For perspective, Perdue's thousands of transactions account for almost a third of all trades by U.S. senators disclosed during that period.
Collectively, Perdue's active trading and concentrated positions raise both conflict of interest and insider trading concerns.
Senators owning stock in the companies they oversee creates an obvious conflict of interest between their personal portfolios and their duties to the public.
He made many of these trades while sitting on a cybersecurity panel — and as FireEye landed millions in federal contracts.
Similar conflicts exist with his trading in the stock of financial services companies including JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Regions Financial.
Although no other senator churned a financial portfolio quite like Perdue's, other senators deserve criticism as well.
While these possible costs are real, the wealthy and powerful do not lack for representation in Congress. »