Despite the push for more transparency, President Barack Obama signed a law Monday that scales back financial disclosure requirements for federal staffers, The Washington Times reported.

The Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act included provisions requiring high ranking federal staff members to make financial disclosures publicly available online.

According to The Times, the law was intended to prevent insider trading among lawmakers, and some 28,000 senior officials would have been subject to the online disclosure requirements.

Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video

However, an expert panel concluded that the online publication of staffers' personal holdings and transactions not only would subject them to identity theft, but also would create a national security risk, according to The Associated Press.

After this revelation, Senate majority leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., quietly introduced a bill last Thursday to repeal the measures. It passed in the Senate that evening. The next day, the House also unanimously voted in favor of the bill.

The Times highlighted the fact that the bill received that type of bipartisan support despite the fact that House Republican leaders had not given lawmakers the three-day period they are usually afforded to read a bill.

This apparently was because the measures were set to take effect Monday, the paper said.

The bill was sent to the president whittled down to such a degree that online financial disclosures are now only required of a select group, including the president, vice president, members of Congress, Cabinet officers, other officials appointed by the president and candidates for president or Congress, the AP reported.

Critics argue that this is a blow to the long fought transparency battle and that it guts an important element of the STOCK Act.

White House press secretary Jay Carney defended the president's decision to sign the bill into law, saying, “Both houses of Congress passed this bill unanimously,” The Times stated.

Editor's Note: Startling Proof of the End of America’s Middle Class. Details in the Video