Biggert, Foster clash over Keystone pipeline stock

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Judy Biggert

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Updated: March 13, 2012 10:26AM

Longtime U.S. Rep. Judy Biggert has been a vocal champion for the Keystone Oil pipeline that President Barack Obama has, at least for the moment, killed.

Biggert, who represents Naperville, backs the pipeline to pump oil from Canada through Nebraska to Louisiana.

“I support Keystone because it would create thousands of jobs and would benefit my constituents,” she said.

But former U.S. Rep. Bill Foster of Naperville, one of three Democrats running in the March primary to be Biggert’s opponent in the fall election, says the fact that Biggert’s husband owns between $1,000 and $15,000 worth of stock in TransCanada — the company that wants to build the pipeline — means Biggert might be letting her own financial interests color her judgement.

“Congresswoman Biggert should divest herself of the Keystone stock she owns and, at a minimum, recuse herself from voting on the Keystone project,” Foster said.

Biggert says Foster is trying to make campaign heat out of a non-issue. The TransCanada stock is one of the smaller ones in her husband’s portfolio and would hardly bring her a windfall if the pipeline were approved, she said.

“Mr. Foster should mind his own business,” Biggert said. “Unlike Mr. Foster, my record of support for American energy is clear and unambiguous. My husband purchased TransCanada stock in 2004. I should tell my husband he should not own a stock? I don’t get that.”

Owning stock of companies that could do business with the U.S. government is not the kind of activity Congress is trying to prevent with the “Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge” or STOCK Act, Biggert said. The STOCK Act is designed to prevent someone purchasing stock based on insider knowledge that congressmen in closed meetings have access to, but the general public does not.

“This (pipeline) has nothing to do with the STOCK Act,” Biggert said. “If I was to know this was coming up and he bought it right now, that would be a different question.”

The STOCK Act passed the House Thursday by a 417-2 vote. Biggert voted for the act. The House Bill will now have to be reconciled with a similar Senate Bill before going to the president for a signature.

In December, the Sunlight Foundation reported Biggert was one of four members of Congress who owned stock in TransCanada who were actively pushing the pipeline.

Foster said he has not decided if he would back the pipeline. He faces former Aurora Township Clerk Juan Thomas and Orland Fire Protection District President Jim Hickey in the Democratic primary for the new 11th Congressional District.

The 11th includes Aurora, Naperville and Joliet.

Biggert is the sole GOP candidate on the ballot, after two other contenders were tossed off the ballot last week for having invalid signatures on their election petitions. One of those candidates, Diane Harris, has said she will run as a write-in candidate.