In an attempt to end plunging approval ratings - and win favor in an election year - the Senate passed an insider trading ban yesterday (Thursday) preventing Congress members from profiting from non-public information.

The Senate passed the bill in a 96-3 vote. U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-VA, said the House would consider the bill next week. U.S. President Barack Obama pledged to sign it immediately.

Congress members hope the new law will change growing American disgust with Congressional perks and partisanship, which has hammered approval ratings down to the teens.

"The numbers of people who have a favorable impression of this body are so low that we're down to close relatives and paid staff. And I'm not so sure about the paid staff," Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-CT, said earlier this week.

Insider Trading Ban Run Down

The insider trading ban prevents members of Congress, top aides, and administrative officials from using non-public information when trading. Any stock bought or sold must be disclosed in a public report online within 30 days.

Several last-minute amendments added to the insider trading ban include:

• Expanding the rule to 28,000 members of the executive branch, including the president, vice-president, and members of the Federal Reserve.
• Congress and the president, vice-president and most Senate-confirmed appointees must disclose all residential mortgages.
• People hired by Wall Street to get stock-related information from Congress members and their staff must disclose their affiliations.
• And all Congress members must post their annual financial disclosure statements online instead of making only paper copies available on request.

How "60 Minutes" Revived the Trading Ban

CBS News' "60 Minutes" aired a story on Congress insider trading in November 2011. The show's segment fueled support for the STOCK (Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge) Act, first proposed in 2007.

Prior to the "60 Minutes" report, the bill only had four supporters in Congress. That number grew to 230 by last week.

The "60 Minutes" program featured an interview with Peter Schweizer, a fellow at Stanford University's conservative think tank the Hoover Institution. Schweizer has extensively reviewed Congress members' financial disclosure records to find out how our elected representatives manage to accumulate so much wealth while in office.