prohibiting insider trading by lawmakers, and the legislation includes provisions to increase transparency regarding senators and Senate staff stock holdings.

The bill would require all senators' personal financial disclosure forms to be available online, according to The Wall Street Journal. The bill also applies to Senate staff. Currently, the forms are only available by going to the Office of Public Records in a Senate office building. LegiStorm makes the forms available online by printing hard copies of all disclosures, then scanning and uploading the forms to our website.

The House currently makes member disclosures available online. Both the House and Senate require senior staff to fill out disclosures as well, which are only available through the public records rooms. LegiStorm is now the only online source for staffer financial disclosures.

In addition, the Journal reports the legislation would require lawmakers to disclose their stock trades within 30 days. Trades are currently disclosed annually in the personal financial disclosure forms.

The bill was prompted by public outrage over a recent 60 Minutes piece that suggested that some lawmakers might be profiting in trading stocks in ways that are unavailable to the public.