While there were already laws in place barring members of Congress or the executive branch from profiting from nonpublic information that they learn in the course of their duties, it was extremely difficult for those at the Securities and Exchange Commission to enforce those laws.

The financial disclosure forms House members and senators were already required to file only come out once a year, making it tough to track any relationship between legislative action and a stock trade. That's why the STOCK Act added the rule that after each trade over $1,000 a report had to be filed in a timely manner.

Walker stressed the new law provides "more immediacy, more real time so that the public could have more real-time understanding of what their members, of their senior staff and other high government officials were doing with their finances, what kinds of trades were they making."

The chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Alabama, and the ranking Democrat, U.S. Rep. Linda Sanchez of California, defended their committee's interpretation of the law in a written statement to CNN last month.

"As has been noted by outside experts, the office of Government Ethics and various House offices of expertise, including the Office of Legislative Counsel and the Office of General Counsel, with whom the Committee consulted, the plain language of the STOCK Act and the Ethics in Government Act is unambiguous and beyond dispute and the Committee interpreted it correctly."

Initially when contacted by CNN, Cantor's office insisted it did nothing to change the intent of the STOCK Act. But when pressed with the new information uncovered by CNN, the majority leader's office conceded it made changes to the House bill that effectively took out the requirement for spouses and children to file these reports.

Cantor's spokesman insisted that the change was unintentional and the majority leader's office did not believe when they passed their bill that it differed from the Senate version.

"Since new information has been brought to our attention with respect to this discrepancy, we are reviewing our options regarding transaction reports in the House of Representatives," Doug Heye said at the time.

Still, another question is why the House changed the legislation in the first place. A GOP leadership source insists there were no sinister motives, that Cantor and the broader GOP leadership made changes after consulting with Ethics Committee lawyers.

In the two weeks since CNN's report, Cantor's office consulted with the Senate to determine how they should fix the loophole. After consultations with leaders of both parties, new legislation was drafted. The two-page bill passed unanimously by both chambers on Thursday before Congress left Washington for their month long summer recess.

Following the change, Gillibrand issued a statement applauding it.

"The intent of this important reform bill was clear from the start, to restore people's faith in their elected leaders by ensuring we play by the exact same set of rules as every other American. Including family members in our monthly disclosure requirements was an integral piece of restoring that faith, and I am pleased the House will finally join the Senate in conforming to these important new rules," said Gillibrand.

Brown also praised the move to fix the law.

"I'm pleased that with today's legislative action, we've made sure the House will follow the Senate Ethics Committee's lead and implement the law the way it was intended. The same rules need to apply across the board -- no matter who you work for. "

In addition to closing the loophole for spouses and dependent children, the new legislation passed by the House and Senate also made a change that the Obama administration requested.

Some administration officials voiced concerns that the ability of foreign governments to view personal financial information about top government employees posed a national security threat.

To address those concerns, the bill gave executive branch employees a waiver from the requirement to disclose their stock or securities trades until September 30 to allow some additional time to determine the appropriate procedures for those officials.